10 things I've learned in my first year as an independently published author

And all the other usual stuff!

Hello there!

Thanks so much to all of you for following me on this brand new path this year as an author - I’ve shared as much as I can along the way, but wanted to end the year with a round up of 10 of the main things I’ve taken from the experience.

But before, I go into all that, a couple of things:

• Next year, I will be segmenting my newsletter into an author newsletter and a reader newsletter. Basically one will be for authors who are interested in the independently published side of it, and the other will be about my books, for readers. I think my list is pretty split between those groups! You don’t have to do anything right now - I will simply send both to everyone in January and you can choose to unsubscribe from one, or both, if they’re not for you.

• The Nameless was selected for a BookBub featured deal - for anyone indie published, you’ll know how huge a deal this is. It goes out tomorrow morning, so there’s a good chance I may get to number 1 in an amazon ranking category as a result (fingers crossed, but I am up against the Hunger Games, for example!), so if you wanted to help me with that, you can buy an e-book copy for 0.99 today and it would make a difference - often it’s only a few sales that separate places on the category charts on Amazon.

• Ghosts of Mars finished 7th (out of 252) in the The Book Bloggers' Novel of the Year Award 2023. I was initially disappointed (when you make the final 15, you do hope for the best but prepare for the worst, so 7th is somewhere in the middle, not delighted nor devastating!) but I’ve since reflected on it and it’s a great achievement, especially as it’s an open award so I’m against adult and YA books with adult judges, so I’m happy to finish the year with this!

  

• All my books are currently only £0.99 in the kindle store, so if you still haven’t got a copy of Ghosts of Mars, Astra FireStar or The Nameless, you can support me buy grabbing on for your kindle or phone over there!

• I am planning to launch a Kickstarter next year for the next THREE books in the GoM series. Eva and Team Mars have more adventures lined up. I’ve already confirmed Jen Jamieson as cover artist for those, and have the next one in progress, with the other two plotted and ready to follow. I will post details here in the next newsletter on how you can get involved with the Kickstarter and how you can get involved in the creative process of the books, from naming characters, spaceships and alien species, to having the book dedicated to you, and getting special edition, signed hardcover copies!

  There’s also the possibility of stretch goals where backers can help get the audiobook(s) made and those would go to all backers, at any level, as a gift and thank you for your support!

  I’m very excited about it, and if you’re a fan of Ghosts of Mars, I hope you can help bring the rest of the series into fruition!

  • Craters of Ceres (Book 2)

  • Zombies of Mars (Book 3)

  • Monsters of MakeMake (Book 4)

That’s it! I hope you all have a lovely, and healthy, happy new year when it comes!

Here’s to wonderful 2024!

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10 things I've learned in my first year as an independently published author

1. Everything is harder than you think

   I definitely underestimated how hard it was going to be. I would like to think I’m a very determined and hard working person in general. I read up on things (I spent a year researching self-publishing) and try to be as knowledgable as possible so things can go as smoothly as possible.

   But they rarely do. Even the simple stuff is hard because you have to be consistent and create good habits, which are often hard to keep when you have so many hats to wear - writer, editor, formatter, proof-reader, publicist, sales, accountant, agent, and so on.

   TL;DR - don’t expect it to be easy - it’s harder than I thought and I thought it would be hard.

2. But it does get easier with each book

   The light at the end of the dark, dark tunnel is that it does get easier. Or at least, that’s how I’ve found it. Having now published 3 and looking to publish my 4th soon, I definitely don’t have that same feeling of overwhelm that I did with book 1 or even 2.

3. Everything takes longer than you think

   From editing to booking book tours or doing paid promotions…it all takes longer than you think it will, so always plan accordingly by adding 20-25% time to everything. This will build in extra time for when your editor or cover designer gets sick, or your blog tour company is full for the month you want, or you suddenly realise your book needs just one last read through!

4. But you do get quicker with each book

   I spent about 9 months of fairly intense work to get Ghosts of Mars into orbit, but every book since has taken less and less time overall. My hope is that when I’m on book 10 or 15 or even 20, I’ll have cut the time of the whole process right down to the bone (with no noticeable decline in quality at any stage!) by timing things better and knowing what to prioritise and when!

5. You will spend more than you think you will

   Budgeting to self-publish is a tricky topic! Ultimately, you have to see how deep your own pockets are, and base your budget upon that. You could spend thousands and thousands in the blink of an eye - doing it like a traditional publisher certainly costs that. And it can be eye-watering look back on what has been spent on my 3 books already this year, with a similar big spend to come next year for my next 4 books. Covers, edits, marketing use up the majority of the budget but there’s also so many smaller expenses in there, too, that I’d always add 20-25% on top of the budget you think it will cost initially.

6. But if you invest well, you will make more than you think

   This is the most important point I’m making in this newsletter - the quality of the invest shows in your work. I know, with a 100% certainty, that my books would not have sold half as well without the spend on covers and edits and marketing. I always say that whatever you DON’T spend on edits, covers and marketing, you will lose out on 10x that in sales as a result. I appreciate not everyone has the money to spend on these things, but you’re also leaving a LOT of money on the table if you don’t. You have to spend money to make money. And that leads me nicely to…

7. Marketing is number 1 factor in book sales

   While a great story and stunning cover do make a world of difference and will elevate your book above most of the other millions of books out there, on their own they will not sell your book as well as a good, targeted marketing plan. Now, I should say I have zero background in marketing and sales, but I’ve spent a LOT of time studying both and trying to do the very best for my small author business, and I know if I had more capital, my books would be doing even better. I am also limited by how much I can spend on my books, but the relationship is clear, with a crystal correlation, nay even a causation, that the more you spend on marketing, the more books you will sell. And this is true in trad publishing, too. There was a big study published on it recently and it couldn’t be more clear. So free yourself from that myth that great books will always find readers (they will, to be fair, but not as many as the book with the big marketing budget) and think about your marketing as a priority when self-publishing, and not an annoyance or something unnecessary.

8. But there is lots of other/free things you can do

   Don’t fret if you’re reading this and know you’ll never be able to spend thousands on marketing. You can do so many things that still cost - but instead of money, they cost your time and energy. You have your own social media account, your newsletter, even GoodReads itself is a social media platform, of sorts. I’ve heard of great success from authors who spend lots of time on GR, socialising with readers and building a huge platform that way. You can also volunteer your time and expertise on podcasts, blogs, and other magazines/websites/media. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people - and certainly hesitate to volunteer yourself when there’s callouts for these things!

9. Brand building is queen

   I’ve not done this very well so far this year. I wanted to dip my toes into the Indie waters a little first before setting on brand, so that’s why I published 3 different books, with new characters and worlds. But next year and going forward, I’m going to be more focussed on brand-building and series-accumulating with my books. I will still launch standalone and new series, but I’ll also build on what I have already. Ghosts of Mars is getting that treatment in 2024 (see my post above about the Kickstarter for that one!).

10. But flexibility, experimentation, and going wide are also important

    The advantage of doing it the way I did it, was that I now have baseline data on sales, marketing spends, readers, reviews and so much more information that will help me be more informed in future decisions for my author career. And having a diverse range of books and series will also allow me to target a wider range of readers, and this will only help in the long run as I build each book series deeper, and more importantly, wider.

There we go - 10 things I learned. I’m sure I’ll have 10 more next year, and every year. It’s a learning curve and no mistake, but I am making fewer mistakes as I go, and things are certainly clearer now than they were before, and I’m so pleased you’ve followed along on this journey so far.

Onto 2024 with guts and gusto, and keeping that fear of my own light shining too brightly as far from my thoughts as possible!