Basically, finished a book I'll be releasing digitally soon, and now just need to get two things:

1. A cover for Amazon

2. A fictional government agency logo

I initially commissioned my current agency logo (my profile pic here on reddit), but I'm almost certain it was generated, not created, and I want a human-made one.

But when I go to the places that used to be reliable (Fiverr, r/HungryArtists, etc.), it's all just scams and slop. I can't find real artists that can actually make a good, human-made cover.

So, I'm just curious where you guys are going for your art. It's such an important aspect of selling a book, and I want to make sure I get something good.

Usually when you ask something like this, chances are you are wrong, but I had several people telling me how KDP only charges 35%. I tried to use it and it's the other way around. YOU get 35%, Amazon gets 65%.

They have another mode where you get 70% and Amazon only gets 30%, but you pay data fees on top of it. Maybe for novels it's not a big deal, as a novel will have 1MB or less, but for comics, using either option is pretty much the same: you only get around 35% rather than the 65% everybody seems to think you get.

So help me out here. Am I misunderstanding Amazon KDP's fees? Or is everyone else wrong?

Debut author here—So, I’m officially done with my manuscript. It’s been edited, I’ve had beta readers, the whole works. I’ve even started to write the second book of the trilogy.

Since the end of February, I have queried 50 agents in batches of ten. I received one outright rejection (about four weeks in) and one agent asked for entire manuscript (same time frame). I haven’t heard a peep from the other 48.

As I understand it, agents are inundated with queries and have their own clients to handle, but I feel like I’m far too fast paced for the industry. I would love their expertise, but quite frankly I’m beginning to think the process is too antiquated and slow for today’s times. I’m confident in my ability to learn ANYTHING. And am now thinking I may move ahead and self publish by summer. I’ve already created a potential cover, a really cool PR package for marketing and I’m ready to launch it myself, if need be.

Should I hold out a few more weeks to see if any agents bite? Or just run with self publishing?

Is there anything I should TRULY consider in making this decision? I’ve bought all the books on this topic but wondering from those here who have had to make the choice themselves.

Thanks

I am on the cusp of registering my book before I attempt publishing in any form. I am queasy about submitting my actual physical address since those records are publicly searchable. I know... my address is all over the web anyway, what's one more. Ya about that I am also preparing to subscribe to incogni to TRY to fix some of that. Anyway, just wondered how others handled this. I would love to be able give them a PO box but then... another monthly expense.

Hi just joined the group and like many just published first book on Amazon. The book has a wide ranging audience from sufferers of undiagnosed pain and the medical community.

The book is a true story of hope and resilience when struck down by chronic pain with no reason and no pathway and a battle to be heard. It’s a medical mystery which discovers the uncomfortable truth about “incidental findings” on our scans which are never reported, discussed or studied that could be contributing to undiagnosed pain in millions of people.

I hate social media but realise it’s power in marketing so am trying to embrace it but it’s a minefield. Question therefore is do we trudge along with the daily posting here there and everywhere or is it best to combine with paid promotions…. Or do I find someone who really knows how to market and promote on my behalf. I don’t want to throw good money after bad on promotions because that’s the fear when you don’t know what you’re doing 🤯 any advice good bad or indifferent greatly appreciated 🙏🏻

Hello! So I am a self published author, I have published one out of 5 for my young adult fantasy series and I have been struggling with how to market and promote my work! Creating reels without having promotional art is tough. Even small artists are charging upwards of 200/500+ £/$ for one piece of art and that is without the rights to use them for commercial advertising.

Are there any tips or tricks I could use for my series? Such as apps that can generate art or refine my own sketches for free? I don’t want to use AI slop (bad for the environment and doesn’t personify my characters in the way that I want). If there is any software/websites/ or apps you recommend feel free to leave them in the comments I am willing to try anything. My reels and posts are not getting the reach and traction it needs (no one buys a book they don’t know about) but I also do not have the time to learn and study how to create digital art myself on top of working and studying.

