By Martin Crosbie
August 31, 2014
When I self-published my first novel at the end of 2011 I truly believed that if I could just get my words in front of readers, via Amazon’s website, then the world would recognize my brilliance. From there the accolades would accumulate, the awards would pour in and I’d be able to devote my life to creating more brilliance. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I didn’t take into account that I was competing with over a million other e-books and that most of those other authors were dreaming the same dream.
During the first three months of my book’s release I sold about two hundred e-books. Some of those were to friends and relatives but some were random readers who discovered my work. Even though my numbers weren’t terrible I knew there were self-published authors who were selling a lot more books than I was. There were, and still are authors selling tens of thousands of books each month. I wanted to be one of them. So, I contacted some of the top Indie performers. I gifted them a copy of my book, purchased their book and asked them if they could offer me some advice that might help me connect with readers. Surprisingly, many of them responded. One in particular went out of his way to help me. The best thing he did for me wasn’t just advice in terms of what I needed to do. He was also brave enough to tell me the truth and let me know what I was doing wrong.
Robert Bidinotto, at that time was one of the hot, new breed of self-published authors. His debut novel, Hunter had been picked up by Amazon for a Thanksgiving promotion and had sold tens of thousands of copies. Robert was kind enough to offer me some unpleasant truths. He told me that my book cover was not indicative of my story, it was categorized by genre incorrectly, my blurb wasn’t enticing enough, and my pricing changes (which I thought were brilliant marketing strategies) were too erratic. He had some other thoughts too and he took the time to detail them in a lengthy message. When I made the changes that he and others suggested it put me on the path to getting my book into the top three overall bestsellers on Amazon’s bestseller list. For a glorious month my numbers soared and I was often perched between familiar names like Twilight and Hunger Games. It wasn’t quite as simple as flicking a few switches and seeing my book soar though. It was much more than that and I understand the process much better now with five books under my belt, than I did then, but without that initial assistance from Robert and other authors I might still be searching for a way to connect with readers.
In the past couple of years I’ve been able to return the favour over and over again, and I have a support system of authors around me who are on the same path. We believe in producing quality, professional product and running our careers in an honest manner. And, we believe in paying it forward. I’ve never been involved in an industry where so much information is shared amongst potential competitors. There’s a constant undercurrent of collaboration between many self-published authors. Most of us are aware of the bigger task that is at hand and although mistakes have been made we’ve corrected them and learned from them. We’ve had issues with authors procuring paid reviews, piracy sites stealing material, and even censorship issues where Amazon and other platforms attempt to determine where the elusive line in the sand should be. Although these are serious issues they’re part of growth and are being addressed every day, and when we come out the other side our industry will be stronger because of them.
Now that my books have found an audience I’m often approached myself and asked what the secret sauce is. The answer of course is that there is no secret. The way to connect with readers is to write a great book, present it in a professional manner and then go to where the readers are and build a relationship with them. My first book that has performed so well, My_Temporary_Life has taken on a life of its own. It continues to sell every day and the bulk of my income now comes in the form of royalty payments from Amazon. And, as part of my paying it forward philosophy and to continue creating the positive energy that helped me succeed I do a few concrete things too. I have an Authors_Tools tab on my website that lists promo sites as well as other tips that may help authors find readers. I speak to writers groups and write guest blogs like the one you’re reading. I also wrote a self-publishing guidebook, How I Sold 30,000 eBooks On Amazon’s Kindle-An Easy-To-Follow Self-Publishing Guidebook 2014 Edition, and I teach workshops, helping authors present their work in a professional, yet cost-effective manner and showing them how to connect with readers. My next workshop is a full day and will open the Whistler Readers and Writers Festival. I hope to see you there, and then, we can all unleash our brilliance on the readers of the world.
Martin Crosbie will be teaching an all day session at the Whistler Readers and Writers Festival 2014 on October 17th from 9 to 4 at Millennium Place entitled, A to Z of Self-Publishing.