On Self-Publishing And Stuff I Did Wrong And What I Will Do Next Time

To be clear, I am not an expert on self-publishing. I did self-publish a novel. I did read a bunch of articles about self-publishing. I do have friends at work who have self-published and gave me some tips. I know some of the mistakes I clearly made, and I know what I’m going to do next time.

However, the disclaimer still stands. I am not an expert on self-publishing and won’t consider myself to be one until I’ve sold 50,000 books, which seems to be a bit of a magical line. Go over that line, and agents begin to seek you out and not the other way around. At least that’s what some self-publishing authors say.

Here are the stats for Luke…
• Went on sale on Amazon (e-book and physical copy) on June 27, 2013
• It has sold 36 e-books and 1 physical book.
• During the 5-day free promotion on Amazon, it was downloaded 571 times.
• There are three reviews for it, all 5-stars. Interestingly, only one of them mentioned Star Wars. The other two seemed to like it on its own as a crime story.
• Kirkus Reviews gave it a positive review.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/aaron-d-cohen/luke/

So anyway, on with the lessons…

1. Follow the magic link.

This link will give you great advice and links to some great services…
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2013/02/how-to-sell-ebooks.html

The guy has sold a ton of e-books and knows what he is talking about. He is also a very good genre writer.

2. Finish your book.

Nothing happens until you get to THE END. Get there. My technique was 250 words a day, with 1,000 words a day on Saturday and Sunday. It’s okay to write badly. You can re-write. It’s okay to write slowly.
You’ll get faster. But you have to write and you have to finish.

3. Pay for an editor.

Family and friends are unreliable critics and even worse editors. The best way to get good feedback and editing is to pay for it. I paid a friend who also happens to be a great writer $10 an hour to edit the 90,000 words of Luke. Cost me $600. Worth every dime. A line-by-line read from a talented story teller, who is getting paid to make your book better, will make your book way, way better than you ever thought it could be.

4. Once a polished draft is done, pay for a second editor.

Your first editor is going to read it too many times to be able to copy edit the final version, especially if you’ve re-written large chunks of it.  Pay for a copy editor before you publish. You can find copy editing services at…

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/author-services/editorial/services/

And at…

http://www.writersdigestshop.com/author-service-center?lid=wdnav2nddraft

That was a mistake I made. My novel has typos that readers have found and I’m embarrassed by every one of them. So I’m doing a fresh copy edit by a pro and will re-publish in September.

5. Publish via Createspace.

https://www.createspace.com/

Createspace is an Amazon company but when you publish with them, the physical copy of your book also goes on sale at Barnesandnoble.com.

CS is incredibly easy to use. They print physical books, and they will publish the e-book version on Amazon.

6. Pay for a good cover

I paid $500 for my book cover, and the artist also did thumbnails and web banners. This is the guy I used…
http://damonza.com/

People really do respond to covers. Mine turned out pretty well. It looks like a real book. All of the self-published books that sell have professionally designed covers.

7. DO NOT pay for formatting

I paid $200 for formatting and regret it. I could have done it myself. Createspace and Kindle Direct Publishing handle Word docs just fine. What I will do next time is tidy up my Word doc myself.

8. Pay for a professional review, which, by the way, might be negative, even though you paid for it.

Getting a professional reviewers stamp of approval will give you credibility with your audience and with anyone who might be interested in acquiring the rights to your book. My review is here…

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/aaron-d-cohen/luke/

There are other services that do reviews, but I did Kirkus because they are 100% legit. Readers go to that site like movie fans go to Rottentomatoes.com.

9. Self promote via a blog, Twitter and Facebook.

I’m falling down on the job here. I just am not interested in promoting myself and finding something fun to post daily. I’d rather be working on my next novel.

However, the self-published authors who do well take self-promotion seriously. They build up a fan base and interact with them constantly. Here is just one example…

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Laury-Falter/196033543803745?ref=hl

This girl is working it!

Here is my lame blog…

http://107booksread.blogspot.com/

And my lame FB page for Luke…

https://www.facebook.com/LukeANovel

Here is my extra lame Twitter feed…

https://twitter.com/107Reader

I should be publishing something every day and working it, turning one reader into two and two into four, and so on. I’m not doing that. I’m working and writing my next novel.

10. DO NOT publish the entire book all at once. (I think. This is an experimental one.)
This is what I’m going to do next time…I’m going to break the novel up into 7-10 chunks, and sell the chunks (about for 99 cents apiece). Then I’ll publish the entire thing for $4.99.

Here is why…

Everything in Amazon works off of algorithms. The more you ping the formula’s the better. More pings equals more inclusions in the “if you bought this then you might like that” lists. That means one person buying three of your small novel chunks is more powerful than one person buying your entire novel.

That does means writing to the story breaks, creating cliffhangers, which can feel manipulative. But what the hell? That what fiction is supposed to do, manipulate you into feeling something.

11. Do some PR, and pay for it.

I paid http://authorslargeandsmall.wordpress.com/ $200 as an experiment. They promised to do PR for me and get me noticed in some lit blogs. They got me interviewed in one blog, and I should be getting reviewed in a few other blogs. Not so bad for $200. I might see a profit from that one day.

12. Don’t pay for ads.

I spent $500 on Google Adwords. I wanted to do something to get some sales going. I got about 20 copies sold. Not a good investment.

13. The keys seem to be…

-Write good stuff (professional editors are key)
- Publish a lot (Thus, my strategy of serializing my next book.)
- Get good reviews. (I have no doubt that whatever I’ve sold, I’ve sold because when people click to go to my Amazon page, they see three five-star reviews.)
- Have great cover art.
- Leverage PR to get noticed in independent lit blogs.
- Self-promote, self-promote, self-promote.

