Camp NaNoWriMo starts TOMORROW and this self-published author is participating! Come find out what I’m working on and leave a comment if you’re doing Camp NaNo as well!
We talked with three self-published queer authors—Blue Delliquanti, M. Haynes, and Fiona Zedde—about their self-pub journeys, the state of contemporary publishing, and their advice for new writers.
So, you wrote something. You want to put it into the world.
Here’s what you need to know:
Self publishing will almost never, on its own, pay the bills. You will not probably sell very many copies unless you are very intense on marketing or you already have a following that wants to purchase something you wrote.
This is the simple fact of being a writer. If you want to become a new york times best seller, you either need to publish with a publishing house, or you need to have a MASSIVE following before self publishing.
That being said, do not be deterred. I’ve written and helped publish over 20 books and projects, and I still have a day job to 1) pay the bills and 2) help fund my projects. The day job is how I earn money (for now), but what I do for a livingis 100% creation.
First, re-read your book. Is it clear of errors? Do you have friends who want to read it to see if it’s meandering or unclear? This is true for fiction, poetry, TTRPGs, and more. Have other people look it over. It’s always worth it.
Then, you can do some research into the ways to self publish, i.e. the sites that will help you print, but I have found personally that Lulu is one of the best/cheapest options. I have moved largely towards Drivethru’s sites, DrivethruRPG and DrivethruFiction, just to consolidate my stuff. The pricing and quality is pretty similar to Lulu, but I do poetry and don’t feel Drivethru is the right place.
Note that self publishing doesn’t require paper copies, like through those sites. You can also just have an itch.io, or an etsy shop, or an internet store front for PDF copies alone.
If you are doing all the work yourself, be sure to take some time to be thoughtful with your book’s layout. If you are making something to look fancy, with a neat layout, be sure to take your time with it. Look through fonts to find nice ones. Use a fancy one for titles/headers or the book’s title, and a clear to read font for the body text. If you are using art or borders or fancy stuff, be sure to check out other books of that book type to figure out what you want to include in the design for yours. It’s okay to steal design ideas, color palletes, or general shapes of the layout, just dont go stealing logos or actual design elements from the other texts.
Most printers also offer advice or tutorials on how to make your book print ready for their manufacturing needs. Be sure to read those thoroughly, especially the first time.
Then, once you’ve order a print proof from them, you can start selling right away. From there, as a solo artist/self published artist, you will 100% be doing all your own marketing. Almost none of the print on demand websites that you can use for this will do any of the marketing for you, at least without you paying for it. So post on your twitter, your tumblr, your facebook, your instagram. Include links, and post once a day (or more, once in the morning, once at night) leading up to the release, and for a week or more after. Don’t be afraid to support yourself!
If people have specific questions, or specifics on items other than books, I’d love to answer on here!
Been wanting to do this for a while, put all my book children together for a picture. Since the newest book comes out tomorrow, I finally got around to doing it! Some WIPs not pictured (mainly 3 outside of my current series project that have a lot of words in them but are all on pause haha but my goal is to finish at least one of those this year as well)
To that anon that asked me a while ago if I thought it was worth it to chase this as a career or just focus on a love of writing, my answer is the same. Keep at it if being a published author is what you want. This year I’m making a full time income. Every day, every book, it gets better and I love it!
I haven’t been blogging much over the course of the pandemic, but despite challenging times it has been a productive year for my studio work. I made a conscious choice to step away from illustrating nonfiction graphic novels, the bread and butter of my freelance, in pursuit of fictional storytelling and worldbuilding, a desire I’ve had since I started out as a freelancer about 18 years ago.
David’s talent and hard work as pastry chef and owner of Knead to Know has earned him a dedicated customer base over the last three years, but he faces an unexpected challenge when a new bakery, Cake Walk, opens up just down the road. He anticipates a potential loss in sales if he doesn’t change up his menu, but what he doesn’t anticipate is that the owner of this interloping bakery is not only exactly his type─ but downright charming and intensely interested in getting in David’s pants from the moment they meet. Max isn’t usually the sort to let a little thing like being business competitors get in the way of landing the guy of his dreams, but his own perceived shortcomings might sabotage him first if David can’t meet him halfway.
David’s talent and hard work as pastry chef and owner of Knead to Know has earned him a dedicated customer base over the last three years, but he faces an unexpected challenge when a new bakery, Cake Walk, opens up just down the road. He anticipates a potential loss in sales if he doesn’t change up his menu, but what he doesn’t anticipate is that the owner of this interloping bakery is not only exactly his type─ but downright charming and intensely interested in getting in David’s pants from the moment they meet. Max isn’t usually the sort to let a little thing like being business competitors get in the way of landing the guy of his dreams, but his own perceived shortcomings might sabotage him first if David can’t meet him halfway.
