Blue Collar guide to being a self-published Author -Part 1
I want to start by saying that even with 28 months and almost 3000 books sold to date, I still consider myself a “greenhorn” and still learning. One very important thing I have learned is that what may work for one author may not work for another. Take the information that you are about to receive as guidelines or suggestions.
I will say that the following notes apply more to fiction writers than non-fiction writers.
Ok, time to get to the nuts and bolts. Let’s say your book has been written, edited, cover art chosen, and you are ready to go to print. I will back pedal a little that up to this point; you should have been talking about your book on social media. This is called “creating buzz”; it builds anticipation, getting people anxious to buy your book.
Print vs eBook, or both? This is one of those judgment calls you need to make. My first book came out on eBook platform only, only because I couldn’t afford to go to print... or didn’t think I could. The second, third books I released printed first, then eBook a month or two later. This is mostly because I learned that my readers are bookstore people, they go to the store to buy my book or see it in a bookstore then buy it.
For the first book, I would release the eBook about a month before the print comes out. Helps build reviews and get more of a buzz going. Then if you continue to do more, you can judge by your sales what you should do first.
Who should you go to for eBook platform? That, I can’t tell you. That is up to you, there are a lot of choices out there, and you need to be aware of the “rules” that each distributor sets.
Who should I go to to print my books? If you intend to stay small, not sell to Amazon and are going to stay in the 200 book a year or less bracket, 48Hour books is the place to go. I used them at first and was very happy with them.
If you intend to “go big” I would use Ingram Spark, they are not as....warm as 48Hour books, but they distribute to EVERYONE. You don’t have to worry about shipping books, ordering, or any of that. They handle it, and you get a check at the end of the month.
Ok, your books are being printed, you have built up “buzz” now comes the selling. Hear is where social media is your friend. It’s free, it reaches thousands of people, it’s free, it’s easy to use, did I mention it’s free.
In a year my Facebook page gets viewed over 200K times for a duration of 1 second, over 100K spend 10 seconds, and around 20K stay on the page for 1 minute or more. That is 5 times more traffic than my website.
I can see if I stop posting for a week, my sales begin to drop. If I consistently post, my sales numbers will stay up.
I mentioned my website, if I had to do it all over again, I would have waited before building a website, and I would have kept it small. In my opinion, wait for people to start asking you about it, then keep it a single page with as much contact info you are comfortable leaving.
I would avoid any author clubs, or groups that require a membership fee. This is another mistake I made. Lots of money going out with very little in return, I cancelled all my memberships for 2025, I sold more books than previous years, so all those memberships really didn’t do much for me.... Actually, they did nothing for me.
“Jerry, how did you get on 207 with Rob Caldwell?”
That credit goes for several different people. I was told the 7 different people wrote to the station recommending me for the show, several sent books. Many of those people.... You guessed it, Facebook.
I am going to stop here and allow people to reach out with questions. Use the “contact me” link on the website to reach out with any questions you have about the process of being a self-published author.
