My road to self-publishing wasn’t intentional by any means. I desperately wanted to get another contract with a traditional publisher. Coming into my contract with Kensington, which was my first contract ever and happened with the first book I’d ever completed, I knew the odds were firmly stacked against me. I discovered from other authors who had been or were in the Kensington debut line, that Kensington re-contracted maybe 5% of those authors. This of course gave me pause. What the hell was I going to do to make them want to recontract me, other than writing what I considered, a great book?
That’s when my sister told me that her friend, who just happens to be a psychic, told her that in order for me to succeed, I’d have to market a LOT. I had no idea what that meant. I was going to take out ads and I was going to blog. What more could I do? My advance had been a very modest $2500 per book and it was a 2-book deal.
By trade, I worked with computers, did some programming and had dabbled in creating a website or two. Since I loved romance novels and was a brand spanking newbie author, I thought about doing something online. I wanted to create a website apart from my author’s site. The Season site was born from a combination of Kris Alice’s (of Germany’s Love Letters) twitter wish that there was someplace she could go to get a list of debut authors and my sister’s urging that I create such a site. I didn’t think a site for just debut authors would work. Put that all together and that’s how I came up with The Season and the site went live May 2009.
The Season did a fabulous job of getting my name out there. I met industry professionals I would never otherwise have met. I attended romance conferences, both local and the RWA National ones. I met tons and tons of fabulous authors. Through my work with The Season, I managed to snag a great cover quotes for one of my Kensington books.
In January 2010 (self-publishing hadn’t really taken off just yet), Sinful Surrender was released. In January 2011, A Taste of Desire was released – self-publishing has taken off with a bang and digital sales are way up. Now I’m going to break down the digital numbers by book and year:
Book Year # copies sold
Sinful Surrender (avg price $3.13) 2010 3033
A Taste of Desire (avg price $4.76) 2011 26,467
Sinful Surrender (avg price $3.09) 2011 17,088
Total # digital books sold 46,588
~~~
There you have it. The total number of digital books sold with Kensington, a traditional NY publisher in the past 2 years, the bulk, 43,555, in 2011. It’s not a bad number at all. I was quite thrilled with it. Did I make a ton of money? I guess it may be considered a decent amount of money by New York standards for a new author with that particular publisher and given the modesty of the contract. After the first year’s earnings for Sinful Surrender, it did feel like I’d won some sort of lottery when I received the cheque for the first six month’s earnings of 2011.
Now let’s step back just a moment. Just before A Taste of Desire came out, my agent had shopped An Heir of Deception. I think we came close in several cases to selling it but in the end, all the publishing houses turned it down. But we were still waiting on Kensington. They ended up turning it down about 2 weeks after A Taste of Desire was released. I was disappointed but I knew I wasn’t going to let the book go. Come hell or high water, I was determined to publish that book. I didn’t exactly know how or when, but I thought it was the best out of the three books in the series, so I wasn’t giving up on it.
Until that happened, I continued to write. I came up with the idea for a connecting series called The Temptresses and my agent, Kevan Lyon, shopped that. In the end, it didn’t sell. At this point, my friend Lori Brighton had started to self-publish. I remember thinking, I will never self-publish because that would be like giving my book away for free. I just couldn’t see readers buying books not from NY or an established epublisher. Even when she told how much others “said” they were making self-publishing (this is the end of 2010), I was skeptical. Then Lori sent me the link to Amanda Hocking’s blog where she actually had images of the remittance advice and it showed she sold approx 100,000 books in December of 2010 between 8 books. Okay, I said to myself, maybe self-published authors weren’t exaggerating about their earnings. That was the moment I actually saw self-publishing as a viable option for me.
At that point, I finished the novella I’d been working on the prior year. It was a 30k story that came between A Taste of Desire and An Heir of Deception. I thought it would be a nice story to hold my fans over until An Heir was finished. I put it out in April/May 2011 and I sold a modest 3200 copies until I decided it was worth more to the series if I made it a loss leader. So I made it free. Click here to read the post I wrote on How Free Worked For Me. Needless to say it worked. More than anything, I included the first three chapters of An Heir of Deception at the end of the book and interest in An Heir skyrocketed. I received emails daily asking when it was coming out. My personal newsletter subscription list grew from 373 to 3155 subscribers in 4 months when I instructed visitors to sign up if they wanted to be informed when An Heir would be coming out.
The last time I counted, there have been over 400,000 free downloads of the novella ALL’S FAIR IN LOVE & SEDUCTION.
