The Lonely World of Self-Publishing

The world of the self-publisher can be a lonely one, I like so many others have enjoyed sitting down and writing out my thoughts as to how to conduct my particular business activity, or in-fact as I have done more recently, writing a completely fictional story, but the hardest thing we will ever do is getting someone else to read what we write.

I had always had an interest in writing, but never thought I would have the patience to write a book myself, it wasn't until going to university as a mature student that I found I had an ability to write for any period of time. Every 1500 word essay you start to realise could just be another chapter in a book, so I set about achieving just that goal with my first book '8 Simple Steps to Business Development.' I am slightly ashamed to say that for a book that had only 10,000 words, it took me around eight months to write. But I did it, I had achieved something I never thought possible and although it may not have been the best writing I have ever done, it was the first book I finished. The only thing now was what do I do with it?

I probed around for a little bit trying to find a publisher who would take me on and initially I had interest from Bloomsbury, however as often happens the person I was dealing with moved to a new position in another company and in this case another country, unfortunately the person who took over her work never picked mine up again. So again I was halted, I began the process of self-publishing the book, being so proud I opted for having the book in print as well as digital, I spent my money and created something I felt happy with. The problem was there was still only me reading the book, I utilised social media, friends, family and colleagues but couldn't really get the book to make much of a splash, but it's out there and whenever I sell a copy of this book I am always very pleased.

I never lost hope though, so I continued to write, this time focussing mainly on a fictional book, but the complexity of the story kept making me stop, it was so much easier when it was writing facts and figures that I knew from life rather than making up a story that had to flow and have continuity, so again I stopped. Eventually I picked up the idea from a book I was reading to write a quick book in a short amount of time, dedicating a certain amount of time each day, with the idea that I could write the book in a week. So I tried, it didn't go quite to plan, but my next book took about two months to do 10,000 words, I was speeding up. I released this under a different name as I wanted at that point to keep fact and fiction separate and again I self published, this time only digitally. I utilised social media again, finding my best response was from Twitter, but the biggest responses I was getting was when I offered the book free.  Still struggling to get much investment financially from customers, but it was making head way.

So excited by the new pace of this I opted to go for another book, going back to my business routes, 'Do you know who your customers are?' I stormed through the book having it completed in just two weeks and this one was 15,000 words, writing about things I knew with my changed state of mind and approach had taught me that I could write quickly and the possibility of becoming a full time writer and self-publisher was an achievable goal, there was one thing still bothering me though, how do I get customers to buy these books?

When I started off this post I said that being a self-publisher could be lonely, this is what I meant, I have written a number of books now, each one being more popular and out-selling the previous one of it's type, but it is a slow process and unlike Publishing houses who spend lots of money to let everyone know about the book and the author, us self pubs have a much slower process where we speak and no-one answers.

So with my latest book 'Retaliation' the first novel in my 'Earth Reclamation Force' series I have decided to up the game, I cannot justify publishing house money for marketing, neither would I want to, but I am investing some money and a lot of time with the most aggressive campaign I have put together for a book. Starting a little over 6 months before the release of the book, (of which I am about one third of the way through now) I have the social media sites up and running for the book, I issued a press release about the upcoming launch a small animated teaser trailer for the campaign. I have kept the social media buzz going over the Christmas period when I have now just  released a trailer to demonstrate the concept of the book, the upcoming plans are to put out a second press release with the official date of availability, provide a sneak peek of the cover art for the novel, followed by constant reminders and updates about the progress, the story and the release.

 

What I have given myself more than anything is time, which I believe is what's needed. I still may speak and have no-one answer, but at least this time I will be shouting rather than giving a little whisper like I was before. In the words of the Rob Thomas song, 'I don't want to be lonely no more.'

Retaliation the first book in the ERF series will be released on the 6th May 2016, on paperback and e-book. More information about the book can be found on the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ERFfans/
New trailer for Retaliation can be found https://youtu.be/F9Idox_7i2o
Written by Martin Wallace
Date; 28/01/2016