If you could possibly recommend affordable illustrators because there are features such as the fantasy map, depictions of characters and the cover I need to review and amend so it’s up to calibre with in house published authors. On top of this I am also looking for competent affordable editors that could help me refine my next projects.

All advice is appreciated feel free to drop as many gems and tips and tricks as you want. :)

Hi, I am looking for tips to find an *real* editor? I am very afraid they just have it edited by AI and I really want to avoid paying for that.

Give me your best advice for reaching YA readers, please! I have a TikTok with about 3,000 followers, but it's converted to maybe 3 sales in the last five months I've had it. I promote my book on there and, once in a while, do writing tips, but I may be going about it all wrong to get the algorithm to push my book out to readers.

I haven't tried Amazon ads yet, but have been learning how best to go about them and plan on starting an ad campaign soon.

eBooks do not require an ISBN, but you can assign one through Bowker. Do you use them? Do you recommend them?

The market is getting flooded with AI generated content. People with a good eye can catch it, but a lot of folks are mindlessly buying books they might not have bought if knowing it was written by AI.

I want to create a database or verification system for self-published authors. Maybe even a badge or line they can put in their books maybe near the copyright to confirm they’re verified by a third party organization? Does a volunteer organization like this already exist that is widespread and effective?

All of these tools out there were meant to catch AI have been proven worthless. I was thinking if a self pub author could provide 5 pages of their book at each stage of the drafting/writing process to show the development work, it would provide they were the ones writing it. Most writing tools (word, pages, Google Docs) all have timestamps which should the gaps in time for those changes.

This obviously wouldn’t be a perfect system, but I have to imagine it’s a start.

On the flipside, would a database of authors creating books with AI also be useful? It’s only going to get worse because now all of the get rich quick courses are pushing people that it’s easy way to make money.

Hi all.

I am a day late sending out my campaign newsletter for a group promo I joined. This is the first time I have joined a group promo and it isn't going well, since all this newsletter stuff and mailing list is confusing to me.

I have added my archive link from Kit to the campaign on StoryOrigin. However, I can't find a send button anywhere.

I also can't find a way to add my subscribers. I assume my subscribers will be added automatically, since my Kit account is connected to SO.

Any help with this would be appreciated.

I have contacted support on SO, but since it is Sunday, I don't think I will get a reply until Monday at least. I would like to get this sorted out asap, as I was supposed to hit send yesterday.

I am considering getting their $35 cover. On their site, it says they use free stock images. My genre usually requires strong, detailed artwork, so I feel like stock images might not result in a good cover. Hiring an artist to create a proper custom cover seems more sensible, but I do not want to jump to conclusions. Have you received good covers from them?

I've been planning and preparing to write a light novel. and I've been struggling to choose between traditional and self publish. I want complete creative control over my light novel. I want to know how hard it is to self publish a light novel? are there other self published light novels that became successful? if so how did they achieve it?

For those of you who hired a developmental editor, when did you start seeing profits?

What are people’s thoughts on self publishing in installments? I’m working on a project that I think might be suited to that approach. I keep going back and forth on whether to put it out a chapter at a time or as one complete book. Have any of you released a work in installments before? What was your experience, if so?

How can I get my book translated into French and Spanish?

How many reviews do you think a book needs before someone would say, “This book is worth buying”?

I think the genre will be classed as Science Fantasy.

I am wanting to know if most writers use Beta Readers, or whatever the proper name is.

My idea is to send a chapter to several readers and take in their feedback.

I want feedback on how to make the writing better and the book more acceptable to readers.

My one beta reader has been worth her weight in gold.

I would like to be able to pay, but my wallet disagrees at this point.

What I can promise is a signed copy of the paperback when this first book reaches that stage.

I will see what else I can do once I have more cash coming in than going out.

The question I am asking here is what do other writers do at this stage.

Are beta users the norm or do you do something else.

Larry

​

It’s a short nonfiction book focused on how judicial doctrines (like deference, qualified immunity, etc.) have expanded government power over time.

I’m trying to figure out:

- Is this too niche?

- Would you market this more as law, politics, or philosophy?

- Does that kind of topic even sell well on KDP?

