When I decided I was going to self-publish, I very abruptly realized I didn’t know anything about self-publishing.
It seems easy on the surface, but it’s really not. It’s really, really not. At least, not if you do it right.
But they say nothing worth doing is ever easy, so if that’s the case, then I’m on the right track! I published my first short story on Amazon Kindle back in October of 2015, after 5 months of stalking learning from other successful indie authors and taking copious notes on their processes (as well as paying for some educational courses on the subject). I then gleefully hashed out a ludicrous publication schedule for the rest of 2015 and into 2016, which I promptly realized was far, far too ambitious and frankly, just plain silly.
It showed that I still really didn’t know anything about a “proper book launch”.
And I really still don’t, but I’m learning, slowly and painfully. 😉 Here are my experiences from my first two book launches, for your entertainment and hopefully, your education, too.
The First Launch – “In Death, Everything” – Paranormal Science Fiction Short Story
For the “launch” of my first short story, the only pre-publication steps I took were:
- Cover reveal on my website about 20 days before publication.
- Created an Author page on Author Central (I was able to do this because of a previous publication…you cannot set this up until you have published at least one book on Amazon)
- Recruited 10 Advanced Readers and offered them a free copy of the story in exchange for an honest review
- Researched the crap out of Amazon categories to determine which niche my story best fit in
- Played around with the Amazon search bar auto-fill to determine the most searched for phrases when looking for a book like mine
- Announced its publication through my social media channels (Facebook and relevant Facebook groups, Twitter, my website, my cover designer’s site) on the day it was published and it’s last day of being free.
For only having done that little bit, it faired pretty well on it’s first few days (while it was free), reaching as high as #5 in its free category (next to Hugh Howey — EEP!).
There were a measly few downloads once it stopped being free and went to its actual sale price ($1.50), and by the next week or two, the sales had dropped to precisely 0, and have stayed right around that mark since.
Now, with this first short story, “In Death, Everything”, I committed one of what Tim Grahl calls the Five Deadly Failures of Authors: I did not continue the momentum of the launch. What this means is that once the book was out there, I stopped talking about it, stopped promoting it, and a few weeks later you probably couldn’t even tell I’d ever even published a book.
Whoops.
Did I mean for this to happen? Well, yes, kind of. I had other projects to attend to and a publishing company to help get off the ground and this short story was really just a self-experiment, anyway.
But as time went on and I started learning more and more about how to properly launch a book (mostly from Tim and Nick Stephenson), I began to feel a little bummed that I had completely wasted the opportunity of that first launch. I failed on all of the following points:
- Not continuing the momentum of the launch, resulting in a sharp decrease in downloads after the first week.
- Not having a direct review link in the back of the book to prompt reviews from readers by making it very easy.
- No email list established, thus no call to action at all in the back of the book (or the front) and no way to directly connect with readers.
- Did not direct readers back to my website within the book.
- Not setting a concrete launch day and just publishing it whenever I decided was a good day.
The results of which were, for all the downloads the book got within that free week (which was, to be honest, so much more than I’d expected!), I got in return (even nearly 4 months later):
- About $4 in royalties.
- The only people to review it were 4 out of 10 of my Advanced Readers, and one coworker.
- No new people to add to my mailing list, since it was non-existent.
- No boost in traffic to my website.
- No way to track or know who was downloading my book, reading it, or enjoying it.
- No way to directly connect with my readers!
I decided that for my next launch, a “real and serious” launch, I would rectify all those mistakes and do a much better job of the pre-launch activities to generate more buzz around my release before publication. More than just revealing the cover 20 days before, anyway.
The Second Launch – “Dreamers” – Science Fiction Thriller Short Story
Let me preface this breakdown by saying that this launch was actually far more compressed than I would have liked due to some unforeseen circumstances.
Those circumstances being that I didn’t know when I’d be publishing this short story until January 24th, 2016, at our publishing meeting. During this meeting, Wordwraith Books set out our entire publication schedule for all of 2016. And it turned out I was first in line!
The publication date for “Dreamers” was set for February 16th, 2016.
See how I had already fixed one of my previous mistakes? Now I had a set publication date. This is very important, because you need to have a deadline, a point in time to build everything else around.
With that date in mind, I went back to absorbing literally everything I could get my hands on from Tim and Nick, my two guiding lights in this choppy sea of self-publishing. Trust me, if you do not have lights to guide you in this, you will get lost. You will get even more frustrated. You will despair. You might drown. Don’t drown. Find someone who knows what they’re doing and learn from them. They don’t have to be big names like Tim and Nick, it can be someone local to you … but it’s gotta be someone. (If you are wanting to make some money doing this, anyway. If this is just a bucket list item, or you’re just writing for your family, no worries at all. Wing it! You’ll do fine.)
More on that later, though.
For now, let me get back to this second launch.