On May 23 (late at night), An Heir of Deception went live on Amazon. In the wee hours of the morning of the 24th (I think), it went live on Barnes & Noble. It wasn’t available on Apple until May 3rd. It’s been exactly 6 weeks weeks and 5 (five) days since it was released and here are the results.
Book Year # copies sold
An Heir of Deception ($4.99) Apr 23 – Jun 8 15,283
~~~
It’s hard to draw sales comparison to my NY books since I don’t get month-by-month sales figures, but I think An Heir of Deception is performing very close or better than A Taste of Desire did when it was released. Especially given it wasn’t available for pre-order or is not available on as many etailer sites. What I can say is that in a little over three weeks of sales, I’ve out earned what I made from 2 books in 2 years with a traditional publishing. I estimate in another month, I will have doubled those earnings.
And when I say what I’ve earned with my original contract with Kensington, I’m including all the foreign deals, which includes:
Thailand (Sinful Surrender, A Taste of Desire)
Russian (A Taste of Desire)
French (Sinful Surrender)
German (Sinful Surrender, A Taste of Desire)
Indonesia (Sinful Surrender, A Taste of Desire)
Japan (Sinful Surrender)
~~~
The German copy of Sinful Surrender came out December 2011. A Taste of Desire will be out June 18, 2012. To help spur sales of my German books, I had the novella All’s Fair in Love & Seduction translated into German and that went up for sale May 15th. Here are the results:
Book Year # copies sold
Der Unwillige Bräutigam (.89 €) May 15 – present 983
~~~
The German novella is doing really well in Germany, which surprises me. It’s been in the Top #100 Kindle ebooks for 12 days now. While it’s free in English, I put it at the lowest price I could on both Amazon and Apple to try to recoup some of the cost of translation, which was not insignificant. Most important, it has absolutely helped the sales of Kensington German books. Sales for Sinful Surrender and pre-orders for A Taste of Desire are way up!!!
Marketing – What worked and what didn’t
So when it comes to marketing, here’s what I know or think really worked for me:
- The Season site (Absolutely)
- The Season Blog (You betcha!)
- Print ad in Romantic Times Book review – This is definitely a pricey option, but I do believe both times I took out ads — a 2/3 color page one for A Taste of Desire and a 1/2 color page ad for An Heir of Deception — they did help sales.
- Newsletter email blast – Not sure I got any bang for the buck on these. Did it twice and saw little result.
- Online ad with AAR – Yes, I’m getting a fair number of referrals from this ad to my site so it’s doing its job.
- Goodread Ad – Nada, nothing.
- Facebook Ad – Nope, not much activity here.
- Kindle Nation Daily – I’ve done 2 ads here and got no results.
- Personal subscription Newsletter blast – Absolutely. There was a built in fan base here so this worked 100%.
- Blog Tours – Not sure how much blog tours work but they don’t hurt, that’s for sure. You have to hit the blogs with lots of traffic.
- Reviews – Postive reviews always help, no matter what. I was fortunate enough to receive a starred review by Library Journal for An Heir, and I think that helped with sales.
- Social media (Facebook, Twitter etc) – I’m very active with social media and I know that helps with visibility and it lets me keep in touch with my fans and most ardent supporters.
- Major giveaways (iPads, ereaders etc) – If you can afford to, these kinds of giveaways do draw a crowd. I’m a huge proponent of digital books and ereaders, so when I can, I love to give them away.
- Free book in the series – Hands down this worked. This was absolutely critical to the success of An Heir, of that I have no doubt. And not that it was just free, but that I included a completely “hookable” 3 (three chapter) excerpt of An Heir at the end of the novella.
- Writing stories for the widest market – I didn’t set out to do this, but when it comes to books, this is where my tastes lay. I don’t read niche market books and therefore I don’t write them. I read authors like Rachel Gibson, Sarah Mayberry, Lisa Kleypas, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Julie Anne Long etc. and these are not niche market authors. Their stories have very broad appeal and I’m part of that audience. Therefore, the stories I write are very similar. I love dry humor, alpha heroes, tons of sexual tension, hot loves scenes and a lot of angst. You won’t find much intrigue in my books. No shoot-em-up scenes or monstrous villains hiding in the dark of the night. I love character-driven romances whose stories are centered on the relationship between the hero and heroine. I love heartfelt longing and when called for, a little groveling by the hero when he’s done wrong.
