After years of talking with agents and publishers and having nothing pan out, I thought my chances of becoming a published author were over. I pitched two novels in the past, and, while some of these conversations included positive feedback about my writing, those books were never picked up. Defeated and heartbroken, I went back to the drawing board to write book number three. I poured my heart and soul onto the page and found myself with a story that I loved far more than my previous novels. I knew this one needed to see the light of day, so I made the brave choice to self-publish my book.
I, of course, had no idea what I was doing. My Google search history became a sporadic collection of random questions about ISBNs and cover measurements and copyright law. After months of research and landing the perfect editor and cover artist, in 2023 Safe Harbor was released into the world. But I didn’t get everything right the first time. Before you hit that publish button, learn from the five things I wish I’d done.
Request print proofs
When you submit a book to publish and print, providers such as Amazon and IngramSpark will give you a digital mockup of what your printed book will look like. Anxious to have the process over and done with, I looked at this mockup and assumed my book was good to go. When I finally had a print book in my hand, it was clear the measurements were slightly off; the blue spine of the cover ended up bleeding over the edge and onto the front cover. While this didn’t necessarily look too bad, for someone who worked incredibly hard to have the book look a certain way, I was disheartened. Always look at a print proof and meticulously check every detail.
Hire a proofreader
With printed copies of my book in hand, it was a surreal feeling to hold something I dreamed about. So, of course, you can imagine my disappointment when I realized that one of my side characters was referred to by two different names.
My editor didn’t catch this. My beta readers didn’t catch this. And yet, Zach, the new boyfriend of my character Blake, was referred to as “Ryan” in one of the early scenes of my novel, and I was distraught.
You see, when I’m not working on my novels, I also work as a freelance journalist and editor. I figured being an editor was good enough to be the final proofreader for my book, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. My eyes scanned over that text so many times during the many months of editing that a very small number of grammatical things (and the name mishap) slipped right through.
I learned my lesson. Hiring an extra set of eyes makes all the difference when it comes to publishing a polished final draft.
Reach out to enough ARC readers
Why in the world would I hand out a book for free? That’s originally what I thought when I published my first book. Scared that I would lose business by sending out too many advance reader’s copies (ARCs), I decided to stick to 25. I reached out to microinfluencers on Instagram who had proven high engagement, and, once I had 25 say yes, I emailed them the link for a digital download.
Here’s the problem with handing out a small number of ARCs: you end up with even fewer reviews. Out of the 25 people I sent to, 11 people downloaded my book, and I ended up with less than 10 reviews by the time my book was out. Luckily my efforts to double down on social media marketing paid off, but I still regret how conservative I was with my original round of ARCs. Word of mouth is a powerful form of marketing.
Make smart preorder choices
This is probably my biggest regret of all. When you publish your first book, you are going to have a lot of interest from your circle of friends and family. But I never expected to have 450 preorders.
As I was combing through all of my options for self-publishing my book, I knew that Amazon did not offer a paperback preorder option. IngramSpark does, so I figured I would put my book up for preorder through them. I didn’t realize how much money I would lose because of it.
Here’s the breakdown: I offered my novel for $15.99. Although IngramSpark says it offers 70% royalties compared with Amazon’s 60%, when I factored in printing costs, IngramSpark ended up paying me significantly less. I make around $1.50 a book on IngramSpark, yet Amazon pays me around $4.80 per book.
The solution here is to either wait to put your paperback on Amazon or to sell the book through a personal paperback shop. Amazon gives authors the option to order author copies of their book after scheduling it for publication.
Market to independent bookstores
For my first book, I went pretty hard on social media marketing. While this did help significantly with finding readers, I do regret not doing other kinds of marketing as well. I stepped into a few independent bookstores and asked booksellers to pick up my novel, and some even did. I’m making it my goal this year to do more outreach. Although IngramSpark doesn’t pay much, it does make it possible for retailers to stock up on my book with a 55% wholesale discount. So I still offer my book on the platform to make it easier for bookstores to put my novel on shelves, and in the hands of even more readers who haven’t discovered me yet.
Kiersten Hickman is a journalist and content strategist who publishes novels under the name K. Sinko.