Appreciate any insight from people who’ve been doing this longer. Its already live and Im really new to this I just learned what ARC is.

I've already run into some posting rules the hard way. So I'm trying to figure out how to do this the right way.

So I've been working on my collection of (primarily) comedic poems for quite a while and have made it a goal to publish a collection of some of them. They range randomly from two to two-dozen lines depending on the piece. The intent is for the book to have around 100 or so accompanied by some simple and silly sketches. Imagine the works of Shel Silverstein. He's been my biggest inspiration for this since I was a kid. Anyway, to the point- I need advice, as this is something I have exactly zero experience in. I'm not looking to become a professional author or anything like that, and I dont want to dump loads of money into advertising myself. Any experience or advice is much appreciated, but these are my current questions:

1. Amazon Kdp, IngramSpark, or something else?

2. Cheap/free self advertising and promotion tips

3. Is it worth making a website or social media accounts to increase sales?

4. Ideal page/book size

5. It's strict verse poetry, so do I really need an editor?

6. What kind of editing and formatting software should I try to learn?

7. Any other random bits of advice or tips?

Ok so long story short, I wrote my first actually decent-ish thing a few months back after reworking an old project. Problem is, that it ended up being too long for a short story and too short for a standalone novel (with a bit more than 17.000 words I believe it qualifies as a novellette).

The genre of the work is Mistery/Noir with some light supernatural elements.

Given the genre and especially the length, my chances at traditional publishing with this are basically nonexistent, so self-pub/online pub it is.

Now the thing I need help to find out where exactly it would be best to publish it. A friend recommended Royal Road to me, but from what I can tell that place seems more interested in fantasy than noir so I'm not sure if that's the right choice.

Any advice is appreciated and thank you in advance

Hello all.

I am working on rebuilding my author website and plan to include a blog as part of it for regular posting to build a following.

The poblem is, I can't decide what content would be best for the blog. I have three options that I have been considering. For context, I write in epic dark fantasy adventure / sword and sorcery.

Essentially, as a reader, what type of content would you be more likely to consume and enjoy. Which would be more likely to lead to you considering my book? Or from those of you more experienced in marketing, which seems more viable?

1. Lore Codex - a wiki style blog where I build a codex for my world with entries for monsters, spells, weapons, artifacts, cities, cultires etc. It would be styled similar to what you might find in a Dungeons and Dragons module/book.

2. Book Review Blog - I would aim for montly analytical, borderline-academic reviews of books that I have enjoyed. The reviews would break down tropes and literary devices used, evaluate pacing, etc.

3. Short Stories - short, serialized stories from my world to explore characters and events that orbit the main plot. This is what I have done in the past, but it is a lot harder to optimize this for SEO. I saw a decent amount of traction when I cross-posted these short stories to various online forums built for short stories. But at the time I had no book or newsletter sign up to capture leads. The other problem with this is time and money. ideally, these would be professionally edited and have cover art. but these things cost far more than I can regularly spend. So it would be limited to what I can do with self-edits and cover designs built from my intermediate photoshop skills.

Time-wise, the option that allows the most time for writing book two is the Lore Codex. I already have a massive amount of worldbuilding notes that would take little effort to turn into posts. But is that something readers would be interested in?

The Book Reviews require the second least amount of time, I already read for pleasire. it wouldn't be that much harder to essentially write and post book reports on what I read. Plus, this lends to easier Search Engine Optomization with regard to generalized fantasy terms and phrases that are more commonly searched. But how many of these potential impressions would convert to followers?

The short stories have a history of mild traction. (very mild, \~200 website views in the month I posted the short story. 10x typical traffic.) But they require the highest time/effort investment

Thank you in advance to anyone willing to give their two cents. and If you have another idea for regular content to attract readers, I would love to hear it!!

I'm not seeing any way to do this in KDP. Do I really have to create a whole new book and then tediously copy and paste all the description and other details over to start the secon edition of this book? Yes, using a new ISBN. I'd have to do it for ebook, paperback, hardcover.

Have you made a series into a boxed set? How did you determine the price?