Diary of a Self-Published Author: Episode 1

Ever wondered what it’s really like to self-publish? Obsessive, compulsive, addictive. Autonomy, power, freedom, control. Accountable, responsible, heavy.
These are just a few of the feelings we get every day.

In this podcast we’ll explore the everyday of being a self-published author, with a focus on process over outcomes. If we do the small everyday things well, and consistently, then the outcomes take care of themselves. Here’s what it’s like.

Segments:

- General News from the Self-Publishing Sphere 4:30

- Writing/Editing/Planning 10:41 

- Marketing 21:04

- Finances 28:13

- Mental Health 30:28

Stuart is a self-published author, and founder of WriteMentor, an organisation that strives to help authors achieve their writing dreams and form community.

He is a secondary school science teacher by day, and writer and multiple business owner by night. He has a young family, with a son and a daughter, Luke and Leia (only kidding!), and is a Star Wars fanatic!

He writes fantasy and science fiction for Middle Grade and Young Adults.

He lives in Glasgow, Scotland.

You can keep up with me on my monthly newsletter - sign up here: https://stuartwhite.substack.com

You can also follow me in the following places:
Website: https://stuartwhiteauthor.co.uk/
TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMNuaRDeP/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stuartwhitewm/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/StuartWhiteWM

Ghosts of Mars is available to buy here: https://t.co/hJpVW4qKxL

Transcript

Stuart:
Ever wondered what it's really like to self-publish? Obsessive, compulsive, addictive, autonomy, power, freedom, control, accountability, responsibility, a heavy burden. These are just a few of the feelings that self-published authors have every single day. In this podcast, we'll explore the everyday of being a self-published author with a focus on process over outcomes. If we do the small things really well every single day and consistently, then the outcomes will take care of itself. Here is what it's like. Welcome to the diary of a self-published author. Hello and welcome to episode one of the diary of a self-published author. My name is Stuart White. I am an author, self-published author, and the founder of Right Mentor. I have done several podcasts before, several with Right Mentor themselves. I've also done my own podcast, The 1100 Project, which charted the first few months of me being a self-published author. and the outcomes that came as a result of doing that. And I really enjoyed, I really, really enjoyed doing that podcast and so I thought that this might be an interesting take to look inside the head on a regular basis of a self-published author and see what a week looks like generally and specifically how they differ from each other as well. to look at the aspects of the writing, the editing, marketing, finances, and all the other things that come with being a self-published author. But also to look inside a little bit about the plusses, but also the tolls that it takes upon you to do all of the jobs that a publisher would normally do for most authors. I'm hoping that with time as well. We'll get other insights apart from just my own and we'll chat to some other indie authors about their experiences and how they manage their day to day and their week to week. And we can see the insights of their diaries as well. But this first episode is really all about introducing the format myself and what we're gonna be looking at going forward. So today's date is the 27th of April, Thursday, 27th of April when I'm recording this. and it's 10.30 at night. For me and my household, this is the quiet time where I get the opportunity to do things like this, to think and reflect and also just have less noise around so that I can actually record without constant requests for snackies or to build a cushion fort. in the living room and rearrange your furniture or anything similar to that. And so I find that I quite often come alive at this time of night when it comes to the author side of what I do. And this is where I get the majority of my work done. So I thought I'd record the podcast during this golden period as well. So the format going forward is going to be quite interesting. So I will try and start off with a general discussion about something. that I've been looking at or I've seen in the news or in the bookseller or online that week regarding self-publishing something that may be of interest to those who are self-published authors and also probably traditionally published authors too. I'm then gonna look a little bit about the writing and planning, editing, marketing, finances and so on that I've had to work with that week and talk about what that looks like and obviously how that then builds into the big picture. of being a self-published author as well. So let's start off with what's been happening this week. Now, about two hours ago, I got an email from IngramSpark. They are one of the places that you can self-publish your book. They're particularly useful because when you upload your book with them, your book then goes onto the Gardener's database. directory which means that bookshops can order your book even though it's print on demand. They tend to order it by request rather than stocking people generally although I'm sure there's a few self published authors who do get stocked quite regularly but for the majority of people it will be on a request basis and it will be print on demand but I still think it's incredible there's that availability for it out with KDP on Amazon. It's good to have a little bit of another opportunity