OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
Authors who discover the power of self-publishing often turn into evangelists for the medium.
In this video, we talk about:
- How Catherine started with self-publishing after rave rejections for her travel memoir, Mousetrapped. She decided it would be better to publish it then leave it in a drawer but she is also still seeking a traditional publishing deal for other books, aiming to be hybrid in the same way I am. It went so well she released Backpacked and Self-Printed. On writing with humor and how it's part of her natural voice.
On whether printing your book is a good idea
- I personally think print is fantastic but only as a vanity option, something you have to do for yourself, and not for sales. Catherine explains why her book is called self-printed and how really indies make money with ebooks, and not print books. Print books are really for your benefit, not for the benefit of your business or your bank account. It's a lot of work to make a really good quality paperback. All the indie success stories are with ebooks. The advantage of ebooks in terms of updates as well as the fact we both still think print is done best by traditional publishing with distribution to physical stores. Catherine advises new self-publishers to focus on ebooks primarily.
What are people still getting wrong about self-publishing?
- (1) Seriously, you must use professional cover design. Learn from The Book Designer Ebook Cover Awards (monthly). The Aug 2012 entries included an author who had used one of his own paintings to construct a cover that wasn't effective. Cover design is a specific skill, that 99.99% of writers don't have. Hire a professional book cover designer.
- (2) Don't think you'll be rich by next week. Catherine worked hard for a year and only sold 100 copies a month until things started taking off. Yes, it happens for some people with no marketing, but you can't model yourself on the outliers. This is hard work so you'll need to budget time and energy into your equation.
- (3) Editing and how critical it is to bring your book up to even a minimum standard. You can't skimp on it. MS Word spell-check cannot do editing for you. You need a professional editor because you don't know what you don't know, and your book has to be the best it can be, whatever you are charging for it.
Marketing that has worked for Catherine
- Blogging has been the most successful thing for Catherine, but her blog is the same voice as her non-fiction travel memoirs. Twitter is also critical for traffic but also for meeting other writers and the opportunities that come because of the connections there. It is about imagination – how many ways can you think of to get people to notice your book?
- Facebook is also good e.g. Mousetrapped is about Disney, Orlando and gap years. So Catherine can network with people who like those and people share within those groups. Very useful if your book is about a specific thing on Facebook.
How to sell self-published books
- Catherine has looked back and reviewed the journey and she has a theory about this. Finding the first readers is difficult. You can't go from nothing to the top of the Amazon charts. You need that small group of fans to help you, and they will often do it to support you if you develop a following online who know you. You can then multiply that initial interest.
- The importance of building a list so that you can sell the second book when it's time. It's also important to have a list because the social networks rise and fall. You need to own your mailing list so you're not left high and dry if they fall apart because you don't own that digital real estate.
Do you have any specific tips from your self-publishing experience? Do you still print books (and if so, do you make significant income from them?) Please do leave a comment below.
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1 2 Next »Great video, thanks for posting!
Thanks so much for interviewing me, Joanna -- really enjoyed our chat! :-D
It was great to meet in person, finally! I hope to see more of you in London town ...
Oh you do chat just how you write, Catherine! Self-Printed is such a valuable resource for those of us new to self-publishing (or should I say self-printing?) and I have gotten so much value from the first edition of the book that I didn't even have to think twice about upgrading to version 2.0. I definitely agree with your comments on cover design and editing. Why do self-publishers think they can ignore these things?!
I really don't know what makes them think it! I suspect it's more to do with not knowing a lot about books/publishing and/or being so bowled over by the sight of their book -- THEIR BOOK! -- that they fail to see it bares little resemblance to, um, all the other books. But in a world where most sales are made from thumbnail images, cover design couldn't be more important.
Great video. I think there is another good reason for a print version of your book, other than vanity. Putting a $12-16 trade paperback on Amazon helps make your $3-8 ebook look like a great deal. Amazon even shows the discount the buyer gets with the Kindle version over the paperback, so its a nice bit of sales psychology there. Whether its worth the effort of production though is up to you!
Yes, this is Dean Wesley Smith's argument as well - and I can see some point to that BUT/ I don't want to put out a mediocre product so I can't be dealing with all the hassle and expense to get something that may or may not impact sales. As someone who reads 99% on the Kindle, that price comparison means nothing to me - as I buy only ebooks I compare like with like.
I'm with Joanna; I don't see the point in producing a paperback just for a favorable price comparison. Too much work and no guarantee that the "discount" effect is having an impact.
This is very inspiring for those of us sitting on that book or with a story in the drawer wondering what's next. I wonder if I'm the only one who didn't realize that E-pub is really 'it' now for indies? I don't think I really understood that until now. Thanks again Joanna for the great information.
Hi Shelina - I think that is a realization you have when you are taking this seriously as a business. With your first book, it's all about wanting something in print but then you realize that you make so much more money with ebooks and it becomes a little silly to keep doing print (unless you love it of course!) All the best with your books.