- Treat your career like a business – Stephanie Bond was the first author to say this to me. She was right. Stephanie has invariably been right. Professional covers (yes, and if you do professional work, do your own), professional editing (yes, and this could be your good friend), professional everything.
So that’s it. Whatever success I’m currently experiencing, it’s been 3 years in the making. I have quit my full-time technical computer job to write full-time and I could not have done this had I still been contracted with a NY publisher. No, I was able to quit because of the money I’m making self-publishing–and as a single working mother, this was a big deal. This is not to say that I’ve given up on New York. I haven’t. But now when I come up with an idea for a book or series, I’m not thinking, Will an editor love this and want to contract it? I’m not thinking, What kind of advance will I get for this if I sell it? No, now I have the freedom to come up with anything my heart desires. Now I can write exactly what I want and just as important, what I believe my fans want and will enjoy. 🙂
Thanks for the inside look at what all your efforts have wrought. As a reader, what I like most about self-publishing is that authors can get their work out to us quickly. I’ve really enjoyed your books, and I’m glad to see you having success.
Thanks so much! Knowing readers are enjoying my stories is why I do this.
All very fascinating and shows how much time and effort it takes beyond writing the book! I like the fact that you get to write what you want without having to change things for some editor or publishing house! Always look forward to your books!
@catslady Thank YOU!
I just want to say how proud I am of you and Lori! Love you both!
Christina
Thanks, Christina. Love you too!
Great topic. I’m going to share on my site. Thank you
Fabulous! If this can help another writer, I’m good. 🙂
Ahead of my time in ebooks, behind the times in self-publishing. Thanks for the hard facts and advice!
De rien, my dear. 🙂
Wow Bev, this is VERY insightful. Thanks.
And Kati, I’m still learning. Will always be learning throughout this entire journey until the day I stop writing.
Awesome post! I really enjoy hearing the story behind the success, and when author’s share the knowledge learned via self publishing. I found The Season searching for way to determine what books I wanted to buy, which led me to Beverley’s first store Sinful Surrender. Since then I’ve been addicted to her books and the site, so much so that I write reviews now.
Bev, you sure have given your writing career everything you got and I can’t wait to read more.
I’m so glad you found The Season and that you review for me. 🙂
Addicted to my books. Boy, I do love the sound of that.
Thanks for being so open and honest. Very gusty and I admire you greatly. As another Kensington author in your situation, I have to say I have definitely earned more off my two self-published novellas than I so far have from my TP Kensington book (the second one has only jsut been released). That’s the other problem with TP, the cash flow is far too slow.
The market has changed a lot since I accepted a TRADE deal (as a debut author I’d advise against a Trade deal). With eBook prices from well established authors low, a $15 book or an $8 eBook doesn’t cut it if readers don’t know you. I believe an eBook contract would be a better way for debut authors to build a brand (find readers). It lets readers who don’t know you, buy your book for the price of a cup of coffee. They are willing to give you a chance. Especially in a suppressed economic market.
I’m loving self-publishing and the ability to take control of price, covers, blurbs (all I didn’t think helped my books the way Kensington did them and my thoughts were not requested or wanted) and marketing (I’m a marketer by profession). I do hope to continue with TP as it helps with exposure, but I know I can build my own career without them if I have to.
Bronwen, yes being a relative unknown with a trade deal is TOUGH in this economic market and in this digital age. One of my author friends debuted just after the stock market crashed with a trade book from Kensington. You can imagine how well that went, right. She’s enjoyed much more success self-publishing two novellas.
And I completely agree with you about freedom. My biggest thing is the covers. I love being able to choose exactly what I want.
It’s always interesting to hear an authors point of view cause as a reader I really have no idea of all that go into getting your book out and sold. I know I have a lot of authors through word of mouth and self publishing. May you have many more sales and continued success.
Thanks so much, Sue. I’m going to try my very best, believe me.
Very insightful and educational!
Thank you for sharing this!
I’m glad that self-publishing has worked well for you and a lot of other authors. Congratulations on the success of all of your books!
Thanks, Tin!
This was really great to read! Love seeing all aspects of the publishing journey.
Lisa, I think, every once in awhile, readers like to know what goes on behind the scenes. 😉
Beverley, how sneaky are you? I knew about your contract with Kensington, but I had no idea you were self-published. I’m so proud 0f your success. This is fabulous news! Thanks for sharing this information.
Hehehehe. I certainly wasn’t trying to hide it. 😉 Thanks so much!!
