Self Publish

Posted on by LittleFears

Coo that book came up looking pretty.

When I made and released January, it was under the thought process, release an ebook first as they can be changed easier at a later date. Changing a print book once they have been printed and are out in the wild is a twat. A couple of weeks after release the cover image was the only thing that needed changing and the original one was driving me mental. Above is the new cover, and it looks fitting and sexy to me.

I started working on the print edition last week. A PDF together, trying it on both Create Space and Amazon KDP, and both gave me a sales price of over £25. $33 was the cheapest I got it. Holy crap are kidding me? Why did it give me a value closer to £12 a month ago?

amazon kindle kdp self publish little fears january

A few reasons, but mainly book shape and page numbers. With the print edition, if I get the book down to 100 pages, both image and text on a page, in a 6 x 9 format, I can sell the books for £15 each. That would make me £2.50 a book. Heck I need to make something right? But £15 for 100 flash fictions with my doodles. Not sure any one will go for that.

My book had a proper editor run through it. It has artworks and original flash fictions. Even if they are classic British groaners, they are still written in my unique style. Comparing my book to other books on Amazon a few weeks on, and I realize I am selling the digital copy far to cheap. £2.99, the same price as a 32 page USA style comic, from which I make 74p per sale. That price needs to go up.

Click here to purchase January

So, for those thinking about buying the digital edition of the book. I will leave it at £2.99 until May. May 1st, the price will double. For those still interested in a print edition, I need to sort the formatting out and see how much more I can squeeze the price of this book down.

The process of self publishing has been quite a learning curve for me. I missed out on a lot of early promotion. I should have distributed some free copies to book bloggers. Made more of a song and dance about it before it came out, and acquired a few early reviews. Spent more time on the original cover. Most of all, I should have had more faith in my first book to sell. I was to cautious, nervous and concerned about it bombing somehow.

Skillshare

Onward and upwards. My spare time is currently going into creating another Skillshare course. A concise guide to being more productive, working from home. Because that in itself has been another huge learning curve for me since quitting my day job. I expect to make it free for the first 25 students, then make it premium. We do still have 2 free courses on Skillshare. My original ‘Build a following of 1000 WordPress subscribers a month‘ and ‘Growing a social Media following‘.

skillshare social media courses 0.99 sign up

I shall put out the new course on a Wednesday, and announce it here first. Keep an eye out for it on Wednesday blog posts.

Threadless

In other news, I have gotten back into doodling on standard paper again. Not printed photos. Wanted to get some new characters for my Threadless store. Funny thing, I had some success with Threadless in January and February, then I just sort of stopped using it. Don’t laugh, I make $5 per tee sold. That’s considerably more than I make from the January art book, and I have been dedicated far less time to it than the book. Go figure.

I am also doing the doodles for the 90 horror stories already written. I hope to get a feel for some new characters via simple doodles, then introduce them into photos as time goes on. I reckon the fella above looks suitably spooky for a horror short.

As always, thanks everyone for being an awesome rabble of readers. I hope you all enjoy the continued tales of the Little Fears.

~

Patreon | Etsy | Kindle | Skillshare| Threadless

37 thoughts on “Self Publish”

  1. Yep. Self publishing is quite a learning curve. More money and more time than I ever imagined, as I approach the home stretch, but hey, it’s my first one. Best wishes!

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  2. Love the new cover! My experience is return on books is very rarely profitable in a monetary sense when factored by hour, however the more books you have out there, the more that can potentially change. And of course, it all changes completely if you happen upon a golden ticket and hit it big. Best of luck with your new venture. I will likely pick up your digital version.

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    1. Hey hey, well to be honest, I think I am going to be putting out a book every 2 months at least for the next 2 years. Aiming for 14 books by April in 2 years. With a spot of luck, it will pick up for me. Books are also only a part of my intended income stream along with freelance work, teaching, etsy, threadless, affiliates and other stuff. 🙂

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  3. Thanks for the insight! I love the cover!
    Some days I think about self publishing. It makes me shutter. Good luck!

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    1. Welcies and thanks Trish.

      Well, to be honest, with Amazon, there is nothing to lose except time. It costs nothing to get onto Amazon, and the KDP does everything for you and takes a cut of sales. 🙂

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  5. I feel your pain. I had to tweak the hell out of my third book in order for it to be a decent price on Amazon. It was either get creative with the formatting or split it into two books, and the latter wasn’t gonna happen.

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  6. How hard is it to get a class featured on Skillshare? Wondering if I should pursue that. I used to be the go-to Creative Cloud assist person on my design team in NYC, before I quit that city.

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  7. Are you opposed to doing a large-ish print run and selling your books through your website? For my book, which is also expensive because of the color images, I did a 300 print order through Blurb (not sure if they have options for outside the US), which cut the price WAAAAAY down from the print-on-demand price you get through CreateSpace or Amazon KDP. They give you a great discount for any order over 100, I think. You might also want to look at IngramSpark as a print-on-demand option (again, not positive there’s a UK option, but you should check). It sucks having to alter your baby to condense it. I had to basically eliminate the margin space to get it to a workable length, which looks a little weird, but gets the job done.

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    1. I think I touched on this before. I currently live in a London flat. In 2-3 months we move to a rental in Scotland while we look for somewhere nice to buy. So another 6 months down the line I will move again. I kinda need to keep my ‘stuff’ tight and nimble this year. If I do not have a publisher by next year though, I shall be using a spare room or garage as a book supply store or studio. 🙂

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  8. You hit on the big one on the front end. Pre-release promo. That’s what I’m sitting in a chair pondering. For several reasons. I’ve beta read some real crap. Asked to review published crap. The fear is more in how will your work be perceived, which is the ultimate flaw in all of this – On the one hand I wonder about your book, then recall that I had line art (cartoon) illustrated version of Aesop that I cherished until one too many of those next door to homeless youthful moves ate it. I look forward to the flash/shorty groaner horror puns. And at 5 bucks a shirt I’d burn some midnight oil in that direction!

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    1. Hey hey Phil. Certainly hope to put out some more Tees. With my book, I used to collect Garfield and Snoopy books, back when they were the 80-100 page black and white 3 panel strip collections. Any which way, the Little Fears fall into the novelty book categories.

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  9. Mistakes are not mistakes, it is just learning. Also, charge what you are worth, never grovel. if people do not want to pay it, it is their loss. And if they can buy a t-shirt, a book is certainly worth far more.

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  10. As a self-published writer myself I know all about mistakes and the pain of paperbacks. They can be cumbersome not only to change, but to create. Good luck with all of it. Need any promotional help let me know. My blogging door is always open.

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  15. Self publishing seems easy but it’s actually challenging. After waiting and hoping for a traditional publisher for sometime without any luck, I decided to try self publishing. However the cost of publishing seems to out way the gains I would make from book sales. I’m thinking serious on what’s the best option for me.

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    1. Going to go with Create Space next myself, followed by actual publishers. Hoping with a back catalogue I can put some weight behind my words you know?

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