The ugly face of self-publishing
The questions no one wants to face, not even me, but I must…
*image taken from Canva.
I’ve been hesitating to publish this for over a week.
Strap in, folks, because this is about to get ugly…
So, it’s been a month since I self-published my first book. The Honeymoon is over, the pink-coloured heart-shaped glasses have fallen off, it’s time to face the facts. I don’t want to write it, heck, I don’t even want to admit it! And I’m not doing this for shock value, or to get attention. Yes, I admit, I’m an attention-hungry biaaatch, but this isn’t fun to write about; the problems I’ve laughed off at the beginning of my self-publishing journey, the problems I’ve seen other indie authors facing…
Surely, it won’t happen to me, I thought back then, because I’m not starting from scratch, I have this Substack thing going relatively okay, surely it would help my book… Oh, Kathrine, you sweet summer child!
The facts are plain and simple, since I published my book on October 24 I have sold a total of 28 copies. I was expecting at least twice as much. I was hoping to cover the cost of the professional editing. Not happening.
Before I go on, I’m not blaming anyone for not buying my book. We all have our priorities, I understand.
If y’all been following my writing journey, you know how I struggled with traditional publishing. All those rejections…all the disappointment. Back when I last shared my rejections, Substackers suggested I self-publish because I had a decent number of Subscribers (around 300 back then). Nevertheless, it took me a couple of months to gather my courage, get my novella professionally edited, and finally self-publish it. I promoted it, sure, but not many responded to the pre-order option. Surely, people will be more active when the book goes live,I thought. Yes, people were more active, but… I expected it would do much much better. Considering I had significantly more subscribers, I did a promotional post, I promoted the book on Notes nearly every day.
It’s nothing new. I’ve seen indie writers on FB struggling to sell their books, I’ve seen them desperately promoting their work. I’ve seen the fantasy ARC group on FB with new fantasy books coming out daily, and very poor responses even to the ARC’s, that are free to read.
The questions I’m afraid to face are - why didn’t the subscriber count translate into the books sold? Does the subscriber number even mean anything when it comes to sold books? Are most indie authors bound to fail financially?
Again, I must say thank you to all the lovely people who chose to buy my novella, and I don’t mean to scold my subscribers if they didn’t. This novella is very niché. Many of my subscribers are not here for my fantasy stories, I get it. But at least some are, innit?
The poor sales, the lack of ratings and reviews is something I’ve seen many indies struggle with. Now I’m one of them. The ones who seem to be doing relatively good, work hard to promote their work on and off Substack, use ARC’s and what not… and that’s exactly the reason why I didn’t want to be self-published. Yes, yes, yes, the creative freedom, the control, the royalties, it’s all nice and true, but… the big BUT nobody wants to speak about is that most indies are having a hard time selling their books. They do a tremendous job promoting, which may or may not translate into sold books. Is it really worth the time spent? Indies appear like poor beggars, or vendors selling the pieces of their hearts in digital, paperback or hardcover forms on every virtual street corner. It’s not fun. It’s sad. Yes, some get lucky. Some find a way to the top. Some begin catering to the public (I’ve seen this one relatively popular indie fantasy writer ranting on FB how writing smut is what brings in the money, so that’s what she does. Writes soft porn dressed as fantasy to cater to the horny readers.). I don’t want this. I don’t want to lose my dignity either pushing my promotions on Substack every five minutes, I don’t want to join BookTok, or write smut just for the money. I don’t have the time to build a readership on other platforms.
Some of you might think - Kathrine, you old witch! What did you expect? Your spicy tongue has gotten you into many-a-pointless fights on Substack. You’ve made yourself unlikable. Why would the good folks of Substack want to buy your book? Yes, that also might be true. I admit it might be my fault. There were Substackers who used to read my stuff, and now they don’t. I could go on about the hypocrisy I’ve seen among fiction Substack, but I won’t. People like feeling cosy and being patted on the head. So, they pat each other on the head, and keep feeling good about being on the right side of things. I showed my real face, and they found my honesty ugly. I guess, I can’t help it. I can’t stop being me.
But I digressed! Maybe my book just isn’t appealing enough. As I said, it’s very niche. A dark fantasy with a heavy romantic subplot.
Maybe people like reading my stuff for free, but they don’t find it worthy paying money for, because the free fiction world is oversaturated. If I would go full on paid, people would probably find other fiction stacks to read for free. There’s plenty of talent to choose from here, which is good.
But the sad reality is, most of what I feared, why I hesitated to self-publish, has come true. Apart from those 20 something sold books, 1 rating on amazon, two ratings on Goodreads, and one review on Amazon, everything else I was afraid of - happened. Either I suck at promoting, or I drove people off, but I have to face the facts (as do many indie fiction authors), self-publishing is a hard, lonesome road to walk alone, and maybe the outcome isn’t worth the trouble. When the other option - traditional publishing is nearly impossible to squeeze into, the indie authors are trapped on this lonesome journey, trying to figure out new and creative ways to sell pieces of themselves caught on paper.
