When I started to write #thevanishingoffice in June last year, I had no idea that, 1) It would be self-published by the end of February or 2) That I'd be knee deep in a series by nine months later. Weird how stuff turns out.
Like so many other Indie writers, I didn't have a clue how much time I'd be spending trying to flog the book and how complicated it can be at times. Or how expensive. I suspect that there are loads of other people who've been more organised and better prepared than I've been. So I'm flying by the seat of my keks and learning as I go along.
I wasn't expecting to have a novel written, let alone three!!! And if you'd told me that the genre would've been dystopian sci-fi, I would've been gobsmacked. But sometimes your genre chooses you, I suppose and not the other way round.
So far. I've learned quite a lot. How important reviews are to us Indies. A lot of readers probably don't have a clue how writers can agonize over this or the lengths people may allegedly go to, to get one. As a reader, you may download a book you like the look of and then it stays in your kindle for yonks unread. Or maybe you do read it but are too busy (fair do's, there's a lot to be doing) or just can't be harassed to write one.
On behalf of any Indie writer, if you enjoy what we've written or even if you think it's a load of old codswallop, a review is extremely useful to us. We prefer the good ones (obviously!) but even the more negative ones, if they have constructive pointers, are useful.
Another thing is finding where the sweet spot is for adverts on social media. Not an easy one to answer! We all have different comfort levels as far as spamming feeds are concerned. I'm Northern and feel a bit weird with too much trumpet blowing, so tend to stick to popping links underneath tweets that are directly for that purpose. I feel weird indulging in too much spammity spam.
Unfortunately, adverts and promo stuff can be pretty expensive. So, you have to be canny about how you promote things. All of this I'm still learning and haven't tried any Amazon ad campaigns yet as I'm too poor . But maybe not forever, if and when I try one, you'll be the first to know. Tatty B for now.
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