5 Reasons Why You Need A Self Publishing Strategy
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- Опубликовано: 22 фев 2018
- What's your self-publishing strategy? Do you have a firm plan in place? Or are you hoping to just publish your book and figure it out as you go?
In this video, I'm giving you FIVE REASONS WHY you NEED a Self-Publishing Strategy if you want to be a success.
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Heart Breathings - Episode 6
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About Me: My name is Sarra Cannon, and I've been indie publishing since 2010. In that time, I have published 22 books and sold well over half a million copies.
I've made some mistakes along the way, but I've also learned some valuable lessons that I think will help you reach your goals. I can't wait to help you learn to make money writing what you love.
MY BOOKS -- www.sarracannon.com
THREE FREE BOOKS -- sarracannon.com/book/beautiful...
MY BOOKS -- www.sarracannon.com
THREE FREE BOOKS -- sarracannon.com/book/beautiful...
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Хобби
I just looked up some stats about self-publishing. The average yearly income is $1000-$5000. And most authors sell 2.3 books. So. This is a relevant video.
Are you convinced you need a strategy? Let me know in the comments!
Absolutely!
I can use some help please!
OMG yes. I need a strategy. I kind of feel like I'm in a market testing phase and it's not particularly comfortable for me. Do you still offer coaching sessions? I resonate with your methods so much and I just have a great feeling that you could help me level up the business side of my writing so I can properly focus on getting out my books.
Needing a strategy is a great senario when specifically dealing with marketing !!!!!
I've had a story I have been writing and neglecting for 3 years but with Nanowrimo in progress, I have decided to finish it this month and also to finish the second book in the series. Your videos have been very helpful as I plan to self publish.
I started off writing in three different genres, and wish I had used a different pen name for each. Starting a new series next year with a completely different name - learned the hard way! I do have readers who read everything I write, which is wonderful, but I know I'm missing out.
Great tips. I would eventually like to write in more than one genre. Womens fiction, Rom-Com and Cozy Mystery. I have been working on a revision of a novel idea from a manuscript I wrote this past summer. I was planning a series but I'm changing it into three shorter stories and offering it as a free box set. I also have an idea for three holiday themed short stories that will complete my 2023 writing goals. Building a back list is very much my overall goal for 2024.
Finally sitting down and creating a strategy helped see an overview of what really needed to be done. It also helped when I started really watching other strategies and pulling bits and pieces from that to build my own.
Greatly appreciate the time & effort you're putting into sharing your valuable advice
So much to think about. Thanks for sharing your experience with us! It will help keep me out of the quicksand, lol.
I appreciate all of your honesty and insight. Thank you so much.
I just wanted to say thank you so much for our videos and wisdom. My first book came out yesterday and i have been watching all of your videos and getting so much great info
I’d love to hear more on strategy... Thanks for bringing such great insight!
Thank you Sarra! I enjoy your videos, and yes... focus on the main thing. It's something I need to remind myself over and over again. Great job.
Sarra - I love your videos and am eager to continue learning from you! Thank you for creating these!
Great advice! I’m not a book writer but I am starting a blog and have been so confused as to where to start and your right, it’s so easy to follow every bit of advice you read. Try one thing at a time and see how it goes 💕💕💕
Honestly, I am tremendously grateful for the tips mentioned in the video. I apply them and it helps a lot in my writing career.
This was a great video. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Excellent.
thank you! i loved the tips
I enjoyed these tips. I finished my manuscript not too long ago...and pending a review (and searching for a critic) i want to self publish.
Very good video, and very helpful. Thank you!
So much great info here! If you do this as a printable worksheet, that would be great! :)
Very helpful discussion, thank you!
I have some thinking to do!
Great information thanks 🙏
Thank you for sharing this video that was very interesting and informative.
I published my first novella in October. The story is based on the characters created from this podcast. I suppose the strategy was already built in place with the promotion of episodes and works of the member authors that contribute to the show it's just been a simple matter of adding my work to the process. Where I'm at a struggle now is on developing a process to reach out to readers who may be interested in the story on it's own merit as opposed to just relying on the podcast audience.
Great video! Can you please expand a litte more on finding ideal readers? How granular does this need to be? For example, knowing their age/relationship status/etc. type of information? What genre do they read?
Always knew i needed a strategy didn't know quite how to create one
Haha! I'm in a silly mood this morning but when you started the video with "because you do. You absolutely do."
I just could hear you say "don't even do not. Only do"
Good information
Diving into your playlist ☺️. Thank you for all the amazing content! I’m sure I missed it, but do you sale your books in print or just ebooks?
great information, thank you :)
you should make a podcast or tiktok, such helpful advice
Thank you.
Great video!
Trying to catch up. I got behind.
Sarra this was some great advice. Now I have another tier to think about and try to plan.
Thank you.
Jennifer Rux Thank you Jennifer! So glad you enjoyed it!
Sarra, I’ve been struggling with figuring out my genre. It’s a fantasy romance set in Victorian England... I can’t decide if I should market as PNR or get more specific as Historical PNR. The write to market strategy suggests looking at comp indies... which I have a really hard time finding. I feel stuck in a strategy loop!
I want to hug you to show how valuable these tips are for me HAHAHA
Thank you Sarra. I have subscribed. I am a new indie author and already have my first book out. As you mentioned, it was not my best writing, but I think book two will be better. I am also following the same strategy you mentioned of sticking to a series, and title branding. Your comments have helped me to get back to being focused.
Thank you so much for subscribing!! What genre do you write? Looking forward to hearing all about your success as you grow and continue to publish!
