Well, it has been two weeks since I published my first book Willakaville. I have learned quite a bit along the way.
Some things were easier than I thought they would be. I never imagined that you could self-publish to so many places and so easily. You just fill out the forms and upload your file. The difficult part was getting the format correct. But once I figured that out, the rest was not too bad. Now, all my files are set up for the next book.
I did not realize how much time you need to promote your book. I have been spending hours researching blogs, marketing ideas, news channels, creating a blog and Facebook page and keeping them updated. It is almost a full time job. Then you need to contact the news media, other bloggers, beg people to review your book, submit author interviews, find people to connect with on Twitter. I still haven't figured it all out yet, but I think I have a good start. Hopefully, I can get to the point where it only takes a few minutes a day to maintain all of it.
Writing and illustrating the book was the fun part. It took me about six months total. The boring part is going back and reading and editing, re-editing and re-re-editing. My book probably could use even more edit work, but at some point you say enough is enough. I am really hoping to get some reviews back so that I know how I did. Friends and family have said it is good, but that doesn't really count (nobody wants to tell their friend that their book is horrible).
In all, it has been fun and I have learned a great deal about publishing and promoting a book. I am still learning, but I am open to sharing any of my knowledge with anyone who asks. I will also try to add informative links over there ------->
Have a good one - Matt
Some things were easier than I thought they would be. I never imagined that you could self-publish to so many places and so easily. You just fill out the forms and upload your file. The difficult part was getting the format correct. But once I figured that out, the rest was not too bad. Now, all my files are set up for the next book.
I did not realize how much time you need to promote your book. I have been spending hours researching blogs, marketing ideas, news channels, creating a blog and Facebook page and keeping them updated. It is almost a full time job. Then you need to contact the news media, other bloggers, beg people to review your book, submit author interviews, find people to connect with on Twitter. I still haven't figured it all out yet, but I think I have a good start. Hopefully, I can get to the point where it only takes a few minutes a day to maintain all of it.
Writing and illustrating the book was the fun part. It took me about six months total. The boring part is going back and reading and editing, re-editing and re-re-editing. My book probably could use even more edit work, but at some point you say enough is enough. I am really hoping to get some reviews back so that I know how I did. Friends and family have said it is good, but that doesn't really count (nobody wants to tell their friend that their book is horrible).
In all, it has been fun and I have learned a great deal about publishing and promoting a book. I am still learning, but I am open to sharing any of my knowledge with anyone who asks. I will also try to add informative links over there ------->
Have a good one - Matt