P.s. Again, I’m not writing this to shame anyone for not buying my book. Books are expensive, especially physical versions. I wrote this because that’s the ugly true face of self-publishing. In many cases, it’s the face of euphoria of freedom turned into despair, and disappointment.
P.p.s. During this month I’ve come up with a dark joke - wanna know who your real friends are? Self-publish a book!
(A heavy sigh…) If after all this you’re interested in purchasing my book, you can do it HERE . Yes, a bit shameless of me, but this also is one trait indie authors have to acquire - shamelessness when it comes to promoting their books.
It’s a dark fantasy novella, easily read in a couple of hours by the fireplace with a cup of hot tea, while outside the snow falls gently…
If you’re interested in getting a free copy of my eBook for the price of an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads, please DM me.
Sympathies.
I haven't self published my novels yet...
I have over 300 subscribers, yet, only three or four readers actually.
I only get comments from the same few. For some reason those comments have all been positive.
I released Two albums of music and four separate singles.
Lots of compliments, only two purchases.
I have been told it's down to lack of marketing.
Then I look at my subscriber list.
Fewer than a third apparently bother to open the emails.
Far less read,
Far less care enough to comment.
( Those that do, I can't thank you enough !!!)
Why subscribe if they aren't interested?
My only conclusion is,
My work really doesn't appeal to most.
And it's not engaging enough to criticize.
Without feedback, how do I know what needs to improve?
What do folks like? Dislike?
Am I merely beating my head against a wall?
I guess it doesn't matter.
I have to write or the stuff claws it's way out and that makes a gnarly mess.
Same with my music.
Indifference hurts far worse than criticism doesn't it?
All I can say.
Keep writing.
Else, if you're like me you will explode.
Hi. I am a follower because I can't afford upgrade to paid. I understand your plight; I have a few niches but niches are small. My personality is an acquired taste. My target audience is women with working brains. I have a distinctive sense of humor, and I'm a bigoistiphobe, freedom of speech kind'a gal. I've also self-published because no big publishing house would ever risk offending anyone. Here's what I've learned:
1. Most people are Biden-broke. With the holidays approaching you would think people would jump at books-as-gifts, but the truth is most people don't read novels. I've got over 265 published works (half of them paid gigs) in print, e-zines, anthologies and journals, so I thought I'd get an Amazon account (for my 6 novels, 4 novellas, and a trio of novelettes) and see what happens. No cigar. The anthologies I'm published in get good reviews for my stories, but endorsements from famous people? Nope.
2. There are more writers than readers. And most writers have real lives and have to sneak in time to write, especially women. That means that if they're reading other people's stuff, they're not writing their stuff. What that means in the market is saturated. It's difficult to compete with 100 Americans vying for book sales; it's almost impossible with the internet to compete with billions of writers around the globe. (Don't forget, crap, like cream, rises to the top also.)
3. Most readers read the same story with different covers. The media dishes out the "new thing" and the audience becomes addicted. How many "walking dead" can there possibly be? How many Harry Potters? Too many, it seems. On the other hand, I read non-fiction/history for pleasure, not novels. How many women have read Killing the SS, Killing the Rising Sun, etc all by Bill O'Reilly and all packed with minute historical detail compared to the women who have read vampire/love Twilight series? Here's the response I got from a friend when I sent her the podcast of my poems: I listened to them, but didn't understand them. David (her husband) loved them.
4. Most self-publishers don't have the money to do a real marketing campaign. Web platforms simply do not get enough foot traffic to get the volume required to make money. And, when the reality is your selling yourself (YOU are the product), there's no room for the actual product. Do you have the time/money to fly to five cities for a book signing? How are people going to meet and greet you?
5. America has laws against pirating, other countries don't respect our copyright laws. There is a firm in Italy that is selling my IP all over Europe and there's nothing I can do. I've reported the firm and relevant information to the government website for international violation of copyright and have an e-mail acknowledging the complaint, but nothing will be done because I'm not famous and can't afford lawyers to sue.
6. As usual, no matter what the professionals say, it's who you know and who you blow that gets you published. Everybody talks about how J K Rowling wrote such a ground-breaking book series...except she didn't write what the public read. The agent that picked up her handwritten manuscript "edited" the hell out of it so it could be published. In other words, the agent thought it could go commercial and fixed it so it could. Yes, Rowling had a great idea --- I'm not dissing her. But the truth is, she was not a Grade A professional when she hit it big. Yes, Stephen King wrote mediocre long-winded horror stories, but it was Hollywood that made hm famous.
I could be wrong about all of this, but I don't believe I am. Does this mean people should give up writing? Some will, of course. Others, like MFA professors, will fade away with their programs when AI kicks into high gear. I hope people who are not looking to cash in on their talent to finance their kids' college expenses will keep writing. Creative writing, like any other art, helps us to become fuller human beings. (Not the rabid woke crazies who want to save the world, of course, as they're lost to reason and just hopeless ranter and ravers.) And like the old saying goes: people give up right before they're going to be a success. Don't do that, please. You maybe a publishers next dream come true. Maybe you'll be Bowling with Rowling this time next year. I'm rooting for you!