@@HeartBreathings So far, I have written mostly YA Fantasy, novel-wise. It is Book 1 of a 4-book Series that will be followed up by a prequel and possibly some related short stories. I am also working on a semi-scifi novel about a young woman who finds the Excalibre and battles dragons from outer space come to take over the world. I also write poetry and short stroies, mostly featuring paranormal, fantasy or sci-fi topics.
What are your thoughts on re-writing the first novel to give it a deeper character arc. I was told by a friend, whose opinion I value, that the story felt a little flat.
@@harveycovey2215 oh great! So we are on the same area in terms of YA speculative fiction! That's cool! As far as rewriting, I would say it depends on several factors. 1. If the book has sold a lot of copies and you have a lot of people waiting on another book, I would focus there. If sales have been less than expected or just haven't ramped up yet (or if you've had reviews that also seem to indicate the story needs work), I would consider some rewrites. Also 2. How long you would need to do the rewrites. It's not something I would spend months on, but if you think you can make significant changes to make it better quickly, it might be worth a shot.
It's often counterproductive to go back to a story that was finished, but if you're going to really try to make this series what I call an anchor series, that first book has to be as good as it can be. If you do go back to work on it, I would certainly put some thought into making the changes part of a larger strategy!
I totally am that “ill just put my book online its so good everyone will love it!” With no strategy 😋oops! My goal is just for ppl to read it, not money. Could i sell ebook for 0$ and have paperback for 10$?
Okay, now I see why my book sales suck. I had no strategy but just published one book after another, usually not in the same categories. My big problem is I go through these wildly different mood swings where one day I'll be in one genre mood and the next day in another mood. If I try to stick to one book until it's finished, I get so bored I distract myself. Should I just push on despite not being into it? Will the interest come back the more I work on one book?
Thank you for all your valuable time and effort in providing this information to those of us that have wanted to make this into our livelihoods for our entire lives and who never had the opportunity or know-how to pursue it.
What do you recommend as far as editing? That has been the one thing keeping me back from jumping into self-publishing.
There are lots of freelance editors out there, but what level of editing you need depends on your ability to self edit and plot. I started out with finding a local critique group that helped me to recognize where my weaknesses were and identify what level of professional editing I would need, so if you have an opportunity to find either a local or online group to start with, that of a good starting point.
Otherwise, I would look around for freelance editors, request a few sample edit and their credentials to make sure they are qualified to edit (not just someone who "likes to read" but someone educated and trained!). See what they recommend for you. I'm hoping to do a video on the different levels of edits, average costs, and where to find editors soon!
You did a video once Sarra on how to find a good editor
to edit the book.? where is it please?
Self publishing is tougher than most people think. Marketing a book is very, very, very difficult. Most self published books dont sell that many copies.
is fast release still the market? how many books a year is advised to publish?
What if im in the middle i really want to write but i need to make money to justify the time and the dollar going into writing and editing ect. Going wide sounds good but what marketing strategy should i focus on?
I wrote a childrens book and its illustrated and saved on my flash drive. My problem is do I just focus on KDP to do all the publishing and marketing work?
I have had a book out for 6 months. It sold 3 copies. Self published books are too hard to market. The market is already flooded. Most self published books sell very few copies.
What genre is your book in? Some genres are better sellers than others. Also, did you have your book cover professionally designed? Did you use a formatting tool or service to make your book look more professional? Finally, is this your first book? There are many factors that go into being a successful self-published author, but marketing need not trip you up if you are committed to the process.
@@Growndweller my book is YA. I underestimated how hard the self publishing business was. It is just too much work to market a book and marketing isna very tough skill.
What’s the best platform to publish books? I am a writer by day (tech writer), but have always written creatively... I just don’t know where to start to make a small profit!
For the most part, people are either exclusive to Amazon or they publish "wide", which means they put their books on every available platform. This includes Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Google Play, and Kobo, as well as Amazon. There's a lot that goes into answering which way is best, though. If you are wanting to self-publish, you would need to set up accounts at each of those platforms and publish them yourself. OR, like I said, you could go exclusive to Amazon. Each path has its own pros and cons that are too intense to go through in a comment! There are also 3rd party aggregators such as Draft2Digital where you can upload to them and they will distribute to all those other sites for a small piece of your royalty in exchange.
Hey, do you have an opinion regarding KDP Select? :-)
Do you offer one on one coaching?
I'm pre-planning a trilogy. I wanted to publish them 12 months apart. Is that a bad thing?
I'm a slow writer, otherwise I'd release my books much faster. 12 months intentionally is painful as a reader to endure. I read "Rise of Kyoshi", an Avatar book, and it is spaced a year apart from its sequel, "Shadow of Kyoshi". If I didn't LOVE the first book, I wouldn't bother waiting for the second one. A few months to half a year would've been preferable for me as a reader. Another series I have loved is the Agent Zero (Kent Steele) series. A bunch were published the same day, and I gobbled them up immediately. Then future releases were spaced out and I stuck with it because it hooked me and whet my appetite. I hope this helps.
I ❤️ur videos
Hi Sarra! This video was really interesting. I have been "failing early". I do have a publishing strategy and was feeling a little down because my strategy is more of a long plan and I get impatient sometimes, however this video helped put me at ease a bit. I just subscribed! I also make videos and am looking for author/writer friends (finding that bit hard though). Would love it if you checked out my page and we could keep in touch!
I only want to write self help books.
It all comes down to do you have reviews if not, you're fucked.
1: get reviews (from friends, bloggers, net gallery)
2: get on goodreads
3: Amazon advertising. ( find out if sponsored projects or kindle lock screen ads are better)
4: budget.
For me the things which don't work.
1: Facebook
2: google ads
3: goodreads ads.
4: local newspapers
5: bloggers