It’s been a little over a month since I released my first book, Otaku Journalism.
For all I don’t talk about it, I still consider writing and then actually publishing a book to be the biggest accomplishment of my entire writing career. Everything I know and believe about fandom, journalism, and fandom journalism found its way into this book, and it’s so satisfying that I can just say to people, “Want to know what I think about that? Read my book!”
The fact that anyone can publish their own book online with very little overhead is one of the most exciting developments of our time. But I also think it takes practice to do it right.
Here are some of the things I learned from my first experience in self publishing.
I didn’t make a profit
Well, it’s too soon to say I won’t. What I mean is I didn’t make my money back in a month.
With traditional publishing, the ideal scenario is that a publishing house will give you an advance, and you use that to live on while you finish up your book. With self publishing, not only is there no advance, so the hours you put into the book are essentially unpaid, but you have to eat all the costs of putting out a book by yourself.
For me, that came out to a little less than $1,000. I paid for 14 hours of Lisa’s time to edit the book, and 10 hours of Kevin’s to illustrate the cover. Even though they gave me discounts for being a friend, they are both professionals and their work doesn’t come cheap.
I’ve sold fewer than 100 copies of the book so far and I’ll need to sell double that to make my initial investment back. I’m still really excited that Otaku Journalism has found its way into the hands of nearly 100 different aspiring geek reporters, but I may have spent too much to make it.
DIY is the way to go
Which brings me to my second point. If you’re putting out your first edition of your first self-published book, maybe you don’t need an editor or a fancy cover.
I thought I was being frugal when I formatted the edition myself—which is surprisingly easy to do if you know a little bit of HTML. That would have cost me another $300 or so to get done. But as much as it kills me to say, I probably shouldn’t have paid ANYTHING the first time around.
I can’t imagine Otaku Journalism without Lisa’s edits or Kevin’s art. But maybe I ought to have sent it out there in the rough first, just to see how it would do. My entrepreneur role model, Jen Dziura, talks a lot about starting business ideas on zero dollars. Then, I could use my profits (which would have been a few hundred dollars by now!) to fund a flashier second edition.
A business venture is a success only if it makes a profit. So perhaps it’s a better idea to save your money and perfectionist tendencies until AFTER you see if it’s going to be successful.
Promotion is a full time job
I thought my hard work was behind me when I published the book on Amazon. I was wrong.
I wrote to nearly 30 blogs about promoting my book. Seven of them responded. I got my day job to tweet about my book. I did a two-hour Ask Me Anything on r/anime.
Maybe you’ve heard about something called “passive income,” where you do work in advance and then earn money while you’re asleep. Books are often held up as a great way to set up this type of income stream. Pardon me, but this is bullshit. I have had to do something active in order to earn every sale (not to mention writing the book in the first place).
There are a billion other great books out there, and people aren’t going to find Otaku Journalism by themselves. I have to let them know it’s there. And this job will never be over!
In conclusion, self publishing takes time, money, and effort. I hope this doesn’t scare anyone away from doing it for themselves, because it was a seriously rewarding accomplishment—and I’m hoping to do it again, just as soon as I think of another book idea.
Do you have any questions for me about self-publishing? Let’s chat about it in the comments.
10 Comments.
“Pardon me, but [passive income] is bullshit.”
PREACH IT. So many folks tell me they’d like to self-pub because it’s “easy money,” and then are horribly disappointed when I point out all of the things you’ve mentioned here. Self-publishing is NOT for the lazy, nor is it a get rich quick scheme.
That said, I’m SUPER glad you’ve found some promise and love for self-pub! I can’t to see what you do with it in the future.
@Ellie, thanks for reading! I know YOU have first hand experience at this. I can guess at your diligent writing schedule from Twitter and your blog, and I’d say it’s ANYTHING but “passive!”
This is all stuff that I really wish I could also impart onto people in the film industry. There’s no way to make a movie for zero dollars (the people who say they did are either lying, or taking advantage of others). But when it comes to something like self-distribution or crowdfunding, they don’t realize that it is a full time job. You either put that work into it, or you don’t get the funding and you don’t get the sales.
I once went to a panel on indie filmmaking at a sci-fi convention. There was a guy there with a messenger bag full of DVDs of his indie film. When a guy on the panel said always be selling your film, the guy said something to the effect of “that’s why I have a bag of my DVDs, right here, $15 and you can have one.” I bought his movie after the panel because well, he was interesting, and it was right there in front of me.
I’ve spent a lot of time telling people that if they’re going to do a Kickstarter or any crowdfunding campaign, that they either have to already have a large following (webcomic artists, game developers, directors who have done mainstream movies) or they will have to spend over 40 hours a week for the 30 days of their campaign plugging and advertising, and that it is a hard, hard road. It’s worth it, in the end, but it is not as easy as people think it seems, just putting a page up on Kickstarter and seeing the donations roll in.
It can be really gratifying, all of it, but it’s not easy and it’s work.
I will say though, you’re book is very good and it deserves to sell quite a lot more, so I’m glad you’re going to keep at it!
@Mary thank you. It was really eye-opening to meet with you recently and learn about the similarities between book and film self-publishing. Just like you, I have gotten comments to the tune of, “Why do I have to pay to read your book?” Not everyone realizes how much it costs to create.
Tell me about it! I spent 4 months designing, laying out and testing MotherBone PiOne, Buying all the boards and materials for prototypes out of my own pocket, created a 60 page comprehensive manual and made a kickstarter video myself (on Kickstarter right now). I have 10x your effort and have promoted it with press realeses and twitter and facebook, bought ads on twitter and have sent it to everyone I can…. and guess what I have only have 15 backers on Kickstarer after two weeks and only 20 days to go. Can you say disappointed? Wow. It’s a great product for Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone Black education, for home control, for automotive control, for robotic control, for musical instruments and equipment.. etc. But it seems that even after all that work to make a quality product, nobody cares.
First of all, traditionally published first time authors seldom get much of an advance and may get little to no PR.
Secondly Your book has to be the very best it can be before pushing that “publish” button. Your book is not being judged against self-published books but all books. Readers rarely check who publishes a book (unless they were burned by a bad SP book in the past!) You rarely get a second chance for a good first impression.
Only 10% of the books nominated to indieBRAG get through to getting a B.R.A.G.Medallion. The number one reason is poor editing.
You may have a great idea and can publish it cheaply using friends to do editing- or even yourself- but this may not be good enough. This is a business so treat it like that. Do the hard work, consider the cost, make a plan for promoting your book. Dreams of getting rich and famous by writing a book may be just that, a dream. Writing your book may be the easiest part. The authors that have “made-it” in self-publishing will all tell you they did the work- the hard work!
[…] at Otaku Journalist, Lauren reflects on self publishing one month after the release of Otaku […]
Hi Lauren,
thanks for sharing this with us. Not everyone would be so bold to do what you did, nor be so open about the (first) results. As an entrepeneur I can understand what you’re saying about return on investment. Rightly so, you shouldn’t just look at the financial picture, which definitely can improve if you’re patient, keep at it and play the long game here.
Besides profit, one of the major goals of this book has been I think the book itself. Well you succeeded in that, and I think you succeeded in helping the people who read it as well. Also, as a centerpiece of your portfolio, it’ll continue to work for you for many years to come.
Thanks for this advice Lauren! It’s really helpful!
@athenia45:disqus so glad you thought so! It’s hard work but I definitely recommend self publishing. You get total control.