Self-publishing
and Expectations
Arctic
Wargame,
my debut spy thriller, came out officially on May 22, although I
uploaded it on Amazon.com a few days before that date, just to make
sure everything worked fine. I promoted my work extensively on my
Facebook personal page (which has almost 200 friends) and Facebook
author page and my Twitter account. I e-mailed pretty much everyone
on my e-mail contact lists. I put up posters at my workplace and
announced it on the newsletter of the church I attend. The result: I
can count the book sales from this blitzkrieg with the fingers of one
hand.
What
is happening here? Why aren’t these people who I consider friends
and close acquaintances buying my book? They don’t love me? They
don’t care? What, then?
You
may have wondered about these things if your experience is similar to
mine. The answer to these questions is complicated and lies as much
in your expectations as in the reaction of your friends and
relatives.
In
terms of expectation, there is nothing wrong with aiming high and
dreaming big. But self-published writers need to brace themselves for
the most likely scenario of a slow start of their career. Gaining
recognition and gathering a readership is generally a marathon, not a
sprint. Even many traditionally published authors attest to many
difficult starts. Allow yourself time and be prepared for a long
journey. Nurse patience and develop a hard skin for negative
criticism and rejection.
In
terms of your friends and relatives, they are not really to blame. At
least not en
masse.
They love you, of course, each in their own way. Some of them are
forgetful, fully intending to check out your work, but then life got
in their way. Others simply are non-confrontational and do not want
to tell you they are simply not interested in the genre in which you
write. After all, we have different tastes and what you spent a year
or more writing, re-writing and revising may just not be their cup of
tea. Then, you could even have the occasional acquaintance or
“friend,” who considers your success as a threat or resents it
for whatever reason and has has no intention of supporting your
efforts.
The
bottom line is that even if all your friends and acquaintances bought
your book, that is still quite a limited number. The goal of each
author is to sell to complete strangers, who pick up your book solely
because they heard something good about it, and they want to enjoy a
great story. Then, if they like it, they will want to tell their
friends about your work.
During
the first few days that Arctic
Wargame
and my two short stories were published I used to check my sales and
ranking almost every hour. Now I check it once a month, just to
make sure some activity is taking place. I promote my work
vigorously and I advise you do the same. We can’t control who buys
our books, but there is something we can all control: how much
promotion and marketing efforts we put on our products. I know we are
writers, but self-published authors have the additional task of
becoming salespersons. We need to take our work to the public and
hope and pray they will enjoy our stories.
And
don’t forget to keep writing. Perhaps your second, third or
twentieth book will become a best-seller. At least, that’s my hope.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Ethan Jones is the author of Arctic Wargame—the first spy thriller in the Justin Hall series, released in May 2012, and Tripoli’s Target—the second book in this series, released on October 4, 2012. He has also published several short stories. Ethan is a lawyer by trade. He lives in Canada with his wife and son.
Links
Ethan's blog: http://ethanjonesbooks.wordpress.com is the place to learn about his future works, to enjoy exclusive book reviews and author interviews.
Follow Ethan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EthanJonesBooks
His Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ethan-Jones/329693267050697
Ethan loves readers' feedback. They can get in touch with him via e-mail at this address: fictionwriter78@yahoo.com . He promises to write to each and every one of them.
His works works can be found here:
Your experience is much like mine, and I think you're right on the money about reasons and expectations. We just keep writing, keep publishing, and keep hoping something will break for us. luck you, of course.
ReplyDeleteCharles, don't you have some tests to grade. ;-)
ReplyDelete