I published my first book, Queendom of the Seven Lakes, in November 2017. Its sequel, King of the Seven Lakes, followed in March 2018. A standalone in the same world, The Ruthless Land, was published in July 2018, and the first of a trilogy, Dark Heart, will be published in late November of 2018.
That’s a lot of books to publish in a short amount of time. However, one of the hallmarks of being indie is needing to have a sufficiently significant presence, that people won’t simply read your book, enjoy it, and forget you. Moreover, as I mentioned in the first article in this series, I’ve been sitting on a great many manuscripts for a while. I have the capacity for this output. For now, anyway.
I’m going to reflect on what exactly I’ve learned so far; the things I wish I’d done differently, and the things about which I’m really glad I did. However, before I do, I would like to note that self-publishing is a really personal series of decisions that are unique not only to you and your preferences, but to your work as well.
Reviews
Now, we all know that reviews are really important. But going about getting them can be a tricky endeavour.
One of the best things I did was get a NetGalley listing for Queendom. It’s outlandishly expensive, but it also does actually garner reviews. I wish I had known that their marketing which claims to require readers to review 80% of the books they download doesn’t actually mean that they enforce that. Queendom was downloaded over 200 times, but I only got around 20 reviews.
Those 20 reviews were in fact really helpful, and certainly, Queendom has a significantly higher number of reviews on Goodreads than King or Ruthless (even after taking into account that they’ve only been out a short while). However, it does feel like there is a significant disparity with what is inferred will happen and what actually came to pass.
I considered putting Ruthless up on NetGalley but ultimately decided not to as I now have a reader base. However, I looked around for other ARC services and it does seem that NetGalley has the widest reach.
Would I do it again? Absolutely. But I wish my expectations had been a little more in line with what ended up being the reality.
Placement
Famously, Matthew Reilly self-published his first novel and went around Sydney getting bookstores to stock it. Upon a commissioning editor for a publishing house finding his book, she signed him, and his success has been an upward trajectory ever since.
Of course, most people who self-publish have the vague notion that they can emulate Reilly’s success, but since then, a lot of people have tried to do exactly that. Anecdotally, it means that a lot of booksellers are reluctant to accept independently published books. Knowing this, and not feeling that Queendom necessarily had the reviews on Goodreads to really push it to booksellers, I didn’t approach anyone.
Until I wandered into my local Dymocks about three weeks ago, saw that the fantasy section was a little bare, and cheekily posted a photo of it to my Instagram story, tagging the bookstore’s Instagram account. And then they replied.
With the lines of communication open, I asked if they stocked indie authors, they said yes…
When the dream is kinda coming true…
Thank you so so much @dymcamberwell pic.twitter.com/f1H96evtzL— A.B Endacott (@ajendacott) August 15, 2018
Waiting until I had amassed a sufficiently significant number of reviews and ratings on Goodreads was probably the right move. However, not only do I wish I’d known earlier that simply asking can help you achieve your goals, even if you think it’s unlikely you’ll get a yes, but I also wish I’d possessed the courage to approach Dymocks in Camberwell months ago.
Social Media
Because all authors have Twitter, I now have Twitter. I don’t particularly find it a medium with which I connect, to be perfectly honest. However, I love Instagram.
Only in April of this year did I really begin to find a community within Instagram that offered me leverage and – more importantly – gave me emotional support. The Australian bookstagram community is a lovely place, full of people who are incredibly supportive and generous. Many of them have championed my work, reading it and promoting with an enthusiasm beyond anything I could have ever anticipated. I didn’t realise how important it was to be a part of a community until I actually was part of one. This isn’t simply for promotional purposes, but also for emotional support, too. Because writers actually need to have some kind of motivation to keep going, and detached sales figures on a screen don’t actually provide that.
Thus, I wish I’d focused more on the Australian bookstagram community from the beginning.
Have Fun
This sounds like a cliché, but such sayings exist for a reason. I wish I’d known to have a little more fun a little sooner. I collaborated with several Australian small businesses (which I found through Instagram) who make bookish merchandise to produce some merchandise for Queendom and King as part of a promotional strategy. But along the way, I realised that it was actually really fun to discuss different scents with them for various products, or plan packaging and colours. It’s perhaps a small thing, but it reinvigorated my appreciation for what I was doing, and made me really happy that I’d chosen to go down this route.
One of the stores – Spark + Sparrow – actually now has introduced a ‘seven lakes’ candle into their range following my initially collaboration with them.
But this only happened because I had fun with my work, and what I was doing with it. So I wish I’d known earlier that I needed to have a little fun with the entire experience.
I have so much more to learn, and I’ll likely never know all of the tips and tricks. But if I were to wind back the clock one year to when I was preparing to publish my first book, those are the things I’d try to keep in my mind, as I begun the journey.
