Writing and Publishing: Leaving KU and Going Wide
Wide or exclusive? This is a question I have asked many times.
IN THE BEGINNING
I began publishing in February 2017. Two years and a half ago I had no idea what it meant to publish a book. I was one of those who believed all I had to do was click the “Publish” button on Amazon and readers would magically find me.
I went through a lot of stages since then. After all my friends and family bought my first book (and were probably utterly disappointed because it was HORRIBLY edited by me before I learned about editing software and the like), after that… the book went dead. No sales.
I lowered the price to $0.99 cents and nothing.
A few months later, I decided I needed to offer it free. And I did, and I got some reviews. Good ones on Amazon (some very good), some mentioning the editing problem. I got some good and bad reviews on Goodreads (mostly positive with the comment about the editing).
PUBLISHING MORE BOOKS
In the summer I decided my problem was I only had one book. I needed more. I planned to write my entire series (I had written 5 out of the 6 parts when I was in my twenties, I just had to rewrite them with my new knowledge and experience). That would take time. I decided to release some of my short stories. I compiled them in a book and released them during the summer of 2017. Another failure. Mixed reviews, especially if they fell into the wrong hands… I took the book down. Live and learn.
By the next summer, part 2 was ready to come out. Again, no editor. No editing software. By then, I’d heard a lot of Kindle Unlimited because I’d joined the 20booksto50K group on Facebook. I decided to give that a try. I took part 1 out of every other retailer except for Amazon and joined KU. I also bought Brian Meeks book on Ads and began to pay for Amazon advertising. Things began to look up. I got a few sales with very little investment. I got some page reads, too.
I released the short stories from the collection one by one, thinking to offer them free with the KU free days and maybe get some readers for my series. That obviously didn’t work.
It didn’t matter, I told myself I needed MORE books in the series released, so I wrote book 3 during the summer of 2018.
THE BEGINNING OF EDITING
When I was done, I realized I needed to do something about the editing. I downloaded Grammarly (free) and when I ran book 1 with it I found like a thousand mistakes. A THOUSAND! I felt so embarrassed. I had no idea I was that BAD. I looked around and found Prowriting Aid, I’d heard it mentioned on some of the groups I was a member of. I bought it and ran book 1 and 2 with it. Then, I read each book out loud to find more mistakes in flow and typos. Then I ran if through free Grammarly. I hoped that made a better product.
THE FALL OF AMAZON ADS
Then, when January came, Amazon changed its algorithm. When I got a few page-reads a month, I began to get zero. Before, I got downloads every 3 or 4 clicks, got ten thousands of impressions on somecampaignss… starting the year 2019 meant I became invisible to Amazon. Impressions were so low I only got a dozen on most campaigns. Some got zero. I began to bid higher… got from 12 cents to 50 cents. Impressions got to the thousands, clicks increased, but no sales.
I began to believe there wouldn’t be a future. My last hope was book three, which I was now editing on my own following my process of Prowriting Aid and Grammarly.
THE CREATIVE PENN PODCAST
In January I began to listen to podcasts. I found The Creative Penn and it became my favorite. Most podcast I’d listened to basically said you either did A LOT of spending or you were lost. I got the feeling, as a newbie, like I didn’t stand a chance. Maybe it’s true, but it made me feel like a loser before the battle began.
Anyway, what I enjoyed the most about The Creative Penn was how Joanna Pen spoke to her audience. She was positive and reassuring and wanted to show ways we could still succeed. When her guest speakers come, they also speak in a way that made you want to do more.
I love that about this podcast.
NEWSLETTER NINJA
The Creative Penn brought the author of the Newsletter Ninja book, you can find my blog post about it here. Tammi explained about newsletters in a way that made me stop fearing them. As an introvert, I feared mailing list like you have no idea. I’d heard they were necessary, but I couldn’t bring myself to start one. The way it’s explained in the Newsletter Ninja made me want to give it a chance… and so my journey began.
INDIE AUTHOR MINDSET
Once more on The Creative Penn I heard about Adam Croft and his Creative Mind Set. I was so interested in what he had to say that I bought his book. You can read my review here. I loved the way he explained about how to look at your book business. And perhaps the most important thing I got from it was… you have to invest if you want your hobby to become a business.
I joined his Facebook group and between him and Joanna Penn, I was convinced paying for Mark Dawson’s book was worth giving it a shot.
MARK DAWSON’S SELF-PUBLISHING COURSE
I used my teacher store earnings to pay for the course. It was the best thing that happened to me. I learned so much, made a few changes and realized that what I had started to do before was right, except it wasn’t.
I am an unknown author, I need to offer my books for free. I need reviews. I need to attract readers. I need to have a mailing list with the right focus. I need a website… and, if KU isn’t working for me, I need to go wide.
GOING WIDE
My books were currently in KU. They began getting out of KU in May… they will be released in KU during May and June… as they do, I will go wide.
It’s a hassle so far, but it’ll be worth it. While I go wide, I’m going to pay an editor to look over my books. I will start with my reader magnet. Then I will have books 1-3 of my series edited by someone other than me. I will pay for this service.
If after a year, I still don’t see any improvement in downloads and reviews, then I will realize writing is not for me and I will only publish for the pleasure of it. I love writing after all. You have no idea what it feels like to hold my own books in my hands. It’s glorious. If you’re an author, then maybe you know how that feels. Perhaps most people won’t ever discover my books and how fun they can be, but I know it.
But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I still have a lot of things to prepare for.
Book 3 came out March 30th and will be in KU until the end of June. Once it comes out, then I will be officially in all publishing platforms. Exciting, yes! But, like everything, unnerving and scary.
Wish me luck… and perhaps, visit my author website at www.claudia-silva.com.
cheers!
