Lost released in October of 2023, so technically this is my second year in publishing. But given that I didn’t blog about the first year, I thought it might be nice to combine both years into one transparent little post for those who are interested, or other aspiring/working indie authors who might be curious. (And really, can three months be considered a year in publishing?)
Here’s a quick summary of what I’ll be talking about in this post:
- total royalties earned both years (and the breakdown of where they came from);
- expenses that came with publishing;
- marketing (or lack thereof), connections, and other opportunities;
- what I could/will be doing differently going forward.
So let’s jump straight into the main thing you probably want to know.
Royalties Earned (and the Breakdown)
All numbers are in Australian Dollars, and can vary by the US exchange rate, which is used by both Amazon KDP and IngramSpark.
Total Royalties:
2023: $34.95
2024: $102.97
2023 Breakdown:
Lost (released October, 2023):
ebook: $11.15
print: $13.57
KU reads: $10.23
Total KU Page Reads: 1,588
2024 Breakdown:
Lost:
ebook: $3.66
print: $15.00
KU reads: $7.92
In the Days Before (released October, 2024):
ebook: $32.34
print: $37.91*
KU reads: $6.14
Total KU Page Reads: 2,232
* All sales through KDP except one, which was sold via IngramSpark.
Expenses That Came With Publishing
I’ll likely do a tutorial on the publishing process itself at some point (since I’ve had a couple of people ask), but I first want to say this: you can absolutely publish a novel for $0. It’s just not recommended.
With that said, here’s what I spent on each of my novels in the process of publishing them. (Again, all figures in Australian Dollars.)
Lost:
cover artist: $244.90
ISBN: $24.99
Total: $269.89
In the Days Before:
cover artist:$322.86
editor: $574.75
FB advertising: $112
ISBN: $24.70
Total: $1,034.31
As you can see, I spent significantly more on my second novel than I did on the first. Lost was more about getting my feet wet and learning what I was going, while In the Days Before was a story I was more passionate about. This is also (mostly) why I didn’t spring for an editor on Lost. That novel is entirely self-edited, and I think it shows, but I’d decided to save my money for future releases, knowing my first would never be a success.
The Facebook/Instagram advertising was an experiment to see how it worked, and how successful it would be. As I doubt I’ll be doing a post on marketing anytime soon (since I’m still learning myself!), all I can say is this: great for gaining new followers on Instagram, not great for making sales. I did two rounds of one week of advertising.
My ISBNs were provided to me individually by the co-op publisher I decided to go with.
Marketing, Connections, and Other Opportunities
The biggest difference between my two releases was, I think, my attitude towards them. Every writer I know has Imposter Syndrome, and mine is crippling. From the moment I decided to publish Lost, I had my doubts about it. Despite being my favourite thing I’d written to date, I knew it wasn’t fantastic — and it certainly wasn’t what the market was devouring! But I went ahead with it anyway, because I knew if I didn’t take that first step, there could never be a second, a third, a fourth. And that’s what a journey is: taking that first step so others can follow.
Because of my doubts surrounding Lost and the fact that it wasn’t full of spicy scenes and a romantic subplot, I struggled to market it. Struggled so much that I basically didn’t market it at all. I would post the cover, the blurb, and eventually a trope map, but that was it. To this day, I haven’t done much more than that.
With In the Days Before, I experienced the same issue. It wasn’t to market. There was no romantic subplot (or it’s very, very subtle). So while I was looking at what was popular in terms of marketing indie books, I was finding myself at a loss. I couldn’t follow the trend of sharing spicy scenes or swoony dialogue. I didn’t have any. So I had to try different things instead.
I shared a trope map and a little “getting to know the characters” post, and two little reels trying to draw in some interest using mystery as the main theme. And again, that was pretty much it. I am 100% a victim of “I can’t follow the big trends, so I can’t do it.” And isn’t that pathetic? Silly me.
One thing I did right for my second release was send out eARCs (electronic Advance Reader Copies). For Lost, I didn’t want to spend the money and use a platform with secure ARC delivery, and I’d been so terrified of having my work stolen that I only sent out four — two to Wattpad book club members, one to a coworker, and one to a writer friend. Only the writer friend ever read and reviewed, and whilst a 25% success rate on getting reviews out of ARCs isn’t terrible, I won’t deny that I felt let down. So with In the Days Before, I finally bit the bullet and let anybody who wanted to sign up. I advertised on Instagram, TikTok, and in Facebook reader groups and had almost fifty people volunteer to ARC read for me. I took a risk and accepted them all.
(little) BIG SUCCESS. In more ways than I expected!
Of the people that ended up downloading the ARC, approximately half rated or reviewed across Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, and social media. And all of those reviews were good (mostly four and five stars, though I think I did get two threes). I managed to connect with a number of these readers on Instagram, and even now, months later, still happily talk to them and would be proud to call them friends. Most notably, I connected with fellow author Cynthia Brubaker who has been a source of great encouragement and even allowed me to ARC read her upcoming Of Hearts and Hunters (look for a review coming to the blog before the end of the month!), and with Chloe @thelabrarian_ who provided me the opportunity to take part in my first ever multi-author giveaway.