for people to get it through a different channel. And so IngramSpark have traditionally always been that way of doing it for self-published authors. They sent an interesting email though tonight and I'll read out a little bit about what they've said and explain how that's different from what's gone on previously and what that might mean for self-published authors going forward because it is quite interesting. So they're celebrating their 10th year. in July, which is great. People, there's a long history with IngramSpark and a lot of people who sell publish don't necessarily like working with IngramSpark because their customer service is apparently atrocious. Now I've been fortunate that I've not had to contact them about anything. I've managed to not have any issues so far and so I've not experienced that myself, but yes, apparently that's the case. The other thing with IngramSpark as well is it costs money to upload your manuscript to them. It was £50 and every subsequent correction and re-upload, even if the same manuscript, with small, minor and sometimes insignificant changes, that also costs you money. And so, what they are potentially, in fact, what they are doing is from the 1st of May, so very soon, you're going to be able to upload your titles for free. which is a huge change previously. And in the past, what had happened was, for example, I'm a member of Ally, which is a independent author society, and they provide free uploads for IngramSparks. I've been lucky I've not actually had to pay that 50 pound to upload it, but obviously I pay for the membership with Ally, which includes that. So that's been useful for me, but yes, it's now gonna be free as of May the 1st. think that's a positive, isn't it? Because as indie authors, we don't have big budgets, and we want to save every penny we can. So that's good news for everyone all around. It removes that barrier as well, that cost barrier that can sometimes affect whether people can upload their book, especially the revision costs. And on that note, they've said from now on, there's going to be free corrections. So when you do have to re-upload a manuscript, if there's a small change that you have to make, then that's also going to be free. However, they have said that's only within the first 60 days. So I'm assuming that the old fees will apply if you want to upload after that time. And I guess it's not perfect, but it's better than it was. So no complaints there. And that's really good. So if you are planning to self-publish in the future, that's good news for you, I think, on that front. There's a couple of other little changes as well, which I won't go into the details of just now. But. For example, they're going to have a flat shipping fee apparently for US addresses only. So if you're in the US, that's perhaps beneficial for you. It also depends on how much you ship books and so on, but that's good for you, excluding Alaska and Hawaii, obviously, because they're not in the main body of the US. And also, and this is interesting, I'll be interested to see how this is, what impact this is going to have. But they're introducing a market. access fee. So from the 1st of July this year that will be charged for every print book sold through their global distribution network. So that's all the network to the bookstores and the retailers, libraries, schools, etc. It'll be 1% of the list price of the title sold. So not a significant amount, but still an amount and that means that they I guess are going to still... They've obviously, they'll have done their financial projections and worked out that that's going to bring in more money than the £50 upload fee, which is why, you know, take it with one hand and you give it the other and all that stuff. They're going to take a percentage of your sales and in exchange for that, they're not going to charge you for uploads. So anyway, interesting financial model for them and it'll be interesting to see what impact that has on people publishing with them. I would imagine it will mean... Because this is the way it works often with indie publishing. It's hard to necessarily always have the upfront cash. You want to be selling your books and bringing in some revenue that way, and then that can be spent back out again. So for a lot of people who don't have the money upfront, and it's only through sales that they get that. So they might be happier just taking a percentage off instead. So we'll see what happens, but an interesting development in the self-published indie author world. So I am obviously within IngramSpark, actually, I should say, for my first book. And I'll probably put my next two on there as well. And it will be interesting to see what impact that has and see also if they continue to deliver the poorer level of customer service that they've been notable for in the past, or whether that will also improve with this 10 year changes that they're putting in place. So let's talk a little bit about. about myself and my writing. So this week I haven't actually done any writing. And that's because at the moment I am very much in the revision stage for a couple of books. I'm looking to bring out both a middle grade and a YA book later on this year. A YA book, the name was a dystopian science fiction novel charting the. The fortunes of a young man in that society who reaches the point of emerging into adulthood and must undergo a big test and it doesn't go his way. And we see a little bit about the wider world of that story, which is quite interesting. And then it's without giving too many spoilers away, it's got a vibes of the Hunger Games and Maze Runner and so on and Divergent. as well. I think they were