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From the eBook side of things you can upload your book - however good it is - to Amazon and sell it in Kindle format. You can do the same on the site Smashwords for alternative eBook formats like the Nook and Kobo (I think).

 

It's really hard to get sales because there are so many self-publishers out there with work of varying degrees of quality. That means that readers have to trawl through a lot of rubbish to get to the good stuff.

 

But there are things you can do to make it look more professional:

 

Update social media - use the hashtag #amwriting on Twitter, set up a professional looking Facebook page.

 

Have your work edited and proofread. If you google Kindleboards Writer's Cafe there is a Yellow pages with people you can contact for hire. Or you could ask a beta reader to read your work in exchange for you reading theirs. That's a free way of doing it. Also google Authonomy which is a site where you can upload your work for comments.

 

Pay an artist to make your book cover. Book covers are absolutely vital. I really think this is where you need to do a lot of research and be willing to part with cash.

 

Research your genre. Is it popular? What do the covers look like? What do the blurbs sound like? How will your book stand out?

 

Get on Goodreads. Upload your cover, get validated as an author and post in the groups relevant to your book. Generate a bit of a buzz. You can operate giveaways on there too.

 

Send out your book for reviews before it is published. It depends on the genre you write but there are loads and loads of book bloggers out there. Contact them and see if their are interested in reading your book. Then you can line up your reviews to come out around the publishing date. Reviews are vital for readers. Readers are suspicious of books on Amazon without reviews.

 

Look up print on demand services for paperbacks. I'm using Feed a Read but apparently Create Space are better.

 

Lastly, it's a lot of hard work and you might find yourself fighting for every facebook like and twitter follower. It's lonely self-publishing and you might find that the writing community on certain forums can be less than friendly! Keep up the momentum and ignore the nay-sayers (to a point. You don't want to blindly ignore good advice). The more positive you are about your book the more it will rub off on potential buyers.

 

I've only just started out so will have to report back with sales and pricings.

 

And, no, I've never been published by Bloomsbury! I don't think I'd be posting on here if I had! Haha!

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The information on here is valuable, thank you all!

 

But no one has mentioned Lulu, thats a small on demand publisher which prints your work for you using one of their own templates (hard back or soft back, trade size or custom).

 

I have written a book through a publisher (ghost stories) but like many others found it to be very expensive and royalties are a joke (not a funny one either).

 

I know Lulu used to be called 'vanity press' but many authors use it to do proofs of their work that costs them little (under a fiver usually) and it helps to see the work in a book format you can see on a shelf one day.

 

Have a look at the rules of submitting to agents and what they ask for is what they want, you have to know when they're taking submissions and when you're going to be headed for the slush pile.

 

If you're serious you need to be serious about what you're doing and put the relevant time aside to do it well. I've found that the hardest part of all, finding the time in between normal life to get things finished.

 

Thanks for the advice on here, it is welcomed!

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Cheers Ghosthare22. I've heard about Lulu but wasn't sure how it worked. Are they like Feed a Read and Create Space in that they sell your books and send you the royalties?

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Just an update about Smashwords. You will find that you don't really sell any books on Smashwords but the goal is to be made part of their premium catalogue which they distribute to the big book stores in America (eBook format) like Barnes and Noble, Apple iBooks and more.

 

It's taken me about a week to get to premium status which has included me making a few changes to the format of my book. It really does need to be formatted perfectly, no tabs and extra spaces, you need to know your stuff on Word. Then they convert the Word document to different formats like mobi, Epub, PDF and HTML - which can be used on different devices and so on.

 

It takes a lot of time but let's hope it's worth it!

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I went the smashwords route as well, you're right Sarah, it's a bit of a pain. I then uploades the same doc to kindle and that was quite straight forward. So I'd say once you've gone through the smashwords route then go kindle, not the other way round.

 

I've had 4 smashwords sales and 7 on kindle, not a lot but there you go.

 

As an update I've got about 30 hard copies left and am about to be reviewed in the Rotherham advertiser, derby evening telegraph, amber valley voice and a spot on a daytime show on radio Derby.(topical issue, being the closure of so many pubs)

 

My fear is that if any of those go well I could be caught with my pants down as it were with more sales than copies available.

 

My printer can turn round in 4 working days, so it might not be such a problem, but I'd hate to let people down.

 

As an aside I've now worked out that the ratio of website visits to generated sales is only about 1% ie people I don't actually know buying the book.

 

Not sure how that figure rates and I'm beggining to think that my website is not up to scratch. Feedback welcome.

 

Gary

http://www.deathoftheregular.com

 

Gary

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Lulu will publish and sell your books both as kindle (I think) and list you on Amazon, that is if you pick them as your distributor, they'll even sell you an isbn as well.

 

Basically they'll give you the entire publishing package without an agent or large publishing house taking their percentage. I know people it's worked out for and I know those who it hasn't but it's worth knowing about even if it's just to get a copy of your book in paperback so you can send it to publishers/agents if they request a manuscript copy.

 

Lulu will send you royalties or what you sell through them and Amazon and Kindle, seems a good go for those of us who are just setting out and don't have the cash to spend on private printers. Glad to help.

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Gary I think your website looks fine but I'm not familiar with your genre or how to sell it. You could do some research into other local history type books and what their websites look like. You might find that your other promo stuff sells the book more, like what you're doing with the Rotherham Advertiser.

 

Have you approached the Waterstones in town? They have a local interest section. You might find that the majority of the books you sell are hard copies.

 

I think the majority of my readers are going to be American. American teenagers love the genre I write in, so for me it's going to be ebooks. I've sold 4 ebooks on Amazon so far but I've not formally announced the release yet. I'm still waiting for Feed A Read to get the printers ready for the paperbacks.

 

Ghosthare - it sounds like CreateSpace and Feed A Read. I'm not sure you need to pay for an ISBN though. I got one free at Feed a Read and Smashwords. The only think I've had to pay for at Feed a Read is a distribution cost and some revision costs.

 

I think Lulu might be cheaper when buying a proof though. It cost me £5.55 for my book with £3 p&p on top! I was a tad miffed about that.

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I'm in the middle of finalising Without Prejudice for Createspace and kindle. This is the sequel to Holding Briefs which came out on kindle last year.

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@Hopman Awesome! Have you got links to them? Did you self publish?

 

I've set up a new website for my novel: http://www.theblemished.com with the links to the ebook. Still waiting on the paperback - grrrr.

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On kindle:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Holding-Briefs-ebook/dp/B004N6371Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345211757&sr=8-1

 

In paperback:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Holding-Briefs-1-Andrew-Calow/dp/1478122757/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1345211757&sr=8-5

 

And since you ask, I did self publish. Since I published first on to kindle and only recently in paperback, there are two different entries. As for the content of the novels, the only difference is that the paperback includes the ISBN number inside, but this is omitted in the kindle version.

 

One problem I did find was that going via kindle, my initial cover was an upright image with text superimposed. When i went to paperback, I used the Createspace Cover creator and needed a square image (approx 2" square).

 

I also included the first few pages of a draft of the sequel (with a warning that this was taken from a draft and may not be exactly as in the final version).

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Hopman,

Where did you get your isbn for the paperback from.

The isbn thing has completely flummoxed me.

 

Gary

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Hopman,

Where did you get your isbn for the paperback from.

 

 

Gary

 

Hi Gary,

You can get it through Createspace which is the cheap option.

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