Three "Obvious" Things I Didn't Know When I Started Publishing

Maybe you've been there. Maybe you've been getting ready to publish your first (or maybe not your first) book, and you've felt like you were going in blindly, not really sure how to make it so that your book is actually seen. Maybe you check your dashboard on release day, and you see one sale. And then... nothing. Crickets. And the things you learn along the way? Well, everyone else seems to already know them.

When I started publishing, I felt totally unconfident. I'd done the research, but at the time, the answers I found often conflicted with one another. I'd spoken with authors who had experienced some success, made some money off of their writing, and although many of them were extremely helpful, there was a lot of uncertainty afterward, and I usually left with more questions than I had coming in. 

Today, I'd like to write to all of you about three things that may seem obvious... that I really didn't know when I started publishing my books. 

​1. Reviews are important.
This may seem silly to you. Of course reviews are important, right? If people like your books enough to write reviews about them - to spread the word to other readers - then others are more likely to buy it. The more people who review your books, the better visibility they will have. 

But this was pretty new information for me when I started publishing. Even as a reader, I never thought to post reviews for books on places like Amazon or GoodReads, even when I loved them. I posted many reviews on my social media, but it really never occurred to me where I should post reviews that really count. It also never really occurred to me that there was anything I could do to get more reviews. While I don't pay for reviews or require reviews, I've learned a ton of strategies I can implement that can help readers be more interested in reviewing my books. This can even come down to how visible my book is when it launches, how well my metadata works for my title, and even how the book itself looks. 

2. Making your book look professional takes TIME and MONEY.
Again, this one should be pretty obvious. But when I started publishing my work back in 2017, I really didn't think I would need to spend any money turning my manuscript into something my readers would want to pick up and read just by looking at it. 

Even for indie authors who do everything from writing to formatting to cover design, everything takes time, and most everything takes at least some money. When I started, I didn't really think about this, and my first few books didn't have the quality they would now if I had known when I published them what I know now. Even if you do everything yourself, you're still going to need to acquire and develop the skills necessary to make a professional looking, high quality book. Then there's hiring an editor, creating different editions of your book, ISBN's to purchase (although you don't have to purchase an ISBN: Some sites like IngramSpark and Kindle Direct Publishing will assign your book an ISBN for free), and so much more. All the little things add up, and it's good to know ahead of time what you may want or need to give your books their best shot.

3. How you prep your book launch largely determines how well your book will do while it's new.
Book launch? What's a book launch? Don't you just release your book when it's ready? Well, yes. You can "launch" your book whenever it's ready, but one HUGE thing that I've learned over the course of my writing journey, is that how you present your book to the world, how you build the hype leading up to your book's release, matters. 

Some of the biggest things I've learned in my journey so far are these: 
A. You can build some good hype over your book's release using professional looking graphics (even if you make them yourself) and a consistent posting schedule.
B. You can involve people in your book launch process in lots of ways... and people actually want to help! 

What are some things you've learned that you probably should have known from the start? Let's talk! I hope today's post was helpful to you in some way, and that you were able to learn something. I plan on going through each of these things I've learned in future posts, but I wanted to share the gist of them today. Check back weekly for more writing related topics, and have a wonderful week!