all probably in legend as well, the Marie Luu novel. I think they were all definitely big inspirations when I wrote that novel. So I'm working on the revisions for that at the moment and got it out with a few beta readers, which obviously is great. And some of the people have sent it out to some of the writers are, I know are very good at giving feedback. And so I know that the quality of what I get back is going to be, it's going to be really good. And I'm going to implement as many of those changes as I can into the novel and hopefully make it the best it can be. So that's due out later in the year of current O. I've also got, I've just recently arranged a cover designer for that one as well. And he is brilliant. He has done big names. Philip Pullman, James Patterson. He has done, what ones has he done? He did Ready Player One. He did a lot of big, big covers. and I'm really excited about him doing the cover for my first YA novel as well but I'll reveal more details about that as and when they come in. I'm not expecting anything to be turned around in a couple of weeks or anything so it could be this summer before we get a glance of that but I'm really excited about that. On the middle grade front I've got another book as well which I'm hoping again to bring out later this year and that's my my love letter to Doctor Who. novel which is a middle grade Doctor Who essentially with obviously with some notable changes. It's actually it's got a nod to Doctor Who if you like throughout it but it doesn't it's not got too much likeness. I think kids will like it. I've written it with that in mind. It's a lot of fun. I hope there's quite a lot of heart in it as well and that's something actually that I'm... I'm working with my editor Emma Reid on this one more closely. And that's one thing she said to me is about focusing on that heart of the story. And because I've got tendency to get carried away in my world building and creating new planets and races throughout time and across the universe. And so that's been her advice is to try and drill down on the heart of the story and keep that emotional stakes high. And so that's what I'm going to be focusing on in the next pass of that one, which I'm hoping to do throughout May. And again, I've got the brilliant Jen Jameson working on the cover for that one. She did my Ghosts of Mars cover, which you can see just behind me if you're watching the video. And if not, you can have a wee look online if you're interested to see the cover. But she is, yeah, she's working on that. And again, that'll probably be the summer before we've got anything to reveal there. But it's really... This is one of the things I love about self-publishing. It's so empowering to have that final say over who does your covers. It's something that, as traditional published authors know, you don't actually get tons of input into. You know, you might get shown a few sketches or drafts or something saying, what do you think about this? But you know, you wouldn't necessarily get to choose the person that does it. Or... have a high degree of input into design and other elements like that because I guess they're trusting the illustrator designer. They may have their own idea as well with their marketing, the direction they want to push it in and so on. And so that's maybe where their expertise lies. But as a self-published author, sometimes you want that control. And maybe this is a tricky thing to say. maybe a lot of traditionally or some traditionally published authors can be a little bit disappointed in their cover or it doesn't go in the direction they thought they'd like it to go and it's yeah and you know they're not 100% happy with it whereas you know I'm getting to from concept all the way through to finish I'm getting to have a high degree of input and control over what happens and working with great people as well you know that you're going to get a good product as well you get to choose that person because for me anyway, and I've talked about this actually, I did a session recently for self publishing for a weekend conference thing. And one of the key things I said about cover design and illustrators and so on, just to chat about them for a minute, is that for every penny you don't spend on a good cover designer or illustrator, you lose out on revenue in selling your book. by tenfold more than that. And that's the hard thing about self-publishing and indie publishing is you often do need to have that wad of cash, that little pile of cash to spend on things like editing and a good cover and stuff before you even get close to bringing in any money. And that's where the difficulty lies. And as much as I'll talk all day about the importance of a good cover, I know that some people just literally can't. they can't afford 500, 800 pounds, a thousand pounds for a great cover. And that's, you know, and that's fair enough. And you just have to spend what you can afford. But I genuinely, I feel when I look at covers, I can see the difference in quality, especially among self-published books. You can see who has spent a little bit more money on their cover and has got someone to... do that cover for them, someone who's experienced and knows the genre conventions well for covers and will make it both blend in but also stand out and that's the tricky bit. A lot of people will design you a great cover but they maybe don't have the knowledge of that genre and so it sticks out too much, it doesn't look like a book from that genre and so people won't instantly recognize it as that and you lose out in sales because of that. Similarly, sometimes it will look too similar to everything else and not stand out enough