#SelfPublishing Year in Review -- Running the Numbers

In The Sane Person's Guide to Self-Publishing, I provided honest figures for how many books I've sold, how many free downloads I've had, and my earnings. Here's a quick update with the latest figures.

A few things before we got to the numbers:

1. I don't claim my results are typical. Many self-publishers sell more than this, and many sell less. That said, I think my results give a pretty good sense of what you can expect if you're publishing fiction and putting in modest efforts at marketing.
2. Free is still a great way to get your books to more readers. By giving books away for free, I get them beyond my circle of family and friends and build a broader readership.
3. It's gotten harder to get your book to rocket to the top of the free lists on Kindle. There's a lot of competition. You have to list paid advertisements if you want to top the free charts.
4. I did almost no marketing in 2015, beyond mentioning my work on social media. I decided mid-year to make Watch Me Disappear perma-free as a marketing tool, but that's about it.
5. My two biggest sales channels, by far, were Kindle Direct and Audible, with direct sales, meaning selling books in person at events, close behind.

#IndieAuthors #NetGalley -- Is it worth the cost?

In this post, reflections on my experience with NetGalley, a service that helps publishers to get books into the hands of reviewers.

By far the greatest challenge for any author is finding readers. Thanks to the jungle of Amazon, reader reviewers have been essential to the success of most books, but getting people to actually post reviews is even more challenging than finding readers.

Among the many solutions publishers and indie authors have turned to is NetGalley. NetGalley's landing page offers this invitation: "Join media, librarians, booksellers, educators, reviewers and bloggers who use NetGalley to discover, read and share reviews about new books before they are published. It's easy to get started: just sign in or join for free. Welcome!"

New, buzzed about books for free! That sounds like a great deal.

How it works:

#AmWriting #SelfPub #Workshop at the Westborough, MA Public Library!

Back by popular demand!

I'll be offering my Introduction to Self-Publishing Workshop at the Westborough Public Library on October 21 from 6:30-8:30. This event is free and open to the public, but please preregister at this link.

About the Workshop: 

If you’ve contemplated self-publishing, you’ve probably experienced information overload when searching online for advice. You’ve probably also noticed the world is divided between self-publishing enthusiasts and self-publishing naysayers, and it can be hard to know whether to believe the hype of the haters. This workshop aims to cut through the noise to help you get a better sense of the reality of self-publishing.

Teen Writing Workshop Oct 3 #AmWriting

Teen writers! Join me at the Shrewsbury Public Library from 10:00 - 12:00 on Saturday October 3!

"Make a Scene" Writing Workshop Description:

Whether you're writing flash fiction in which an entire story unfolds over just a page or two or you're writing a novel, the building blocks of all stories are scenes. In this workshop, we will identify the essential elements of scenes and what makes some scenes stronger than others. Then we will use a backwards planning strategy to write scenes of our own. 

This workshop is a great warm up for students interested in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) Young Writers Program, which challenges teens to write a 30,000-word novella over 30 days in the month of November. To officially participate in NaNoWriMo, you aren't allowed to start writing your novella until November 1, but you are allowed to use the month of October to outline and brainstorm, and this workshop will definitely help you start to generate ideas!

The Shrewsbury Public Library will be hosting write-ins for adults and teens every Saturday throughout November.

To register, please click here, scroll down to the event, and fill out the form.

FAQs:

Mark your calendars!

Upcoming Events

• Saturday, October 3, 2015

Teen Writing Workshop
Shrewsbury, MA Public Library. Click for more event info and sign up.10:00 - 12:00
NOTE: The main library is under construction, so this event will be in the library's temporary Location : 214 Lake St, Shrewsbury, MA

• Wednesday, October 21, 2015, 6:30 - 8:30

Introduction to Self-Publishing
Westborough Public Library
55 West Main St
Westborough, MA 01581
To register, visit the library's calendar page by clicking here.

• Thursday, October 29, 2015, Time TBA / Date subject to change (more info to follow)

Author Night at the Saint John's High School Library
The McCarthy Library, located in the Ryken Center
Saint John's High School
378 Main St
Shrewsbury, MA 01545

Readings/talks by four members of the Saint John's faculty--Chuck Abdella, Fred Borchelt, Russ McClintock, and myself--who happen to be published authors!

• Bancroft Young Writers Conference, November 21-22, Registration Required

Bancroft School
110 Shore Dr
Worcester, MA 01605

A two-day workshop for students grades 7-12 with an interest in creative writing. Visit the link above to sign up and for full schedule.

• Saturday, January 16, 2016, 10:30-12:30

Workshop on Submitting to Literary Magazines
Seven Bridges Writers' CollaborativeThayer Memorial Library,
717 Main St
Lancaster, MA 01523

Check back soon for more events!

Diane is available for readings, signings, book club visits, and workshops on elements of the craft of writing, submitting to literary magazines, and self-publishing. For more information, please email her at diane@dvmulligan.com.

#ICYMI #SelfPub -- Ebook Formatting

**This post originally appeared on dvmulligan.com on 4/11/15**

Yesterday, I made The Sane Person's Guide to Self-Publishing available for download. Unlike my novels, this book was not the result of years of sweat and tears, or at least writing it wasn't. The reflections in it are based on years of sweat and tears, but it only took about a month to write, edit, and format it. (It's 30,000 words, and several of the chapters are adapted from prior blog posts.)

What's more, I set aside my usual perfectionism because I had a strong sense of urgency I felt to say everything I needed to say about self-publishing right now, before the whole self-pub world changes again and leaves my advice and experiences obsolete. To the end, apologies for any typos. I hope they aren't too terrible. The book is basically like a long blog post, and though I did my best to proofread, I know there are going to be errors.

But it's not the typos that are driving me nuts now.

#ICYMI #SelfPub #Amazon -- Change the "You Know this Author" Policy

**This post originally appeared on dvmulligan.com on 7/13/15**

Regular readers of my blog will recall a couple of posts from back in the spring about Amazon's review policy, which I believe is unfair to indie authors. Well, I'm not alone. Recently a change.org petition was started by Jas Ward to ask Amazon to change it's policy.

If you've ever had a review removed because Amazon decided you knew the author personally or if you are an indie author struggling to get and keep reviews, consider signing the petition.

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