The first book I read was “All’s Fair in Love & Seduction”. It was free, so I felt there would be no loss to me to read it. Well that was it, I have been hooked every sense. I told my niece about the free book and she has been hooked too. I read somewhere that Cynthia Wicklund did the same thing. I got her free one and then bought the rest of the series. I wonder why more self-pub authors don’t do that? Also I waited on pins and needles for you to announce on Facebook or Email that “An Heir of Deception” was out. My niece did too. So I would say Facebook and Email worked somewhat. Maybe not with your ad, but having fans as your friends on Facebook. I don’t think I ever saw an ad for your book. I’ll have to ask Heather (my niece). It just excites me so much to see a new way for authors to get their books out and that they also get more of the profits. When I find an author I really like (like you) I feel like they have become some sort of friend. I get excited when I see they are coming out with a new book, I go to their website to see what they are working on right now, I look for sneak peeks at the book they are working on now. So I feel really good that when I buy a book from them and it is a Self-pub book they are getting the most profits they can get. I will say that because it is still somewhat new I am very picky about what authors I buy a self-pub book from. I just bought “Undone” by Lila DiPasqua and I have heard nothing but good things about this self-pub book. All I can say Beverley is I can’t wait until the next book!!
And Mary, my hope is that you will always find quality and enjoyable self-published books to read. Thanks for taking a chance on my books. I hope they will always (the vast majority of the time) continue to please you. 🙂
Thank you so much, Beverley, for such an insightful blog. I’ve been playing with the idea of self publishing for some time as I’ve been published in hard cover since 2010 but the high cost of the books has made sales slow though reviews have been good. Now that one of them has gone to e-book, sales are really picking up, but it’s still an expensive e-book.
I’d love to be in control of price and cover and your post has given me another push in that direction.
Thanks again.
Beverley
I love that you tell us tidbits about the other side of being an author. Very insightful.
I’m happy it all worked out for you!
Thanks, Rosamina. I hope it continues to work out for me too. 😉
Wow, Beverly. Thanks for sharing such an uplifting story. As a new indie author who’ve been rejected by New York numerous times over the course of 20 years, I can definitely relate to your story. I just published a book that had gotten several nice rejections from editors and agents, but who didn’t think it ‘suited’ them at the time. In 9 days, I have had five 5-star reviews and one 4-star, and over 500 downloads from readers who absolutely love the story.
It is nice to know that I’ll never have to write another query letter, or synopsis, and that I won’t be sitting around my house waiting for another rejection letter. I’m free, and I’m published! And the best thing is that readers love my stories.
Again, thanks for sharing, and best of luck on your journey up the indie highway.
Ana E Ross
Ana, thanks so much for commenting. I have to say, I’ve had no greater satisfaction than seeing a book I but together with the help of a great editor, cover artist and wonderful CPs, do well. So I know what you mean.
That is an awesome story! So it sounds like the free book really gave you a big shove. Was that through the 5 days free promo kdp has or price matching?
That was price matching. I didn’t do kdp select.
Beverley, thank you! Congratulations on taking your career into your own hands and doing so well. The more I read of these sorts of posts, the more appealing self publishing is to me. Especially in relation to sneaky and rigid contract terms. I’m at the point of editors “loving my story” but not knowing where to place it. It’s so frustrating. It’s not rocket science, they’re romances, first and foremost! And honestly, I want to make a living doing what I love, so TP is looking the worse for wear in that respect. Low advances, unreliable e-book accounting. I’d rather be in control of my own career and business, and not have to worry that I can’t write the book I love because it relates to characters in another manuscript.
Again, thank you. Serious food for thought.
Michelle de Rooy
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for stopping by. What I love about this whole self-publishing and ebook revolution is that now authors have options. It’s the most freeing feeling in the world.
This is an impressive presentation, Beverley ! What I want to say most is how very proud I am to know you and to have known you from the beginning. You have crafted a career with your own hard work, talent and above all, courage. I truly admire the incredible job you have done! Frankly, New York would be lucky to have you!
Louisa, thank you so much. Thank YOU!! You are a doll and very talented writer. I know very soon I’ll be reading about you hitting the publisher scene with a splash. 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing Beverley. I will continue to support you and your books through any adventure your choose to make. You truly deserve all the success you’ve earned and I can’t wait to read more from you.
Thanks so much, Danielle. It’s because of supportive fans like you that this is even possible for me.
What a great blog post Bev! I’m so happy to see that things are going so well for you, and I always love your positive attitude!