because again, they just don't have that experience to know how to produce the same but different. And it's the same for us writers, isn't it? When we're producing manuscripts, that's what people want. They want something they're familiar with, the same sort of similar idea or concept or, you know, all the typical genre tropes and conventions, but with a little twist and a little bit different about it as well. And that's where the real trick is. And that's, I guess, as you get more experienced, Basically, once you know your genre well, it's easier to then twist the well-trodden tropes and conventions of the genre. And I think when you don't know it as well, it can be easy to fall either into what everyone else is doing or go completely away from it and not actually get close enough to the genre tropes to actually keep the people that like the tropes. I mean, and this is a thing. When I'm reading science fiction or fantasy, you know, the two main genres I'm into, I know what I'm looking for as a reader. And if I don't see it, it can, you know, sometimes you get this absolutely fresh thing and it's still great, even though it doesn't have all the normal things, but you are looking for them. You need those signposts. I think a lot of readers do need the signposts and they need the things in place, which indicate, yes, this is clearly a science fiction novel based on the cover, based on the text, based on the... and the story and so on. So it's, yeah, you've got to, and I guess I'm taught, I know I talk a lot about this, but I think it's important and I'm glad, and this is my way of saying I'm really, really happy with the people that I've chosen to work with on this. And it's something that if you are considering self-publishing or you currently do, just make sure that you're putting a lot of time and thought and effort into who you choose to work with. It's okay to say, you know, to inquire to a lot of people to. put out a few posts asking if people are interested in working with you and then saying, oh, actually, I've now found someone, I'm sorry, but I'll consider you for a future one. You know, it's okay to do that. You don't have to just quietly ask one person at a time. And, you know, maybe if they say yes, feel pressured to just go with them. You know, you've got to take your time with that and get the right person. So that's all I've got to say about that, as Forrest Gump would say. So what's the, what is the the scope? this for both of these novels? Well, the plan is to get them both out by the end of the year and by get them out. Again, I'm really wary of using that phrase because it's not just about getting them out. I don't want to do things quickly for the sake of quickness. I want things to be done well and to be done right and to come out when they're ready. But I also, like most writers, have a habit of procrastination if I don't apply a little bit of pressure onto myself. And so that's something that I'm hoping for by the end of this year. So you'll get your chance to support me and to get your hands and nose later on in the year. And I'm really excited about that, actually. It's both those novels I love. I love Dearly for different reasons. And I hope that I'll find some readers that feel equally about them. So what else have I been up to this week? Well, I am looking at my diary. I've been doing some marketing stuff. And I've got a couple of things to do over the weekend as well regarding marketing. I'll chat a little bit about those. So I took my first plunge this week into Facebook ads. Now for most indie published authors, Facebook ads are important, especially if you're a full time one who makes your income solely from writing. You've got to get enough new readers to be buying your book for you to keep making that money. And so Facebook ads is a big... a big pull for a lot of these people. I have been reluctant to use it thus far because I am not 100% confident in using their ad centre on the platform. It's not quite as intuitive as I'd like it to be. I am not 100% confident if the finances are going to work for me just because of my market, my readers. I am targeting with this first book. middle grade readers who are nine to 12. So there's none of them on Facebook essentially. And so who am I targeting? Well, I've been trying to target the people who would buy those books. So grandparents and even parents are the main people on there. And it's interesting because I'll talk a little bit about the analytics in a minute, but that has been the majority of people who have clicked on my ads. Yeah, I think that well, that's a good thing. Obviously, I'm targeting the right people and I'm hitting them and so on. But yeah, the important thing to to try and take into account is. Getting. So what I've actually done then with the Facebook ads, well, it's been interesting. I have been doing a 10 pound daily ad, targeting specific demographics and specific interests and likes and so on, ones that I think will fit in well with my book. And I've been getting quite a lot of clicks, which is good. This is what you want. I've been looking at some of the... the metrics that you should be looking at as well with marketing on Facebook, so cost per click and obviously overall impressions and number of people have seen it and obviously conversions as well, how many sales is the result of that? And it's been interesting, so impressions have been fine, cost per click's been really good actually, it's been quite low, it's interesting, it's been quite low for some demographics and obviously higher for others and what I'm gonna start doing is adjusting that ad and excluding that the higher cost per click demographics