Self-promotion for indie authors - some thoughts.

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www.lostcousins.com

                                        



Successfully publishing on Amazon Kindle and Createspace isn’t the end of the story, simply the beginning. To actually sell books, whether ebooks or paperbacks, it’s essential to bring it to the notice of the public. It’s not easy, especially if you aren’t the pushy sort – and I’m not. I’m what’s known in Lancashire as 'a bit back'ards in coming for'ards.' OK, I’ve been on Facebook for a couple of years and have built up my contacts there. More recently, I’ve joined Linked In and Twitter though it’s still early days and I’ve probably to still take full advantage of those networks.

I’m a member of the national women’s organisation, Townswomen's Guilds with individual guilds all over the United Kingdom and some 34,000 members so one of the things I will be doing, once I’ve got my author copies is to send a review copy to the Townswomen, the organisation’s quarterly journal, in the hope that they will do a review. I’ve put my name forward as a prospective speaker for the Chesterfield area and already have one booking, to speak at my own Bolsover Guild at our March AGM. As the programmes are due to change in April, I’m hoping I’ll get some more speaking dates for the coming year from other Guilds in the area and where hopefully I can sell a few print copies.

With writing family and social history articles, once I had published on Kindle, I contacted the proprietor of a particular website,  Lost Cousins with whom I’ve had correspondence in the past, about my book. LostCousins is about bringing people together, not just people who share an interest in family history, but people with a shared interest in the same families, people who share the same DNA. This is done by entering census data of one’s ancestors and the Lost Cousins’ unique search system identifies members who share the same ancestors by comparing the information each member has entered on their My Ancestors page. Peter Calver has been running Lost Cousins for over ten years now and, in addition to the ancestor search facility, he sends out frequent newsletters to members. These are always incredibly helpful to family historians, with lots of tips and ideas and not just about family history. The newsletters have a chatty friendly approach and what’s more, are free to all members, whether they have paid a subscription or not. Standard Membership is free but subscription does entitle one to contact lost cousins and is well worth the reasonable cost, currently £10 a year. I have made several connections this way.

To my delight, he featured my book in one of his newlsetters and, as he has around 97,000 members, I saw an instant increase in sales. In his latest newsletter, he has posted a fantastic review of my book. This is what he had to say. 

‘Review: A Suitable Young Man

It's not often that I review a work of fiction that isn't about genealogy, but I enjoyed A Suitable Young Man so much that I just had to tell you about it. The author of this extremely enjoyable book is Anne L Harvey - who many of you will know from her articles in family history magazines - and the story takes place in 1956, against the background of National Service and the Suez Crisis.

 I'm not familiar with the area of Lancashire where it's set … but I'm glad to say that this didn't spoil my enjoyment in the slightest - the people and locations seemed so real that I thought at first that it must be semi-autobiographical. Judging from the effusive email I received from a LostCousins member both the period detail and the geography are spot on - this is what Val wrote:

"I am only half way through but can tell now that it will be the best book I have ever read. I can see Rivington Pike from my kitchen window and my daily walks take me 'up Rivington' or to Horwich.

"In reading the book I am reliving my youth, everywhere the characters go I also went, and the last train on a Saturday night out of Blackpool was spot on. It used to be an exciting/frightening ride home where the lads did take the light bulbs out and throw them out of the windows. Fortunately I was with my own Teddy Boy boyfriend so felt safe enough. Like Kathy my parents did not like my Teddy Boy but we rode out all the rough seas and later married.”

I didn't want the book to end either - so I was absolutely delighted to discover that Anne has another novel in the pipeline. A Suitable Young Man is a skilful recreation of Britain in the mid-1950s which reminded me what it was like to be young - and whilst some people might pigeonhole the novel as romantic fiction, so was Pride & Prejudice. Mind you, there is one big difference between Jane Austen and Anne L Harvey - Jane Austen wasn't a LostCousins member!’

This immediately prompted another rush of sales, even in the United States, a few in Canada, one in France and one in Italy, presumably ex-pats living there. So, as an exercise in self-promotion, extremely valuable. My advice is to explore as many of your contacts as possible. And think laterally!

Self-publishing progress report

My Createspace bible and the copious notes I made

So, it’s been a month since I’ve written anything on this blog. This has been deliberate so that I could report back on sales, if any. I’m delighted to report that ‘A Suitable Young Man’ has been selling steadily on Amazon Kindle, much better than I expected. If I’m honest, my whole ethos had been to work toward getting print copies available. Any sales I made on Kindle would be incidental. Now I see that Kindle sales will form the biggest part of my income. Not that I’m complaining; it’s been a wonderful surprise.

