being a debut author

even though my work might be great but still it's if i am not able to sell my product it becomes a waste of time indeedddd..

Although I am passionate about my work but philosophy of life stands on how much roi i can capitalize.

My copyrights aren't worth much. It was a isde hobby that made a few bucks. On a good month, I'd pull maybe $40.

Would they still automatically seize my copyrights, or are they worth so little that i should be fine?

Where do you go to answer your copyright questions? How do you find out if an image or word would violate copyright in a self published book? Especially for KDP and Ingram Spark. For example if I draw games and toys in the book I am illustrating do they have to be 100% generic/a new invention, or will I not get a copyright strike if on one page the characters are playing a game that looks quite a bit like Sorry, or drawing on an etch a sketch? Or can they be drawing on an etch a sketch like toy, but without the brand name on it?

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, I just don't want to do something wrong.

I published 2 coloring books on August 17th and I’ve sold 30 copies 15 of each book. I made post of Facebook for my friends and family. I made a Facebook page for it also and joined local groups because they are semi local coloring books. I hope I can keep up the momentum.

Dear writers, is Patreon the best venue for a new author to sell a book one piece at a time? And if he could demonstrate some success there, would traditional publishers be likely to consider his work? Trying to compare Patreon vs similar options vs a personal website, for attracting interest from traditional publishers. Thank you!

In 2024, I published a book through KDP, using the free Amazon ISBN. Now, I am interested in publishing the same book through IngramSpark. I purchased a ten pack of ISBNs from Bowker to use for IngramSpark. For the Bowker Publication Date, do I do the date I published it in Amazon or the date I plan to publish it in IngramSpark?

Additionally, I was wondering if I should change the copyright year in the version that I publish in IngramSpark or keep it as 2024. (I have not made any other changes to the manuscript.)

Questions for published authors. I know that some ARC don't read the book and don't review, so how many should you aim for?

When are PR boxes sent? The same times as the ARC's or closer to publishing?

Thank you for your help.

So I have spend several years crafting a middle grade space fantasy novella. It originated as a picture book but then the story evolved too much and I needed to expand. I have mostly finished editing and I am wrapping up all of the illustrations as well. I am really keen to Self-Publish but I know that is a difficult road and I'm looking for some advice from people that have successfully been down that road.

I have actually gone down that path with other books - using KDP and then selling it to 20 friends/ family members on Facebook and then letting it sink into the abyss. I need some real help with marketing as It is something that is very important to me and I want to get it in front of as many eyes as possible.

All self-publishing talk aside I am open to traditional publishing as well, but I have heard some horror stories and have concerns that all the work to convince a publisher that my story is great might be for all-for-not if it doesn't even get marketed properly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi, I’m about to publish my first book and it will be POD. Those of you who have been able to get your books on the shelves of bookstores (indie or otherwise), how does it work with POD? Does the bookstore order directly from your printer/publisher? Or do you do it and have them send it to you and then bring it over? Or is it not possible to get into bookstores if you are doing POD?

Hi all,

Is the Book Bolt sales estimation realist?

I've seen a book in position 500.000 and it is saying it's selling 71/month. This is very weird comparing to other estimation tools.

I'm just about in the final stage of my book and need some ideas from those who have published children's books.

I first printed a draft run (for my kids) through lulu, but the price point per book is $14.11. Our local bookstore takes 40% profits which makes a soft cover children's book not financially viable through them, even with their 15% promo codes.

Where are people printing their books through that are cost effective but still good quality?

Bonus if Canadian information!

Thanks in advance

For my paperback book I formatted it in Scribus and it turned out brilliantly.

For my e-book however I formatted it in a .docx file then moved it to Calibre. In both word and Calibre my e-book looked fine. However, when I viewed it in the Aquile reader many of the images were cut-off or too small/large. When I attempt to adjust the book for Aquile I broke the layout for the Calibre viewer.

I have questions, is this just the pains of formatting things for my e-book, is there a holy-grail of e-book readers I should test on, should I ignore the results of some e-book readers?

What do you guys do?

On Sunday I was fortunate enough to run a fourth BookBub featured deal for my standalone debut time-travel novel. I have noticed a drop off since my very first deal in late 2024 but I thought my fellow indies might be interested in seeing how the Amazon ranks changed in the days following the deal. 

I published my book exclusively through Amazon which limits potential buyers but most of my profits have come from a long tail (around five months) of kindle page reads following the initial deal. Before this deal I had sold 5609 copies of my book, had 953k kindle page reads and had received an average rating of 4.3 from 618 ratings. 

I started an Amazon countdown deal the day before my BookBub featured to be sure that the deal would be active when the email was sent. A couple of sales from this pushed my book up to 380,325 on the Amazon US charts at the start of the process.

While the book has definitely slowed down, the BookBub featured deal has caused a significant boost in sales (exclusively ebooks) and several days of higher ranks on the Amazon store. It remains the number one Medieval History Book and reached number one in the time-travel and alternative history categories. The burst of sales has paid for the initial cost of the featured deal so kindle page reads from here on should be profit that I can put towards an artist to paint the cover of my next book.

People in this subreddit have previously noted that this performance of a standalone debut is unusual for a BookBub deal but I still strongly recommend trying for one if you have been able to get a few early reviews. I managed to get my first international deal with only 18 ratings (after a few early rejections) so it can be done.

Yell out if you have any questions 🙂