over time and obviously more heavily focused on the lower ones to try and bring down the cost of the adverts over time. And I think that's the sort of accepted way to do it, isn't it? It's for people just to experiment for a while and play about with it until they get the right combination of demographics, the right combination of text on the ad, the right combination of graphics and so on. So I'm still in that sort of playing around stage, but it has been interesting and I've been quite happy so far. The sales have not been as high as I'd probably want them to be for the spend, but the spend hasn't been crazy or anything. So it's fine and there has been some income been generated as a result of that through sales and through Kindle limited page reads, et cetera. So that's been quite good and quite promising, I think, for a start. It's one of those things I think once I have generated a bigger backlist, more novels, more novels in a series, etc. It's going to be more effective for me in terms of read through and so on which is important for indie authors. But I am just yeah, I'm just sort of feeling my way into that field at the moment. And I've been watching tutorials about it, reading blog posts and stuff and seeing how it goes. So in the meantime, you know, I promise and star is I am losing money. That's important to be honest about that. It's not I'm not making a profit at this stage, but it's only been a few days. So that's fine. And I think with with paid advertising like that, you just got to say at the start, well, actually here is what I can afford to lose. And that's what I'm going to play around with. And if I end up losing it all, then, you know, it's an experiment. I've learned a lot from it. And, you know, you're better prepared if you want to do it again in the future. And you may not. You may choose not to. But, you know, that's. That's knowledge in the bank. And I think I'd much rather regret the things that I did than the things that I didn't do. You know, and I always, you know, when I used to play rugby and stuff, it would always be the same thing, you know, leave it all out in the field, you know, give everything you can on the field, even if you do things wrong or, you know, whatever else, at least you've done the very best that you can and you can regret maybe making some mistakes or doing things that you shouldn't have, but it's better than having not acted and not done anything at all, I think. And that's... kind of a wee motto that is a good one to live your life by for sure. So that's been one of my marketing for us. I've also been adjusting my Amazon ads as well. I've been doing Amazon ads for a couple of months now and they have been going reasonably well in some of the marketplaces, the US one, for example, it's been going profitably, which is great. And I've not really tinkered with them except to maybe increase my daily budget to see if I can scale that profit on that one. but with the UK marketplace, I'm finding that a bit trickier and I don't know why. I'm not doing anything hugely different and maybe that's why, because I'm not doing anything hugely different. So I've been tweaking that this week to try and see if I can just tip the scales on that one in terms of decreasing the spend and increasing the money that's coming in because at the moment it's just slightly higher on the spend and obviously that's fine. You know, it's like we're talking a matter of pounds. You know when the. And the negative for that one, so it's not it's not a disaster by any means. And obviously when you you're selling. Quite a lot of books as a result of the marketing then. You've got to think about that. You know this is something I talk about a lot or think about a lot anyways. Legacy marketing and it's about not just the marketing in the moment and making a profit in that particular time. It's about what effect will this marketing do now have in the long term? for me as an author for my books and future sales and so on. So I'm okay with where I'm at, even though it's just a slight loss on the Amazon ads as well. So that's again, something I've been playing with. I'm also looking at possibly doing a little free giveaway for some things in the future as well to try and drive a bit more interest, also do the free promotions that the likes of books and written word media and so on do so I'm maybe looking at that as well for next month just to try and sort of generate just a wee bit more interest you know get some people downloading the book and hopefully reading it and leaving some reviews and stuff so yeah there's a few things I'm sort of playing around with at the moment and trying to implement on the marketing side as well so been quite interesting week from that point of view. Finances so The finances of self-publishing, I think this is one of the things that people find the most interesting about it, because I guess numerical data is easy to digest, isn't it? And it's obviously in terms of scale, it's a lot shorter than a more qualitative analysis of how self-publishing is going for an author. So, yeah, finances at the moment, I'm still at a significant loss in the publication of this first book, regardless of the fact that, you know, just closing in on a thousand copies sold. I worked out I need to sell about two thousand or so to get close to breaking even on this first novel so it's still you know it's going fine but I still got a bit to go obviously and a way to go before we get closer to that so I'm still working with a bit of negative equities just now but hopefully you know over the next maybe year two years that will you know level out and all of recouped all the money I've