As I’ve mentioned before, I formatted my Createspace book using Tim C Taylor’s ‘Format Your Print Book with Createspace.’ The book proved invaluable but even though this was a second edition, certain things had changed which I needed to work my way through. The main thing to remember is to use section breaks instead of page breaks and first line indentation instead of tabs. Fortunately, there is a previewer so that you can check your work at all times. (Tip here: when formatting make use of the ‘print preview’ facility in Word so that you can see how it’s going to look as a book.) Berni Stevens, who had designed my cover for the ebook, had had experience of formatting a full cover (including spine and back cover) and was a big help, eventually providing me with a print-ready PDF copy to upload.

Once everything is uploaded to your satisfaction, it has to be submitted for review (to ensure that it doesn’t contravene any of their regulations). This usually takes 24 hours after which you are emailed to say you can go ahead and order a proof copy. There’s a drawback here in that the proof copy has to come from the US. While waiting for that, I completed all the pricing and distribution details on my ‘dashboard.’ When working out a sale price, I took into consideration the cost price of author copies plus shipping from the States and added a profit margin onto that. Incidentally, cost of author copies and shipping costs are clearly given and simple to follow.

I’m looking forward to having my print copy in my hand, hopefully some time in the New Year. On receipt of that, I will need to check carefully through, make sure there are no typos or glaring formatting errors. Then, I will be ordering author copies which will take another few weeks to arrive. Because of this, it will be impossible to arrange a book launch in advance, which is a drawback. In the meantime, it will be available as POD for single copies for anyone who wants to purchase it through Amazon UK, no waiting time involved.

Now I’m a fully-fledged self-published author – or ‘indie author’ which I prefer – and proud that I’ve done it. And if I've done it, anyone can.

A Steep Learning Curve

I can’t believe that it’s been a month since I last blogged. And I know it is because ‘A Suitable Young Man’ is due for release on Monday, 1^st December. Pre-orders have been a little on the disappointing side but then I always knew that the novel would do better as a paperback (more on that later). A couple of people who’ve bought it have promised to do a review about it and I’m on tenterhooks about that. Suppose they think it’s rubbish? Hopefully, they’ll find something good and positive about it, even if it’s for the historical accuracy. If I had fingernails, I’d be biting them but I cut them recently!

So what have I been doing since my last blog? Self-promotion and more self-promotion, not something that comes easily to me. I joined Twitter a couple of weeks ago but, if I’m honest, I find the constant stream of ‘buy my books’ tweets boring and unnecessary. I’ve done it a few times, of course, one has to, but I prefer the more human side of interaction with only the occasional mention of a book for sale. My friend and fellow Indie author, Lizzie Lamb, has had some brilliant posters done incorporating the cover of her books. She uses the services of Gary Walker of Look4Books so I investigated. For a very reasonable yearly subscription, he does three such posters, lists you on his website www.look4books.co.uk and tweets every few days. Well worth it, I’d say, and one I’ve quickly taken advantage of. The image I’ve used is one of the posters he’s done for me.

As I said earlier, I’d always planned to issue my book as a paperback, simply because I think it will sell better. I plan to offer talks to groups and take some copies with me. In fact, I’ve already got one booked for next August to speak at a Horwich Heritage meeting. As my book is set in my hometown of Horwich, I hope to sell a few copies there. But for that I need to physically have some books to offer. To do this, I’m using the services of Createspace. To that end, I bought a copy of a book by Tim C Taylor called ‘Format Your Book With Createspace’ from Amazon. For anyone thinking of following the Createspace path, this is absolutely invaluable. Originally, I bought the Kindle version but soon realised that if I was going to follow his advice, I was going to have to have the print copy, to be able to flick back and forth as required. I can honestly say that it has been a steep learning curve. I’m a touch typist, trained as a secretary, but for Createspace, I had to learn how to do things differently, from setting margins for books, using section breaks instead of page breaks, first line indentations instead of tabs, page numbering from the start of the book. I found the process of uploading the book to Createspace relatively easy though I had to search for the pdf cover template. Even as I write, Berni Stevens, my cover artist, is working on the complete cover so that I can finalise the procedure. Then, I will order a proof copy to check carefully. This can take a few weeks as it has to come from the United States.

Whilst I’m waiting for my proof copy to come, I plan to go back to my follow-on novel, ‘Bittersweet Fellowship,’ which I haven’t touched for months. I’m looking forward to tackling that because it was very much a first draft and I need to study the comments made by my New Writers Scheme (Romantic Novelists Association) reader a couple of years ago. So, some challenging times ahead. I can’t wait!