I am not good at self-promotion, but I’m sure it’s effective when done well. I have found the PR bit to be fun, but am waiting for some sales results to show up. The first four seem to be absolutely mandatory for any kind of success.

There you go! That’s all I know. I will keep you updated on any experiments that show promise. I am paying a good amount of advertising on Kirkus Reviews this October. That might move the needle a bit.

Cheers!

Interview posted on The Dan O'Brien Project

The Dan O'Brien Project was nice enough to interview me about Luke and various other bits...

http://thedanobrienproject.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-ten-spot-meet-aaron-cohen.html

If you are a reader or a writer, you should check out his blog. He updates it daily (unlike some blogs I know of), and had some great interviews with interesting writers.

Happy three-day weekend!

Starring Marisa Tomei as Leanne

I always pictured Marisa Tomei as Leanne. This is what she was thinking in Chapter 22...

Be strong, Leanne. You are a bad ass bitch and you will beat them. Don’t let them see any cracks. You are in control. Focus. Be here now. Be whole now. There is only now.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DOMWB6M

First 5-star Amazon review: 50 Shades + Star Wars + Carl Hiaasen = Luke

This was the first review of Luke posted on Amazon. This lovely person will always have my undying gratitude, whom ever she is...

The 5-star review:

Tons of fun. Carl Hiaasen meets Star Wars meets 50 Shades of Gray meets Elmore Leonard. It's not much of a spoiler to let you know this a sexed-up parody of Star Wars, set in Las Vegas, as you'll figure that out quite quickly.

The Death Star is now the Dark Star, a new 10,000 room brothel that will monopolize the sex industry in Nevada and practically enslave its workers. Darth Vadar is David Vaddio, the force behind the Dark Star. Obi-Wan appears as a retired mobster who lives by The Code. My favorite re-imagining is probably the Millennium Falcon as an RV, but Chewbacca as a mute who shares his thoughts in a journal is a close second.

It's a quick read. It does a great job of engrossing you in a new story, while eliciting chuckles at Star Wars moments.

Al and Leanne do not look alike

From Chapter 22

It is hard to believe that Al is Leanne’s father. Leanne is beautiful. Even on the hastily taped video message, she is drop dead gorgeous. Al is not. Ugly doesn’t quite apply, because the guy smiles so much it somehow counteracts his big, lumpy nose, his oversized ears, his bulbous, insect-like eyes, his bumpy complexion, and the absence of any trace of a chin. He looks like the offspring of a fly and a gorilla. How he could have fathered Leanne is a mystery to Luke.

But what a nice guy! Luke had been expecting a smarmy, abusive, womanizing brute. Instead, Al turned out to be friendly, jovial, always grinning, and caring. He asked about not just Leanne, but also Luke’s aunt and uncle, and Luke himself. Al had promised to help in any way he could. After talking to Al, Luke felt for the first time in a while that things might turn out okay.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DOMWB6M

Three five-star reviews on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Luke-ebook/dp/B00DOMWB6M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376709038&sr=8-1&keywords=luke+aaron+cohen

I now have three five star reviews. Woohoo! I can't you how good that feels. Entertain even that many people is somehow a rush and makes me want to do it again.

Writing of the next novel has begun,.

Kirkus Review Says Luke Is "Hilarious" And "A Page-Turning Adventure"

I'd been waiting for the Kirkus review to come in for almost two months. I was ready for the reviewer to hate it. I had to be mentally prepared for a bad review.

Turns out, I didn't have to do that. The reviewer liked it. He (or she) really liked it!

Here it is...

LUKE

Cohen, Aaron D.

$14.99 paperback, $2.99 e-book

BOOK REVIEW

Cohen’s debut, a reimagining of Star Wars set in the underworld of Las Vegas, is a page-turning adventure full of allusions for fans of the movie series.

What if, instead of battling “in a galaxy far, far away,” Luke went on his Jedi journey in the sands of Nevada and did battle with the vicious Empire Gaming instead of the Empire? 

Cohen’s novel gives the answer: It trades light sabers and blasters for brass knuckles and .38s, “the Force” for the Code, and Stormtroopers for suit-wearing thugs who complain about wearing jackets in the desert heat. Instead of Princess Leia, there’s Leanne—a beautiful madam fighting to protect the rights of the prostitutes who work for her. Artie, a code-cracking little person, plays R2-D2; the lecherous, smooth-talking Cecil is C-3PO. Darth Vader? He’s David, a monstrous former wise guy who suffers from asthma. Luke is still Luke, but in this incarnation, he has an unstoppable sex drive and an unfortunate penchant for getting beaten up.

The rest of the cast is here as well, including the drug-running war vet Hank (Han Solo) and his growling, tongueless Samoan sidekick Charlie (Chewie). As in the movie, the characters do their best to stop an evil empire, but instead of saving planets, they’re protecting strip clubs, adult bookstores and other Vegas outposts. Empire’s plan is to legally outlaw pole dancing and limit prostitution to hotels with 10,000 or more rooms. It just so happens that it owns the Dark Star, the only establishment that meets the criteria. Cohen’s writing is crisp, and his dialogue snappy. Seeing elements of the classic space adventure adapted to Sin City is often hilariously entertaining. The novel sticks closely to the source material but deviates enough to maintain interest. While the plot begins to slow toward the end, Cohen’s writing holds the tension, while also preparing for possible sequels.

Delivers action and laughs with its memorable characters and dialogue, despite a dip in momentum before the finish.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/aaron-d-cohen/luke/