Shortly after the publication of “In Death, Everything”, I began preparations for my second book launch (even though at the time, I expected a different book to be my 2nd published book). I set up the following:
- Redesigned my website to have a landing page for the home page which would showcase my work
- Tidied up my Books page
- Created a mailing list on MailChimp with segments based on interest
- Installed SumoMe on my website and developed a mailing list pop-up window
- Added the mailing list sign up form to my blog sidebar
- Began adding the mailing list sign up window to the end of my blog posts and at the bottom of my pages
- Tested mailing list sign up forms and let people know I had one now
- Set up a schedule for connecting with my mailing list and began emailing them 2x/month minimum
After the January 24th meeting, once I knew which story would be next published and had the publication date, I realized I had two weeks and one day to implement this improved Book Launch Plan.
I also realized I had no cover and had not looked at this story since the previous summer (although I had done final edits on it back then, so at least I knew it was in a final draft state!).
Tim Grahl had suggested, at minimum, a 3 month long launch schedule. But I had two weeks.
I did not panic. Instead, I made a plan. Then I followed that plan, and almost everything went smoothly and without a hitch.
The schedule looked like this:
January 24
*Looked at covers on The Cover Collection and decided which ones I liked best.
*Polled fellow Wordwraiths to get their opinions on the best cover design.
January 29
*Made final decision on cover design and placed order with TCC.
*Read over final draft of DREAMERS and made very minor tweaks and edits.
January 30 – February 4
*Corresponded with Debbie at TCC over cover designs.
*Received final cover version.
*Formatted DREAMERS for ebook upload, including adjusting font type, margins, adding chapter headings, adding front matter.
*Wrote and finalized the back cover copy/description using Gotta Read It as a guide.
*Leveraged mailing list segment of ARC Reader volunteers and Facebook to ask for Advanced Readers (recruited 6 total).
*Recorded a video of me reading the first chapter of DREAMERS
February 3
*Sent cover reveal and the first chapter text to my mailing list (had technical difficulties with the video)
February 5 – 7
*Wrangled the video until I got it to work, edited it, and posted to my YouTube channel, but did not yet share the link
February 8
*Posted the cover reveal and back cover copy as well as publication date to my Facebook pages, relevant Facebook groups, Twitter, and my website.
*Shared the reading of the first chapter video with my mailing list
February 9
*Researched Amazon categories and keywords for DREAMERS genres (science fiction and thriller), took notes
February 10
*Posted link to 1st chapter reading and text to my Facebook pages, relevant Facebook groups, Twitter, and my website
*Updated website homepage to say DREAMERS Coming Soon with date and link to mailing list
*Added a direct review link to the back of “In Death, Everything” and dropped price from $1.50 to $.99
*Added secret page to my website containing the first chapter of my next science fiction thriller book “Blackmarket Body”
February 11
*Put up DREAMERS Release Details post on the Wordwraiths website
*Announced drop in price for “In Death, Everything” on my Facebook pages and Twitter
*Finalized front and back matter on DREAMERS final draft, including mailing list links and a link to the “Blackmarket Body” first chapter at the end of the book.
February 12
*Uploaded the final draft of DREAMERS to KDP and saved as draft.
February 15
*Posted the link to the first chapter video on a very active Facebook group I’m a part of (Queer Sci Fi – they only allow promotions on Mondays).
*Previewed upload of DREAMERS on KDP and messed with version uploads as most were not looking exactly how I wanted. (This was a mess and I spent WAY too much time on it, and I still wasn’t entirely happy with how it turned out!)
*Gave up on it looking perfect and “published” DREAMERS on KDP since it takes awhile to run through approval and actually post.
*Set up two free promotion days through KDP Select to run the 16 and 17th (another reason to publish a day early – you can’t set the book to be free on the very first day it’s uploaded).
February 16 >>> PUBLICATION DAY!
*Added direct link for reviews to the back of the book and republished changes (unfortunately you have to publish first, then add this, then republish).
*Sent direct link to all ARC readers and asked for a timely, honest review. (As of today, 4/6 have reviewed.)
*Posted publication announcement and the buy link to my Facebook pages, relevant Facebook groups, Twitter, the Wordwraiths website, coworkers, and my mailing list.
*Changed website home page to read AVAILABLE NOW with the buy link.
*Told all family and friends.
*Fielded some technical issues from a few friends and family trying to buy (ended up being user error, but I still responded immediately and tried to help them figure out what was going on!)
February 17 – 19
*Share buy link with Debbie at TCC (they offer free promo through their website and Twitter as well).
*Reach out to influencers I know and ask if they could share the book. (Tim’s receipe for launch success: 1) Share with people who are already your fans 2) Ask influencers to share with their audiences 3) Offer incentive to get others to share as well).
*Make a Periscope vid talking about the book and pointing people to it on Amazon.
*Add appropriate links to my Twitter bio.
Okay, so that’s a crap ton of stuff, right?
Did all of this extra stuff help the launch of DREAMERS outpace the launch of IN DEATH, EVERYTHING?
Well, I think it’s kind of hard to directly compare these two launches, given that they were different genres, different lengths, and DREAMERS was only free for 2 days instead of 5.
