Self-Publishing: The Adventure (Part 1)

I’m about to embark on an adventure, and if I don’t get too distracted or lazy, I will document a bit of it.

The adventure is self-publishing. This is a journey I’ve already started, but it’s close to getting serious. It’s already cost serious money — I’m making investments here, hoping this is just the first step — but I’m close to actually making it real, as in actually putting my novel The Immortal Remains (hereafter referred to as “TIR”) out there on Amazon and other platforms for people to (I hope) give money to me so they can read it.

Those who know me know that I’ve already published the book, in a sense…last winter I put it out as a 63-part serial on Medium and Substack (after Amazon Vella shut down). It didn’t get a great deal of engagement, but I didn’t push too hard, either.

To put that version out, I had a cover designed (thanks to the excellent Rob Williams, who I found on Fiverr) for a reasonable amount of money, the first I’d put out for this venture. He was able to pick right up and extend the design to a paperback cover layout, again for a reasonable cost.

The next step was formatting. I didn’t want to learn the fine details of designing a book, though I know many do it. Neither did I want to rely on a web-centric service like Reedsy. Besides, I enjoy learning new software. The question is, which software to use?

There are two major choices in standalone software, as far as I can see. First is Vellum, a Mac-only program, and Atticus, a universal (that is, Proton-based) program that is cheaper and runs on any device. (None of these links are affiliate links, by the way). I tried the trial version of Vellum first, and it probably spoiled me for Atticus. Atticus wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as good as Vellum, and here I was with a Mac and the trial installed a book most of the way through formatting, so yeah, Vellum it was. I had to ask for a refund, and that was actually easy and hassle-free, so kudos to the people at Kindlepreneur.

Kindlepreneur also puts out a program called Publisher Rocket that is supposed to help with marketing on Amazon. Now, I’m not all-in on Amazon; I sold my Kindle a couple of years ago and got a Kobo e-reader, which isn’t as closed as Kindle. But Amazon is the 800-lb gorilla in the publishing world, so it would be self-defeating to ignore them as a market. And they’re not likely to shut down the whole book marketing division like they did Vella, their serial market, last year.

PublisherRocket will supposedly help me choose the best Amazon keywords, as well as zero in on ebook and paperback price points. I’ll need these for both ISBN and copyright registration, as far as I can see.

The next big step is uploading the covers and manuscript to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). This, at least, is free, and is but one step in an incremental process. Once I decide on prices, keywords, and who knows what else, I can decide on when I want to launch, and even set up an author page and take pre-orders (see what an optimist I am?). I have thoughts on both ebook and paperback pricing, but we’ll see what shakes out there.

Another thing I can do, by setting a time in the future to “go live”, is look at sending out Advance Reader Copies (ARCs). There are websites for this, and it probably costs money, but I can possibly get early Amazon reviews to put on the book’s Amazon page.

Speaking of reviews, I managed to score two excellent blurbs I can also use. One is from Christa Miller, my oldest writing friend. The other is from Richard Helmling, my newest writing friend. Both have published books, and both blurbs were beyond my expectations.

Besides Amazon, I think I will upload the book to Draft2Digital, a service which will place it in other electronic bookstores such as Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc. At least, if I decide to “go wide” from the start. The alternative is to make the book exclusive to Kindle Unlimited for the first 90 days, in which case I can’t sell it anywhere else for that period. I haven’t decided what to do about that yet, but just in case, I’ve pulled all episodes of TIR from both Medium and Substack.

I’m on vacation this coming week, and some of that time will be devoted to taking the first steps on KDP. I’ll report back with progress!