David’s talent and hard work as pastry chef and owner of Knead to Know has earned him a dedicated customer base over the last three years, but he faces an unexpected challenge when a new bakery, Cake Walk, opens up just down the road. He anticipates a potential loss in sales if he doesn’t change up his menu, but what he doesn’t anticipate is that the owner of this interloping bakery is not only exactly his type─ but downright charming and intensely interested in getting in David’s pants from the moment they meet. Max isn’t usually the sort to let a little thing like being business competitors get in the way of landing the guy of his dreams, but his own perceived shortcomings might sabotage him first if David can’t meet him halfway.
Jordan King is known as the most eligible bachelor in the Motor City, especially now that he’s been named the captain of the legendary Detroit Pirates. But Jordan realizes the title carries with it a new-found sense of responsibility. He needs to be a leader if he wants the team to win it all this season, which means leaving behind his reputation as a partying ladies’ man.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JENNY!!!! and CONGRATULATIONS ON PUBLISHING YOUR FIRST NOVEL!!!! Just needed to mark both occasions with some Jordan & Charlotte love <3
(everyone: go check it out!!!! It’s got hockey and romance and is AWESOME!!!)
Jordan King is known as the most eligible bachelor in the Motor City, especially now that he’s been named the captain of the legendary Detroit Pirates. But Jordan realizes the title carries with it a new-found sense of responsibility. He needs to be a leader if he wants the team to win it all this season, which means leaving behind his reputation as a partying ladies’ man.
Charlotte Stone is a best-selling author and Manhattan socialite who is sick of the city. She’s determined to live somewhere different that doesn’t include being a guest star on her mother’s reality show. But places like London or Los Angeles would just be more of the same. Then she hears about a building renovation project in Detroit and decides a move to somewhere completely unexpected is exactly what she needs.
What Charlotte doesn’t need is another hockey player in her life. Two years ago, she dated the biggest pest in the league who ended up breaking her heart. So why is she trying to find excuses to see the all-star captain of the Pirates?
And how did she become the only woman who could derail Jordan’s plan to win it all?
Zem’s activity book is out now! This was a fun challenge, I’ve always loved puzzles and I’d been toying with the idea of doing a coloring book for a while, I just took it to the next level! Hope you like it!
Join Zem, Vahl and Aury through activities such as word searchs, crosswords, puzzles and a lot of challenges more. Includes 10 coloring illustrations! PS: You don’t need to read the book before doing the activities. If you want to read Zem’s story: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NX12CNP
Zem’s activity book is out now! This was a fun challenge, I’ve always loved puzzles and I’d been toying with the idea of doing a coloring book for a while, I just took it to the next level! Hope you like it!
Join Zem, Vahl and Aury through activities such as word searchs, crosswords, puzzles and a lot of challenges more. Includes 10 coloring illustrations! PS: You don’t need to read the book before doing the activities. If you want to read Zem’s story: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NX12CNP
Absolutely fucking incensed by this ad. I can get unlimited months of unlimited reading and listening through Libby on my phone you dumb sack of shit Amazon I will not let you kill libraries I will not let you kill libraries I will not let you kill libraries
Listen to me. You can read any library’s digital collection via Libby in America and apparently in uh 78 other countries. If that doesn’t do it for you, the internet archive has two million digitized books you can access for free. The only thing I can’t help you access is books self-published through Amazon but even then sometimes they’re ALSO published through separate websites. Do not fucking give in to this amazon bullshit. Amazon has a vested interest in destroying libraries and replacing them with for-profit bookstores or book rentals. Do not fucking let them do that. It’s up to us to support libraries and keep literature free and accessible and we have to do everything in our power to act in that vein
Amazon can afford to throw money from exploited workers towards random shit like making an MMO and trying to destroy libraries. Libraries cannot fight that kind of financial might. It’s our job to see amazon, tell it no, and choose libraries instead. As often as we can.
If anyone has info on other ways to ethically access self-published books on amazon feel free to add it
Project Gutenberg is also a really useful source for free ethical eBooks! They’re volunteer run, and have free PDFs and eBooks for any out of Copyright book– both fiction and non fiction! So if you’re after a copy of Pride & Prejudice, or The Great Gatsby or The Communist Manifesto, that you want to download and keep – check them out!
If you do self-publish, you can go through Draft2Digital as well as Amazon and D2D will make your books available via lending sites such as Biblioteca as well as alternative sales sites. And they’ll provide you with a universal URL so that your readers can choose where they want to spend their money (in case it’s not with Mr. Bezos).
You can even use D2D to sell on Amazon, but be aware that there are drawbacks to this approach (like delays in printing and no advertising availability). The best approach, generally, is to sell directly on Amazon and also with D2D, and just tell D2D not to make the book available to Amazon. You can still include the Amazon URL in your universal URL, and as long as your prices are the same, Amazon is fine with this approach.
