[Me, just after I had self-published my first book, back in 2019, and holding my first print copy of it!]
Big news! I'm now returning to self-publishing all of my books!
From 2019 to 2023, my first four books were self-published on Amazon. One of them, my poetry book, still is.
About three years ago I signed with a small press, GladEye Press. Since that time they've republished three of my self-published books under their imprint, and published a fourth. They were set to release a fifth book (a paranormal thriller entitled The Parable of Sam).
However, disagreements about low sales by them, the late publication date of my next book (which not only missed Halloween sales, but now the holiday sales as well), and their continued attempts to use AI on my book covers, has led us to separate our ways. All rights to my books are reverted back to me and they are unpublishing their versions of my books.
But I'm happy with this decision. Why? Because it means I have full control over every aspect again, and I've learned a great deal about the publication process and marketing in the last three years since I signed with them. I've acquired skills useful in all aspects of the writing and publication process.
I had signed with them in order to help with distribution of my books to bookstores, but it wasn't working out. But back then, I was self-published on Amazon, which I later found out bookstores don't order from and see as a threatening competitor. They prefer to order from a distributor called Ingram. The publisher also did book covers and editing, which saved me money. But in return, of course, I get a much smaller royalty than publishing on Amazon.
Well, Ingram has a self-publishing platform called Ingramspark, and if I self-publish my books there, the books will be orderable by bookstores! So I don't need the publisher to do that for me. Ingramspark also has a marketing service that I may be able to use. My author copies will also be 15% cheaper than with my publisher, which will save me hundreds of dollars for selling at the three dozen or so in-person author table events I do each year. Publishing there is a very similar process to publishing on Amazon.
The drawback is money, of course. Like every self-employed business, you have to spend money to make money. That means money up front, for profits later. I need to purchase new ISBN numbers for my books, which will cost around $575 for the package that I need (which will give me full rights to sell my books on any platform, including my own webpage marketplace). I bought out the remaining copies of my books from GladEye Press, which was $405. I also need to make two new book covers, which will be hundreds of dollars more. All of these things were unforeseen and thus unbudgeted for, threatening to disrupt my author business. And I have more fun books coming, which will cost money to publish, as well. Being a full-time author, I don't have the funds to throw at these things. Books don't have high profit margins!
So I'm asking for your help as my most loyal readers. If you'd like to help, go to my Ko-Fi account where you can contribute a few dollars to help me afford to make more books for your entertainment. And that's a great thing! You, my loyal readers, mean the world to me!
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