spent on the first novel and then after that you're just talking profit and any future sales. And so it's a long, it is a long, long race, I think. And there's very few people who with one or two books maybe are making money. I think I was one of the podcasters listening to, they were saying, you'll make a loss with your first book, you'll break even with your second book and it's only in your third book and beyond you'll start to make some money. And so that's the mentality I'm going into this with. the savings that I have put aside and obviously the money I can put aside from my day job as a school teacher as well. That means that I can maybe invest a little bit in this and it's like any business. I think if you treat this whole thing like a business, then it's more likely to operate like a business in the long term and you're more likely to hopefully succeed. Part of the startup of a business is you have to invest some capital. that's the stage I'm at just now. And so I'm at ease with that. And I'm, yeah, I'm consoling myself with the fact that in the future things will get better for me on that front. But yes, I'll talk more about finances maybe another time. We've got more time in a future episode and maybe break things down a little bit more. The last little note in the diary for this week is about mental health. Now this is one that I think is an important one to talk about because The mental strain of all of the various roles that you have to encompass as a self-published author can be significant. It's a lot to keep in your head when you are simply the author, but when you're also the marketer, the publicist, the CEO, the accountant, the distributor and all those other jobs, then it can, it's likely to overwhelm. at certain stages and so I have definitely struggled with that this week and obviously in previous weeks as well as I look at, for example, I need to do some editing at the moment and I end up sitting there and I'm looking over spreadsheets and accounts and I'm looking at marketing as I've been talking about just there rather than doing the editing stuff and I think if I didn't have all those other things to do. I would just probably have got on with the edits by now, but because I have those things I haven't and that's caused me a bit of anxiety and worry and frustration as well with myself. I get frustrated all the time and I ask myself why have I not just started this yet? Why have I not just done this yet? And yeah, it can be quite difficult and you don't really have anyone to talk to because you obviously don't have an agent or a publisher or those kind of people to bounce. your thoughts off of. You have your family and your friends but you know they don't necessarily understand the mechanisms of what we're doing with self-publishing our novels. So that is something I've definitely been struggling with, is managing that and it's something I'll talk more openly and honestly about obviously as we go forward during these little updates but I think it's important to say it because sometimes someone might say, oh, how many books you sold now? But I'll just, we're just going up to a thousand now. But then people say, that's great. You're doing really well and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But they don't understand that, you know, as much as that is good and I'm pleased with that and so on, it comes, it does come at a cost and you've got to try and balance the cost of being successful with your self publishing business, with being successful and being happy and being a human who is a healthy. mental capacity throughout the week because at the moment I'm probably over capacity and that creates problems in other areas of my life as well and maybe I'm not applying as much of my mental energy towards those things as I perhaps should be. My family and my day job and my kids. Sometimes you feel like am I going too much into the self-publishing stuff and not leaving enough space for those other things. I thought that was something that was from my little notes this week that was worth mentioning because it's something that I think probably a lot of self-published authors do struggle with and don't necessarily manage as well as they would like to. So what I'm hoping for going forward is that in this section of the programme we maybe speak to another self-published author about what they're up to and what their diary looks like. and maybe hear a little bit about them, you know, about their latest project or maybe do a little reading from their book as well and talk a little bit about that side of things too. And I think that'd be quite a nice variety to just hearing about myself speaking in a monologue fashion on the podcast every single week. But I, you know, and similarly, I'm very happy to do that as well, especially as we kick this series off and that, yeah, the plan will be to try and do this every week. with the exception of maybe a few holidays a year and so on. But I think that will be good for me personally as well, as for those who might listen and get a lot from it, because there'll be an accountability that comes with having to come on and talk about what I've done this week. If I've done nothing, I'm gonna have nothing to talk about. And so it might motivate me to make sure that I'm on top of things throughout the week and making little notes about what I've done. And so obviously I can talk about it when I come onto the show. So that is the end of episode one of the diary of a self-published author. I'm Stuart White, and if you've ever wondered what it's like to self-publish, I hope you've got a little bit of insight in today's episode. I'll see you all next time.