So, while my main reason for sending out ARCs was to gain reviews and (hopefully) readers, I got so much more than I ever expected.
Through Chloe, I connected with a handful of other incredible indie authors, and through them I’ve been able to find other opportunities: indie awards hosted by bookstagrammers, Stuff Your Kindle sign-ups, and promotion opportunities like book clubs and newsletters. I always knew making industry connections was a necessity in life, but I’d always been terrified of having to do it (see: major introvert). Never did I think “industry connections” could be translated to “friends”. Suddenly it doesn’t seem so daunting anymore.
What I Could/Will Do Differently
Since making the decision to give this indie author thing a real go, I’ve had to think on a number of things. Being an indie author isn’t just one thing. It’s an entire business. Unless you have the ability to outsource and hire people for everything, you need to be a writer, a publisher, a marketer, a designer, a formatter, a social media expert, and still have time to interact with people commenting on your posts — usually while holding down a day job and having some semblance of a social life in the real world. So I’ve started looking at the mistakes I made, the areas I need to improve on, and the things I need to learn.
What I Could Have Done Differently
The main thing I could have done differently for my first two releases? Market.
I relied too much on looking at the trends that were coming across my own social media feeds, and 99.9% of them were for spicy romances. This is because most of the people I follow/am followed by came from follow posts on Facebook reader groups, and a majority of these readers are mostly interested in this genre. I don’t mind the occasional spicy romance (I’m reading Her Soul to Take by Harley Laroux at present and LOVING it for its plot), but seeing all of this being advertised across my feeds and feeling like I couldn’t do something similar with my own books was disheartening.
What I should have done was seek out people writing in the same genre as me (YA mystery) and see what they were doing in terms of marketing. Were there other trends I could have followed? Could I have done newsletter swaps with someone? Likewise, when did I decide that trends were the only way to advertise things? I’m a creator, dammit. So why didn’t I come up with my own unique ways of advertising my works? (Because I had become blinded by social media trends and fitting in, that’s why.)
What else would I have done differently? Put more of a romantic subplot into In the Days Before.
While I dislike romance as a genre itself, I love a decent romantic subplot. When I think on all my favourite books, there’s always one there. But I’ve never been good at writing them. There is one in In the Days Before, I swear, but it’s so subtle than even when I reread my own book I miss it. Because I was more focused on the mystery aspect, on the plot itself, than on the characters and the relationships between them. And for that I’m calling myself out as a bad writer. In my own eyes, neither of my novels have been perfect. They feel unfinished. Someday I might come back and redo them.
But for now, going forward, I’m working on becoming a better writer.
I’ve been writing for more than twenty years, but that by no means makes me an expert. I started out writing fanfiction at eleven, and wrote it right into my twenties in between all the original stories I was also working on. I’ve retired that particular hobby now, but I will never look down on fanfiction authors. I learned so much from writing it, even if it wasn’t obvious in the moment.
But now I’m turning my attention to books on the craft of writing. I’ve read Stephen King’s On Writing cover to cover in the past. I’ve studied a number of editing books for a short course I did on that. Lately, I’ve been working my way through Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, and I have learned one thing for certain: no matter how long I do this writing thing, there is always going to be something more to learn. Isn’t that wonderful?
What I Will Be Doing Differently
I don’t want to be the kind of author who strictly writes to market. I simply cannot write that fast, and I have little interest in writing hardcore smut, which is definitely the trend at the moment. That’s not to say I will never write explicit scenes, but you’re also not going to get an erotica out of me. Instead, I want to find a middle ground.
That’s what I’m trying to do with my upcoming project: wisteria. I want it to be something I’m passionate about whilst also being something I can market to common trends. For the first time in a long time, I’m going to attempt to write romance as a bigger part of my story. I’m still entirely undecided on whether I will attempt an explicit scene. I plan on trusting my instincts as I write, and deciding in the moment once I reach it. So your guess is as good as mine as to whether or not it will happen.
I’m bringing back an old story that fits the market. I haven’t discussed project: junebug much (keep an eye out on my socials later this month), but this story from my back catalogue is the closest thing I have to fitting the market at present. I’m going to be completely rewriting it (because it’s from my teens to early twenties and definitely needs it), and hopefully by the time it’s ready to drop it will still find a home in the hearts of readers.
It’s important for me to note I’m not only bringing it back to try to fit a trend. I very much consider this story my unfinished business (I’ve tried to write it four times and never quite got it right), and I’ve always intended to come back to it. It’s happy luck that I have something fully planned that could be considered writing to the market.
And speaking of the market, I’m going to learn about marketing. This is the big one. This will be a quiet year for me in terms of publishing, so I’ll be dedicating my time to learning other skills needed to be successful.
Lastly, hopefully I’m going to keep making connections. Also known as making friends, because it’s been so wonderful getting to know people in these bookish spaces, and I’m so looking forward to making more!
So there we have it, a (not-so) little summary of my first year in publishing. She’s a little disjointed, but you get the picture.
I welcome any questions, and would love for others to share their experiences!
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