This might be the last of the conference reports! Today I’ll go over “The A to Z of Your Indie Author Business” by Anna Castle.
First of all, you need to determine your goals. If you plan to make a living writing fiction, you must aim at popular genres, learn to produce two to three books a year, and become a marketing wiz! If writing is your retirement plan, on the other hand, you can follow your muse and market to find readers as much as to pay those writing costs. If you only want to write one book, focus on your craft and don’t worry about marketing.
Next, pick a genre to write in. Try to narrow it down by what you like to read, what you like to write, and what sells. Then, worry about producing a great book. The single hardest part of self-publishing is finding the feedback every author always needs and editing yourself. You’ll need to edit for:
- Story Level (developmental or content edit): characters, pace, & structure
- Sentence Level (line edit): language use, grammar, style
- Textual Correctness (copy edit): consistency, punctuation, grammar & spelling
- Proof-reading: typos. Also watch out for stray white space and tighten up your story.
For your cover, remember that everyone judges a book by its cover. Save up and hire a pro. For formatting, you can also hire a pro or get recommendations from other authors. Try Vellum, DIY Word, or templates from The Book Designer. Create a beautiful book!
What about ISBNs (International Standard Book Number)? You basically have two choices: pay for your own or use one from the vendor (Amazon Kindle, etc.). If you purchase them yourself, they’re fairly expensive in small batches, less so in larger ones. If you go with the vendor, remember they will be the publisher if you use their ISBN. You will need a separate ISBN for the paperback, hardback, large print, audio book, etc.
For distribution, you can “go wide” or stick with Amazon exclusively. This only applies to e-books and audio books. Amazon will give you deals for not publishing elsewhere. So will Audible, but Anna recommends you not sign an exclusive with them! The downside to signing with Amazon is that they can change their rules at any second (and have done so). Many readers want to buy books somewhere else. And historical fiction is one of the genres that doesn’t do so well in Amazon Kindle Unlimited (in Anna’s opinion). Audible doesn’t allow book promotions, which are the backbone of marketing. Anna recommends starting out with Kindle Unlimited and give it a year. Publish more books, then decide based on your earnings and larger goals whether or not you want to “go wide.”
Consensus recommends publishing your print books through Amazon’s KDP platform and through Ingram Spark. In both cases, you’ll upload a formatted pdf file. Anna recommends doing KDP first because they have a program that flags any problems with your book. Also, they have no fees, so you can upload, preview, fix, and repeat as often as necessary. One thing Anna recommends: do not check “expanded distribution” at KDP! You’ll be using Ingram for all your other bookstores and libraries. If you buy your own ISBNs, use the same one for your print edition at both places. That way the publisher, title, and format will be the same everywhere.
For e-books, remember that all retailers will take a cut of each sale, typically around 25-30%. All will use the epub format. Some retailers include: B&N, Kobo, iBooks, Google Play, Smashwords, and smaller outlets. There are also library outlets like Hoopla and Overdrive. Distributers will take a cut (usually 10%) to distribute your e-book to many retailers. Don’t use Ingram for e-books! Try Draft2Digital, Smashwords, or PublishDrive. The consensus for “wide” authors is to upload directly to Amazon, Kobo, B&N, and Google Play. This is so you can access their promos! Use D2D or PublishDrive for the rest. You should also make “cheat sheets” for each book to make this process easier. You can find an example at www.annacastle.com/handouts.
For pricing, take a good look at other indies in your genre and do what they do. Do not look a traditionally-published pricing! For e-books, a typical pricing scale runs around $4.99 for 90K novels, $2.99 for novellas (25K to 40K), and $0.99 for short stories. For print, Anna recommends $14.99 for novels and $7.99 for novellas. Don’t let the vendor convert your prices to other currencies! Round up or down yourself, whatever makes a neat number in that currency. If you are a “wide” author, you can keep the first book in a series free to draw in readers. It’s easy to advertise. You can also make books in Kindle Unlimited free every 3 months.
You’ll need to do taxes, too! Keep records of everything — however small a purchase or fee might be, write it down. Keep all receipts and scan them into your computer. Use Quicken or a spreadsheet program. Document everything — you’re trying to make a record that you are seriously trying to make a profit from your writing. In the US, base your taxes on Schedule C: self-employment taxes. You can also start with https://www.janefriedman.com/author-taxes/ and read Jane’s excellent article.
Some basic marketing strategy: set a budget and stick to it! Reduce the price of one book to $0.99 or free and promote that book with all you have. Hopefully, readers will like that well enough to purchase the other books in your series. Those purchases should pay back the ad price plus a profit. Also, the activity on the reduced price book will boost that book’s rank, making it easier for readers to find. Of course, marketing won’t do much if you only have one book out there, so get busy and finish that series!
You should have a newsletter, also. This is a must for any author looking for wider readership. It’s a big topic, so take a class and read a few books. Take a couple of weeks in between reading books to set your newsletter up. Mailerlite and Mailchimp are good starting places. They do have a learning curve, but are free for under 1,000 subscribers. When you increase your followers, you can upgrade to a paid plan that offers more advantages, too. Read Newsletter Ninja by Tammi LaBreque for guidance.
There are also newsletters for avid readers giving them book promotions. BookBub, FreeBooksy, FussyLibrarian, RobinReads, Booksends, etc. are great resources. You buy an ad for one specific day. Prices range from $10 (AwesomeGang) to $695 (BookBub). Some require a certain number of reviews for your book before you can advertise. Start small and work your way up. Note: most of these services book at least a month in advance, so plan accordingly.
You can also think about buying pay-per-click ads from Amazon, FaceBook, or BookBub. All will allow some type of targeting to reach your ideal readers. Facebook offers a suite of demographic and interest settings; Amazon (AMS) uses keywords like “Victorian Romance,” author names, or other book titles; and BookBub uses broad keywords like “historical fiction” plus author names. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad (and hope they purchase after clicking). Take a course on this, too, and read more books about it. It’s not hard to get started but it takes daily work to get good at it. Your basic strategy is to tinker with your targets and budgets.
Of course, you must have a website with your contact and book information. Blog only if you enjoy it, and push that blog everywhere (FaceBook, Twitter, Amazon or Goodreads author pages, etc.). Guest posts might increase your visibility a bit, so try to find fellow authors or experts who are willing to do this. Create a polished Amazon Author Page and one at BookBub. You need a bio and photos, and remember your bio is ad copy, not a resume! Your goal is to entice readers to buy your books. Be charming! Read a bunch of author pages by your favorite authors and see how they do it. And hang out where your readers are (FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). 15 to 20 minutes morning and evening is plenty of time. Remember to be 80% social and only about 20% marketing. Be real, be friendly, be polite — but most of all, have fun!