Why only 2 free days? Tim (yes, I’m quoting him a lot, I figure he probably knows what he’s doing by now) mentioned he doesn’t like to give books away for free unless he’s also getting email addresses from that free book at the same time. Conversely, Nick and the guys over at Sterling and Stone swear by the permafree (ie, permanently free) introductory book, claiming it’s been shown to convert about 5% of people who download to your mailing list (as long as you give them the opportunity in the back of the book).
It’s a little too early to tell how well DREAMERS is really doing overall, but as of today the results are:
- Free downloads over the two free days were THE EXACT SAME! So the downloads were more stable during the 2 free days, and I actually didn’t do any promoting myself yesterday (the 17th).
- 6 five star reviews, 5 of which are from my Advanced Readers.
- Reached #5 in my free category (WHY CAN’T I GET PAST #5!?!).
- Currently sits at #126 in its paid category.
- Very slight increase in traffic to my website.
- No new subscribers to my email list.
According to that 5% conversion rate estimation, I should have at least 5 new people on my list right now! But then again, several of those downloads are people already ON my list, and who knows if the people who have downloaded it have even read it yet. I, for one, am terrible about putting books on my Kindle and then not actually reading them for months.
So for a much, much increased effort, the returns have been very minimally increased. Like I said, it’s very early still, so perhaps I’ll see more of an improvement over the long term, especially since I plan to maintain the momentum better this time.
We shall see! I will be sure to post updates as we go along!
For now, the main things I’ve learned from the 2nd launch that I will take into my 3rd are the following:
- Just hire someone to do the ebook formatting > yes, there are free and paid templates out there, but I had a free template and it helped me none at all. It still came out looking wonky in the previews. I tried all kinds of things using the template and without the template … uploading the file to KDP as a .mobi, as a .pdf, as a .doc, as a .docx, and in .html. None of them looked spectacular. The .pdf looked the worst, granted. The .html mostly looked the best, but kept putting spaces in between the paragraphs instead of an indent. I must have uploaded different versions of the file at least 100x. Next time, I’m just shelling out the $25 to have someone do it for me. Totally not worth my frustration! And I also noticed there’s a line that isn’t italicized in the conversion that’s supposed to be … *headdesk* Nope, I’m just not bothering with this myself anymore!
- Don’t share the 1st chapter. A recent tidbit learned from Tim Grahl. Instead, next time I will use my Advanced Readers to get their opinion on the best parts and will share those.
- The Look Inside feature and the rankings (even if you’re getting downloads) take awhile to show up, and the length of time it takes to show up can vary from book to book.
- Really do allow more than two weeks next time!!! TWO WEEKS IS NOT ENOUGH TIME!
- Don’t oversaturate the mailing list before the launch. I emailed them about 2x/week over those two weeks, and I think that was really too much. Next time I’ll aim for a max of 1x a week.
When I launch, I sacrifice my soul, my body and my mind to get my book out there. — Tim Grahl
Yep, that’s just about right!
That’s about all I have for this post.
Aside from confessing that I like writing to my mailing list much more than I like posting to this blog! 😛 So if you enjoy my posts but wonder where I’ve been, I’ve been talking to my list people instead. 🙂 If you want to join us, go ahead and sign up below. Otherwise, I’ll see you next time!
And if you are an indie author as well, let me know how things are going for you!
What are the most important things you’ve learned along your journey?
Inquiring minds want to know!
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I’ve learned that it’s better to have a whole series planned out and ready to go up front than to just put one thing out, and then church out the next thing. With a whole series available for people to read, and published within a month or two of each other, you stay relevant and people get satisfaction more quickly. You also have the ability to then put an excerpt in the backs of the books to give them a taste of what’s coming up next, which isn’t something you can do right away if you publish and then create the next thing. (Same goes with having newsletter info, and review links — I couldn’t publish the book with them until I had them, and I hadn’t thought to have them until after I’d published!)
I learned I can take my time. I don’t have to make a huge production out of things: I can publish, let people know, and then move on, but only as long as I’m still working. If I’m still producing, I can have a huge variety of things to choose from, and then market once I’ve gotten a hefty backlist for myself.
(I follow Hugh Howey more than I follow Tim or Nick, though I’ve gotten info from each of them. I just feel like Hugh focuses more on the *do the work, produce and then keep working* aspect, which is more natural for me to follow through on. I also like the Write. Publish. Repeat. book, which made a lot of sense. It, and Kristen Lamb’s book, are the ones I really rely on, apart from their blogs.)
I also learned, and am still learning, that it’s a slow process. I can, and should, keep publishing every time I have a finished product, be it short stories, novellas, or books. For a while, I didn’t think I should. It felt like cheating to put a story out that only has a few pages to it. But my blog is free, and the work I have is just sitting there, not making anything unless I make it worth something. And I can make it worth something!
Lots of learning done! And I’m still learning more. 🙂
Wow, I had NO idea what was involved in a book launch! Whew! From my end, you built interest and excitement in the book as the launch date neared. I was really looking forward to downloading and reading the book on my new Kindle… the first book I downloaded… so it was good to get reminders of the launch. I’m letting my friends know about this book, and wish you every success.