I, for one, am delighted that the future of books is "e!" I was so dreading the process of having to make a print book. And now to find out I may not have to? Heavenly! I would hate to bust my buns putting out a second-rate product. This was a crucial post for me--thank you, Joanna! And thanks to Ms. Howard for "guesting." She is always a practical and funny lady. :-)
I hated the print process Ilana :) But you can find people to barter with on the indie scene if you have skills they want and you still want to pursue print.
Thanks Ilana! :-D
Firstly, it was great to see Catherine "live"! I've only ever read her blogs and books so it was great to put a face and a voice to the words. Secondly, I was quite surprised by the anti-paperback stance. My first novel has been out for about 9 months, I've sold about 400 copies and the paperback/ebook split is almost exactly 50/50. I write historical fiction about life in Hollywood during the golden age (1920s to 1950s) so perhaps my audience is more "old school" but it's certainly been very much worth my while. I do think that for your first book it's probably worthwhile to do both formats to see where your own particular market is and what it favors, and by what margin. I have the 2nd book in the series coming out next month (with help from "Self-Printed 2.o"!) so it'll be interesting to see if it follows along the same path.
This isn't about having an anti-paperback stance; it's about business, which is what is should always be about if you're planning on making a living from your books. Paperbacks just don't yield a return that's in any way relative to the effort it takes to produce them, or to keep them around. For instance I've unpublished the first edition of Self-Printed and created an entirely new paperback for the second one, leaving the first one out of print and for sale on Amazon for around a thousand dollars. People are emailing me accusing me of setting that price (??!?!?!) but it's the third party sellers -- there's nothing I or even Amazon can do about it. Then there's the issue of losing all my reviews; I've had to start from scratch again. If I'd just produced an e-book, all I'd have had to do is swap one file for the other.
But having said that, some books do do better in paperback that others - Self-Printed being my example. Most people want that in a physical book to refer to because it's so long. And in your case your readership might prefer the good old paperback. But your paperback Vs e-book split changes over time and I'd be very surprised if this time next year you weren't selling a heck of a lot more e-books than print.
Yes, perhaps "stance" wasn't the right word. Everything you say makes perfect sense and it will be interesting to see where my figures stand this time next year. As for the time it takes to make the paperback, I found the process making the paperback FAR easier than the ebook (and kind of fun, but that may just be me!) I followed your instructions to make an ebook (in "Self-Printed 1.0") and it worked about 95% of the way. But I had a problem with margins that I spent a horrible two weeks trying to fix but I just couldn't figure out for the life of me and I ended up paying someone to do it for me while I laid weakly in the couch like Camille and begged for medicinal chocolate. (That's actually not too much of an exaggeration, I'm embarrassed to say.) This time around, for my next book, I have Scrivener so it'll be a breeze. Thanks for everything you do, Catherine. Sharing your wisdom and experience with such humor sprinkled with a huge dollop of reality-check-ness is a huge help to use newbies!
I'm glad you found Scrivener for ebook formatting Martin - it is a life saver :) and makes everything a breeze!
I love the interview too. However, I don't agree with the printed version. My print book on amazon sells twice as much as the kindle version. The printing process was not painful either. I did it through CreateSpace and it was similar hassle like getting the Kindle formatting correct. The cost of creating the print version is very low, and it's good to have another option for all those people who don't Kindle.
I'm so glad you have had success with print Suzanna, but in terms of selling twice as much - are we talking into tens of thousands? I'd love to hear if you are as neither of us know any indies who are making significant income from print books - most are making $thousands from ebooks.
Johanna, far away from thousands of books. Marketing is my weakness---I don't do any, so the books are selling just kind of on "its own." However, it's been 2 years and consistently over the two years, it's 60-70% paper books, 30-40% Kindle books. My book is self-help, how to prevent pains and aches in the body and become fit without a gym membership. So I guess people want to have the physical copy for further reference to exercises? I just want to say that paper books are still worth printing, but maybe not for novels.
Excellent point Suzanna - I think non-fiction probably performs differently to novels and in fact, I am doing a barter arrangement with someone to coach them in marketing in exchange for formatting my non-fiction book for print. http://www.thecreativepenn.com/lovejob/
I don't want to do it myself but equally, I think self-help is useful in print - and in fact, the only print books I have nowadays are non-fiction :)
Bingo! Non-fiction self-help does much better in a printed format. Self-help computer books are similar. Ever try to read a self-help book on a Kindle or Nook? Not fun! I converted two of my print books to Kindle because I thought I was missing out on thousands of dollars. After two, I found out it wasn't worth the effort. You really have to look at your own situation and decide what your readers want. If I was publishing fiction, it would be ebooks all the way.
I loved the video and it made me think about when I wanted to produce my paperback version. It's my first novel and I want to hold it in my hands by this chrismas (my own little big gift).
So thanks so much and yes Catherine, Joanna is right, you are so funny.
Thanks Shaquanda! That is the number one reason for a paperback -- nothing is more exciting than getting the proof copy from CreateSpace. :-D
Two of my favourite bloggers together in the one post. Excellent. Having followed you both separately for a little while now, one thing I think your posts have in common is the positive, practical and friendly styles you have. Loved the video too. Thanks heaps.
Thanks Steven and I am certainly a fan of positivity - I'd hate to live in the negative world of people who see this exciting time as the end of publishing - when it's just a new beginning!