The Truth About Self-Publishing Books
Anyone can do it and do it well, but it can be awful depressing.
I just saw a headline on Medium today:
“Writing a book is way harder than everyone says.”
And then, this person wrote an 18-minute read about why it took her 16 months to write a book she regrets.
The problem is that this person spent months working on their non-fiction book. It sounds like it was a tireless pursuit of writing the perfect book. They wrote and re-wrote parts of their 300+ page book.
And then, they finally published it.
That’s when they realized all that work was for nothing. They got a handful of sales and a one-star review from someone who regretted reading their book.
Honestly, that is one of the worst self-publishing stories I have ever read. And I was a little bummed I read the entire article because it was one sad story after another.
Your Self-Publishing Story Can Be Better
I have self-published 13 books so far, many of which have become #1 bestsellers. I have over 16,000 orders for them now, and they all sell regularly.
Many writers have a positive story. They sell thousands of books a month, see their email lists grow, and make decent money from their books.
But the truth is, that has more to do with the other activities around writing the book. In the article I mentioned earlier, the author appeared to put all of her eggs in the writing aspect of her book.
She didn’t grow an author platform.
She didn’t have a launch strategy.
She didn’t have a support community (launch/ARC team).
These three things help you sell books and get the ball rolling. And the reality is this: if you want to see your books do well, you must do ALL the work surrounding self-publishing.
You need to promote your books. You need to grow a community for your books and author work. You need to create buzz to make people excited about your books.
If you don’t do that, it will suck.
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Final Thoughts on the Simple Truth
If you want to write a book and see it sell. You need to write your book and share it as you go. This has always been my process, and it works every time.
When I start writing a book, I share about it.
When I am editing the book, I share about it.
When I am creating the cover, I share the options.
When it is time to publish, I ask readers to read it first and then ask them to leave feedback when it is published.
I promote my books regularly.
When you do these things, your self-publishing journey can be fun. If you neglect the other side of self-publishing, you will be disappointed.
What has your self-publishing experience been like?
My name is J.R. Heimbigner and I am a #1 Bestselling Author on Amazon with 13 self-published books. I have two things I want to share with you:
A short book on to help you use your Substack posts to write books.
The First Draft Masterclass. I share exactly how to write your first draft so you can get that book published!
Have a book already? See how I can promote it with my newsletter!
Also, this post may contain sales or affiliate links, so I might get a little kickback if you purchase anything. Thank you in advance!
Excellent advice, J.R. 👍🏼👍🏼 You’re rapidly becoming my publishing guru.
And increasingly I've heard that this is not just the case for self-published authors but for traditionally published authors as well. I think you really pointed out a common foible for writers. We always want to just get absorbed in the act of writing when we need to give attention to building our community as well.