A year ago, I published a book for the first time ever: The Invasion of Planet Earth. Sure, it was self-published and without the backing of a big-name publisher, but I still put my work out there. It has been an interesting experience to self-publish.
Now I should’ve wrote this post back in November 2019, exactly a year after publishing Invasion. I delayed. I thought I would’ve done it in December, but again I delayed. The reason I’ve delayed, and haven’t posted a blog in months, is because of a lack of motivation. Invasion hasn’t been a success, despite the numerous promotions I made on Kobo. Even my second book Armored Piercing has been unsuccessful. Most of all, my website on Wix has barely seen any traction. I’m lucky to get one person to read one of my blog posts. To be honest, I don’t think anybody is going to read this either. Because of these factors, I didn’t feel like writing blog posts anymore. What’s the point of putting so much effort in the blog if no one is going to read it?
I wish I could say I’ve become a household name and earned a legion of fans who are eagerly anticipating my next book. From November 2018 to now, that hasn’t happened. The biggest thing I learned during my first year, as a published author, is that it is an uphill battle to become successful as an indie author. The marketing is all on you, and if you don’t have the correct strategy or, more importantly, the funds, you’re basically nothing. I’ve heard stories of indie authors struggling to sell their work outside their friends and family. I effectively don’t have any friends and my family isn’t as supportive as they could be. I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that I haven’t sold any books.
The year hasn’t been all doom and gloom. I’ve learned a lot of things about copyrights, ISBNs, and self-publishing services like Amazon KDP and Kobo. I even joined Twitter and discovered the VSS365 hashtag, where a host would put up a word and you would have to make a story including that word. I love how it really engages my creativity and I’ve gotten a lot of engagement on my VSS365 tweets.
What I look forward to in 2020 and beyond is publishing more books and hopefully figuring out how to do better marketing. Even if I maintain my current level of unsuccess, I’ll be proud to continue putting my work out there. Perhaps this year I might see some success and grow a fanbase.
If you’re interested in checking out my work, Invasion is currently free on Kobo until January 11. Links are below: