Forums » Smalltalk » AMA: self published author

Hi! As some of you may know, I'm a self published author. I've been published since 2021, but writing long before then.

Ask me anything!

You can also ask me about:

Crochet
Being on the board of a small creative based nonprofit.

What kind of motivation did you have to write your own book?

How did you come to decide what the story would be for your first book?

What advice would you give to someone who wants to take the dive into becoming a self published author and what kind of tools do they need?

I struggle with crochet, my hands simply do not want to cooperate and I'm only able to get one or two stitches in.
Any tips for crocheters like me who struggle with beginner lessons?

I would recommend starting with weight 4 or 5 yarn and using two sizes up from what the packaging size you should use for hook size.

Wearing compress gloves is also really helpful if you get hand pain while crocheting.

Don't feel discouraged, practice chaining for a while if that's the easiest for you.

Writing my first book I published took about a year, but drafting, editing, more editing, took a total of five years. Granted I was writing other books during that time as well. Taking lots of breaks and then getting back to it. I took like a two years break before I actually finished editing it and then publishing it in 2021. The motivation was really high in the beginning, and then definitely got really low and I went through some hard times.

All the other books since have taken about 4-6 months from first draft to publishing, some of the shorter ones 2-3 months.

I had written other books before it, mostly fanfic, but a few unfinished originals, especially as a teenager. I had some plots I liked from all of those, combined with ideas from really old RP that went dead several years before. I decided to write something that included all those things I liked and of course I wanted to publish it. I kind of got stuck in the idea that it had to be the first thing I published. I didn't want to move on and publish something else and then go back to it. But I still wrote other things when I got stuck with it.

Save some money.

You can get by on a limit budget but you need a budget of some kind.

Atticus: $147 one time payment, ebook and print formatting program. It's browser based so can be used on any device. Takes something that would normally take hours, days, sometimes even weeks, and be costly to hire someone else to do, and turns it into something you can do yourself in an hour, less if you are not as picky as I am.

PWA: $120 for prowritingaid a year which is a really good self-editing tool. (including AI features, but I don't use them.)

I would recommend these at the least, but if you can only get one, Atticus.

ARC readers: when you're done with your book, and it's on preorder or about to be published, you want to use a website like booksprout to give out Advanced Reader Copies of your book. This allows people to read your book before it comes out, for free, in exchange for leaving a review. This will make sure you have at least a couple reviews when the book comes out. There's a few different plans on booksprout, the cheapest I believe is $10 for a month, which is all you really need. Pay 1 month every time you need arc readers. Open it up for 10-20 ARC readers. You'll likely get 2-3 reviews from that, maybe more. about 10% of people actually leave a review, but sometimes you get lucky.

Marketing: Create social media presence while you're still writing your book. My suggestion is tiktok. Booktok is very large and excited about new releases.

Publishing Options:

Ingram Spark: publishing through ingram spark will basically send your book out to all the platforms for you. This is the most popular choice. Your books will be able to get into physical stores at their request, and into the library systems in the US. (if you're in the US.)

D2D: this is similar to ingram spark but they don't have as big of a reach, their print publishing is less accepted by stores, and they seem to have a hard time getting books into library systems.

Publishing to sites individually: You can publish to Amazon via Kindle Direct Publishing, Barnes and Noble via Barnes and Noble Press, and Google Play via Google Publishing. This is more work, less reach, you don't get into library systems. BUT you can choose just one of them, stick to marketing that platform, and Amazon is the most popular platform. Regardless of which option you choose, you'll likely sell the most on Amazon anyway.

For some of my books, especially very romance heavy, I choose only Amazon so I can enroll my book into Kindle Unlimited where people can read my book as part of their subscription and I get paid per page read.


ISBNs: these days most publishing platforms will provide you an ISBN for free, but it's tied to their platform specifically. ISBN's are required to publish your book and you need one per format of your book. So an ebook, paperback and hardcover would require 3 isbns. In the US they cost over $100 per ISBN, but get cheaper the more you buy. In other countries they cost less, or like in Canada, are free. You don't HAVE to buy your own, especially if you use ingram spark, they provide you with all you need for free. However, some people feel more comfortable buying their own so they own them outright.


Covers: If you intend on making your own covers, spend several hours a day practicing making covers, remake your idea over and over again. The cover is one of the most important things. It will make or break whether people scroll away or click and check it out, and potentially buy.

Never use AI. Using AI will get you even less buyers than than a poorly made human cover. People DO not like it, and it's bad for everyone involved.

If you have no artistic faith in yourself, or you just aren't able to do what you want, premade covers are your friend.

thebookcoverdesigner has pretty good covers in the $80-$200 range. Be careful, check for AI use, and ask friends for opinions.

Searching for premade book covers in your genre, and checking out various artists portfolios if a good idea. You can definitely find a good one for under $200. Don't trust the ones under $40 unless they're on sale and the artists portfolio looks well made.

Deposit photos is good for getting stock photos, they usually have pretty good deals.


Of course you can absolutely hire someone to edit and format your book, to create your cover from scratch, and do your marketing for you. But the budget for that would be several thousand dollars.

You can get all of the things I mentioned above for about $500, and many of them would be able to be used for future books, like Atticus and ProWritingAid, credits on Deposit Photos.

Preorder: I recommend not setting up a preorder until you're at the very least on the very final proofreading pass. I also recommend not making your preorder longer than 2 weeks. Tuesdays and Saturdays are the best days to release a book.

Here's my pricing for my books, I write in the erotic romance genre. If you write in a more literary genre or straight fantasy, you're going to be able to add maybe $2-3 to these prices.

eBook:
Under 10k $1.99
10k-30k $2.99
30k-65k $3.99
65k-95k $4.99
95k-120k $5.99
120k+ $6.99

Paperbacks: +10$
Hardcovers: +16$

Is there anything you can suggest to improve your writing skills?

Try writing in a genre you normally don't write in. A style or voice you don't usually write in. Maybe even one you're intimidated by.

If you tend to write in 3rd person, try writing something in 1st, and vice versa. If you usually write contemporary try writing high fantasy or sci-fi. If you usually write those, write contemporary.

This is great advice! Thanks for the answer!

Oooo, I've always wanted to publish my own book in the future, so the advice you've offered is perfect!

My question is do you have anything that's helped if you were ever in a writing slump? That's what's always seemed to stop me from writing. I'd get to a certain point where my brain would not want to write anymore and I'd end up never completing the stories I have in my head.

Sometimes pushing through works for me, and sometimes taking a few weeks break and then reading through what I wrote helps.

What usually helps is taking a shower, eating, then trying again.

Have you have a fan experience yet in regards to your published works?

Hmm. In person no. But a few people have made tiktoks about one specific series of mine that is the most popular. I've asked people to make tiktoks before, like people who do reviews or author shares. But these people just read my books and made a video about it! I wasn't even tagged in a couple of them, I just happened to find them! 🥹 They have all been very nice and supportive.

And this podcast called Cheap Smut did a an episode about my novelette "Not Alone on Christmas" last year, completely of their own accord. And I was like absolutely shocked!! They messaged me recently that they're doing one on my aforementioned series (that's too spicy to mention here) soon and asked me about my pronouns so they get it right for the episode since this series is under a different penname. I'm amazed to get multiple episodes about my books on this podcast!!

Congratulations for your hard work, dedication, and skill!

I'm working on my first longform piece of writing and wow it is difficult!

1. Did you always know you were going to self publish? Did you investigate other options? What are the pros of self publishing in your experience?

2. How do you plan and write? Do you take time to outline carefully or are you more of a pantser making it up as you go? (I'm the latter)

3. What's the single most rewarding thing about being an author?

Thank you so much!! Congrats on working on your own first piece!

I did always know I was going to self publish. There was a moment there as a teenager where I imagine submitting to a big publisher, getting accepted, and being famous - but as I got older I realized that was incredibly unlikely. In general, but also just for me and the stories I tell. Which are primarily very queer and very much not the inside the box, guarantied to sell to the general public, things that traditional publishers are usually looking for.

I did and have looked at some traditional publishers over the years. I've considered submitting to one of the Harlequin sub-categories in the future if I write something that might fit.
But really I just want as much say-so with my books as possible. I want to be able to decide on the cover, the formatting, and not have to change plot or things about the books or characters unless I really want to. With traditional publishing, if your editor or publisher says 'we want you to change this' you have to fight pretty hard if you don't want to, and often times you don't win on that unless you're an already well established author with them and have leverage. Not to mention many trad publishers are implementing AI use.

Pro's of self publishing in my experience:

As mentioned, control over my work from top to bottom. I decide everything, whether the plot includes something socially stigmatized or not, if I want to write it, I can. If I want the cover to be a bear riding an elephant, I can do that. I can freely choose not to use AI in any part of my work.

Everything is on my own time, my own schedule. If I'm particularly exhausted and just can't get writing done some days, I don't push myself to get it done anyway. While it can be difficult to stick to a self-set schedule and deadline, for me it also makes me feel confident in myself when I succeed at leading myself with no one else making me do something or keeping me in line. (Other than accountability partners of course!)

Decide that I don't really like an idea after all? I can stop writing it and do something else. I've not promised anyone the idea/book, and it's not set in stone. There's no contract that says I have to write xyz thing whether I want to or not. (Now, I do, do ghost writing as well, though I only just have my first contract. That is a different ball game entirely.)

I decide my prices, which in turn decides how much in royalties I get from different publishing platforms. It also means I can lower the price of my book for libraries specifically. Trad publishers often charge more for libraries to get copies of books, and while I understand the reasoning, I'd rather my books be cheaper for libraries.

I can choose what platforms I publish to! Which means if I really disagree with how a certain platform (or store) does things, I can choose not to tell my books there.

Really a lot of it is just having so much control over everything. Everything is my decision and no one elses.

Generally I outline pretty thoroughly. I do an outline that is sort of just drain dumping from beginning to middle to end, with scene ideas, general things, and then I go through and flesh that all out into chapters. There's some room to add and change things as I go though.

Occasionally however, I just run with an idea and see how long I can go flying by the seat of my pants before I need to outline some. Usually I can only go a few chapters before I just HAVE to write things down for future chapters because my brain just thinks so far ahead.

Seeing/hearing about people enjoying my book, getting happiness and feeling emotion because of it. It's only happened a few times, but it makes me feel so...warm and fuzzy. While I need to make money from my work to survive, I do have a genuine passion for writing, and I just want people to have a good time with reading my books.

WOW thank you so much for all of these detailed responses!

I love your approach and your reasoning. I love to see that you've managed to build something and find an audience that you resonate with. What a beautiful thing ❤️

And thank you for your thoughts about self publishing. That makes a lot of sense and is food for thought for me.

How does one get on a board like this?

Well, in my case, be on the leadership team of a group that decides to become a nonprofit!

Basically, my former local NaNoWriMo region, of which I was on the leadership team for, decided to part ways with the organization NaNoWriMo this year and become our own nonprofit, under our own control and such. For several reasons, but one of those being concerns with not being able to take donations anymore. Donations that allow us to hold writing events both small and large, have raffles and prizes at those events, and create fun things for our group like posters, bookmarks, buttons, stickers, t-shirts, ect!

When I joined leadership in January of this year, my very first time attending a meeting was actually the meeting in which we discussed if we wanted to become a nonprofit, what the pros and cons would be, what our name would be, etc. Many other meetings happened afterward, and we just recently got our official nonprofit status from the Government/IRS even though in the state we don't have to file to act as a nonprofit, you do need to for tax purposes and for nonprofit insurance.

I went from being a volunteer helper of the regional NaNoWriMo group, to being a volunteer trustee on the board of directors of this nonprofit! I'm also 1/2 of the social media committee.

Our purpose is:

1. Encourage and support local [redacted] creatives in their work, especially in the creation of their rough drafts;
2. Organize events to create community amongst local creatives and further motivate their progress; and
3. Allocate funds to support the above goals and other organizations with similar local creative goals.

While we are a primarily a local organization, we welcome people from all over the world in our online venues. Same goes for more than just writers! We have people who are painting, crocheting, and editing!

Hi! I was going to ask a couple questions, but you answered them in your reply to Ben.
I'll ask if there is a list of your works somewhere? Goodreads maybe?

Hi! Thank you for asking, there is less. I have multiple pen names (for flavor, not for privacy), but I try to get them all connected on one Goodreads account. Most of my work is very explicit 18+ but I have one thing that isn't, so keep that in mind!

here's my goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21636360.D_M_Winters