I look forward to reading more of your books in the future!! 🙂
Thanks, Sandra. I will always work hard to put out the best stories possible.
Bev,
It’s amazing what all we learn from our friends. You’ve done an amazing job writing, working, raising your son, going through the pain of rejection and handling it well, but most of all, you listened to others and that’s why you accomplish your true goal in life. Now you can sit back and relax while another amazing story begins to form in that brilliant head of yours. You must be proud of yourself for taking a fearful leap in self-publishing, and succeeding! Congrats and best of luck with your future books. # 1 Biggest fan! 🙂
Awwwwww, thank you so much, Mikki! You are a fabulous fan. 🙂
It’s interesting to see which types of marketing helped and didn’t help sales. Congrats on all your success and sales, Bev.
Thanks so much, Jane.
Congratulations Bev! And thanks so much for sharing your experience so candidly. I love how honest you’ve been, revealing numbers etc. But the fact is that in addition to all those things, you have been writing wonderful love stories. Your talent, dedication and hard work (and Lori’s !) inspire not only me, but many others I know. Much love and thanks again for sharing. You’ve earned this!
Thanks so much, my dear! You’re a doll. You are a fabulous writer and will see great success in the future, of this I have no doubt. xxoo
Thanks for not giving up and for trying whatever was necessary to publish your work. I enjoyed it immensely and can’t wait for more.
Thanks, Anne. An Heir definitely has a special place in my heart and will always.
What a wonderful post Beverley. I’m so glad you got to quit your technical job and do what you love. write.
Such an inspiring story. We just buy the books and read,but look what goes on behind the books. Congrats to you Bev. I wish you continued success.
Carol L
Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com
Thanks so much, Carol. 🙂
Bev, thank you for a honest look at writing as a career and all the hurdles you had to overcome. I love your books and I wish you many many more years!! You keep writing them, I’ll keep reading them. I also found it interesting that ads placed on certain websites didn’t work for you.
Thanks so much, Danielle. I’m going to keep writing so I’ll hold you to the promise that you’ll keep reading. 😉
The difficult part is getting a fan base and a large group of followers, people who read your books and leave reviews. Sounds like you have found the magic key to success. I know I’ve got you on my radar and as long as I come away happy after reading your work, I’ll be there for you.
You mentioned blog tours. I’m a fan of those things. Not only have I won several (ok, lots) of Amazon GC, I’ve founds some very interesting authors and their books. Since I finally broke down and bought a Kindle Fire (paid for with Amazon GC won in blog book tours), I’ve found some books available on the Kindle Lending Library as a result of a blog book tour. I’m reading a book right now called ‘Seized’ by Lynne Cantwell. It’s a paranormal contemporary that I would not normally look at but as a result of a BBT, I’m reading something different and so far, I like it. I think it’s something you should look into. As long as you get a reputable promoter, you should realize good response (hits on your website, blog, Amazon/BN listings, etc) as a result.
I might mention here that Danelle Harmon, a historical romance author who has been away from the publishing scene for several years will be doing a blog book tour in July. Sounds like she’s coming back…hopefully with some new stuff. I see she has her de Montford Brothers series in Kindle editions now too. It will be nice to read her work again.
Thanks, Karen. I hope the majority of the time, I do come through for you. 😉 How are you enjoying your Kindle Fire?
You sure have put a lot of effort into promoting your books, and I am happy that it seems to have paid off for you. The whole digital age certainly is changing things. Pluses and minuses to it I guess. But also how fun for you to have control over the covers!
But more than all that I hope you continue to enjoy it =)
Thanks so much, Lexi!
Thanks for the info, Beverly. This is fantastic! Congratulations to you on your success and may you continue to do well! (Also, can I get the name of your sister’s psychic friend? : )
Ooh, and I have to say, I j’adore character-driven angsty books too! My favorite!
Hi Valerie,
Thanks so much and I’m glad you stopped by and commented. My sister’s psychic friend’s name is Joy. 🙂
And yes, give me a character-driven angsty book any day.
Congratulations on your success!! This is an interesting blog post. Could you have imagined back in 2010 that you would be giving up your day job and essentially becoming self-employed?
I must not be the average e-reader though. I really enjoyed your first two books, so I was more than willing to purchase your ebook. I still won’t purchase ebooks from writers who never contracted with a NY publishing house, however. There’s just no way to ascertain the over-all quality from just reading a few sample chapters. This may change once more blogs review ebooks.
Has your agent heard any feedback from Kensington or the other publishers about the success of An Heir of Deception and their decision not to publish it?
Thanks, Kim.
Yes, writing full-time is a dream come true.
I definitely think having been published with a traditional published enormously helped my self-published book.
Hehehehe. I’m sure the publishers aren’t weeping because they failed to snap up An Heir when they had the chance. But that’s okay, the events played out exactly as they were supposed to and I’m grateful for it.
Hi Beverly,
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your post. My story is very similar to yours. I had two books with Sourcebooks (writing as Emery Lee) but they passed on my third book and I couldn’t get another deal. I then began writing erotic romance novellas under another pseudonym and sold to a couple of smaller digital publishers. These books are doing ok but not as well as I had hoped although the entire series has not yet released. Still, all this time I have wanted to try self-pubbing. I have two full length novels that deserve to be read but I did not have the courage to step out and try it. You have now inspired me to do so.
Emery Lee/ Victoria Vane
Hi Victoria,
The one thing I realized after the first contract was that the second contract was way harder to come by. If you do decide to self-publish, I wish you the best. It turned out to be a great option for me and many others.
Congratulations on your success! You’ve put a great deal of time and thought into this, and you deserve every sale that you get. It was very interesting to read about your publishing road, and I think the advent of self-publishing has allowed a lot more authors to get their books out there.
Emery/Victoria (above) suggested I check out this post. I am not at the point where I’m confident I could self-publish. It takes a lot more commitment that I feel I have time for. At the same time, it’s an interesting avenue and one I can’t discount.
I just got it! Thank goodness for Kindle, iPad, and Amazon. Off to read now. . . .
Great post, Beverly!
Terrific post, Beverley.
“Now I have the freedom to come up with anything my heart desires. Now I can write exactly what I want and just as important, what I believe my fans want and will enjoy. :)”
Oh, yes! Writers and readers have the opportunity now to read a much broader range than will fit through the eye of the needle that is NY publishing
Amen, Sister! LOL!
Beverley,
Congratulations on making your new venture pay well enough to quit the day job!
I’ve noticed that it’s not just Kensington authors who are being pushed to the sidelines. Well-known authors such as Candice Hern and Connie Brockway have also had to become self-publishers in order to continue as writers.
For myself, I bought a NookColor 18 months ago, and now get almost all my books in e-book format; therefore, I perceive little difference in a self-pubbed author and a traditionally published one.
Although I don’t know these people, try to include “The Cheap” website in your marketing plan. They really “push” the self-pubbed e-books to new readers. From the comments, quite a few non-romance-readers have been converted through their site: the-cheap.net
Aw person I recently planned to take the time to point out i love reading through your site!
Beverley,
I clicked on your link at Romance Divas. This post includes all the details writers want to know but few authors have revealed. Unfortunately I can’t enter your contest, because I’m on a deadline and haven’t read your book. However, I thought this post was worthy of mention anyway, so I posted a link on my blog a couple of hours ago. I just checked my site and two people have already clicked the link.
Thanks for sharing!
-Jillian who hopes she can concentrate on her manuscript instead of Alex and Charlotte’s children
Thanks for the report. And so happy you’re writing what you want. I’m also Indie pub and I’m in for the long haul which is part of a career move and like you worth it.
Thanks for a look at the publishing industry and good insight into the self-publishing part of it. There is a lot of good insight and advice for authors. The lag between thinking of a story to write and the time it actually hits the market when going through a big publishing house is something I have heard many authors complain about. Changes editors want made to stories, and little or no control over the cover or the title are other frequent complaints. Self-publishing can be a great option. The question of quality come in and is a concern for readers. Too many new authors don’t take advantage of critique groups or professional editors. I have read a few self-published books that were not ready to be put on the market. Any one can call themselves an author and get a book in print. Being good enough to be considered an author orth reading, is another thing entirely.
Best of luck with what I hope is a long and successful writing career.
Beverley, thanks for being so honest about how many books you’ve sold.
Beverley, this was an awesome, informative article! Thanks so much for sharing. I’m always looking into new ways to market my self-pub books, and of course I love hearing about others success. Congrats on your amazing sales AND on being able to quit your day job to fulfill your dream of writing (whatever you want!) full time!
Thank you do much for this post! I really like reading how you went about things and what the stats were. As an aspiring author who is thinking of self publishing this post helped me understand it so much better. There is so much information out there and even thinking of trying to break into the genre can be overwhelming. So once again, thank you! You really are an inspiration and wonderful example. Congrats and good luck with everything 🙂