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Joined: 5/8/2011
Posts: 52
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I work-shopped my book here as well as several other writing sites over the course of a few years. In the time, I'd been contacted by several agents, HarperCollins, Penguin, and Harlequin. I also formally queried many agents and publishers as well. I had a lot of close calls (and never heard back from Penguin one way or the other lol). Ultimately, I decided to move on to my next book and self-publish this book to see how it does, and also because I had a pretty large group interested in purchasing my novel.
So at the close of January 2012, I self-published my novel. Within six weeks, I made several Amazon Bestseller lists, including #10 for Contemporary Fantasy and #3 for Occult.
Shortly after that, I was contacted by an agent in Italy and one of the biggest publishers in France. My book is still under consideration with the publisher, and just yesterday I signed with the agent in Italy, Rossano Trentin of TZLA (www.tzla.it) They've represented another bestseller I was familiar with so I was floored by their interest and OVER THE MOON to sign with them.
I wanted to share my story to say that hard work and persistence will pay off. When people tell you that you have "failed" if you need to self-publish, shrug it off. So long as you put in the work, self-publishing isn't a death sentence. The world of publishing is changing and things aren't *exactly* what they used to be. Embrace these changes.
If a traditional contract is the only thing you will be happy with, stay the course! This isn't to suggest everyone should self-publish. Certainly those who want to should not rush into it, either. This post is just for those who are worried what other people will think if they self-publish ... those worried about the stigma.
Forget the stigma. Don't let a stigma hold you back from reaching your potential or making your dreams a reality.
Also I wanted to say, some indies never want a traditional deal, and I respect that, too. I made my choice because there were some things, such as translations and worldwide distribution, that I could not handle to the extent I needed to for my readers.
Whatever you do, do your best and persevere and make decisions for yourself, not based on what other people will think of you.
Thanks to everyone here who was a part of helping make my book a success!
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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Way to go, Rebecca. It looks good.
I'd be curious to hear more about how and what you did to market the book. Obviously you've had a fine response. I've always been less daunted by the stigma of self-publishing than the dread of self-pubbing and then vanishing in the morass of all that is already out there. How have you drawn readers to your work?
Atthys
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Joined: 5/8/2011
Posts: 52
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Thank you Samantha! You were a part of making it happen 
Atthys, I'm so glad to see you so I can thank you again. Your review was one of the most helpful I received on my novel here.
For marketing, I mostly use twitter. I'm trying to figure out facebook ... but I suck in that department. I luckily have a reader in India who took it upon herself to promote my book on facebook and create a facebook page for my book.
Obviously a big step is creating word of mouth, which means you need readers and reviews. Here are some things I've noticed:
1) You get more reviews if you give the book out directly as opposed to offering it for free on Amazon (though the free on Amazon I guess helps with rankings; I haven't tried it myself). But when you give a book directly, you can personally invite them to share their thoughts when they are done, if they feel comfortable doing so. Most are more than happy to. When they share those thoughts, I usually politely ask them to consider posting the review on Amazon to help me out. A lot of people don't normally leave reviews but WILL if you ask if they loved your book and think it will help you (since you gave them the book for free).
2) READERS, *real* readers, are the best people to give free copies to. I know some people say book bloggers are the heart of the literary community, and I DO love quite a few book bloggers, but what I've found is that READERS are the most likely to talk about your book long after the review is posted. They are the most likely to still be telling people weeks or months later to read your book. Book Bloggers post a review and you get visibility for a short time, but then they are onto their next job. It's almost like a job to them, and one I appreciate them doing, but ultimately it's more for themselves than for the benefit of others readers and authors (which is fine, by the way). I've noticed Authors tend to be critical but still compassionate. In other words, if they would have written your book differently, that will affect their rating, but they won't be harsh because they do still realize this is all subjective. Book Bloggers are more all over the place. If the Book Blogger is a true book lover, they are more likely to be positive, whereas if they are more of a critic, perhaps the kind who's following depends on them to deliver the snark, then their reviews are more geared towards being entertaining rather than recommending a book that is entertaining. So, with book bloggers, a book review depends more on their reviewer's style than their reader-reaction, unless they are more of a reader who posts book reviewers. (Your mileage may vary). In any case, I recommend finding BOOK LOVERS more than book bloggers, but this is just based on my experiences.
3) Some of my best reviews came from people who don't have a blog or twitter about books, but about things completely unrelated, they just also happened to love reading. They are also the most likely to get more people to buy my book and to keep talking and talking and talking about it, building hype.
So, in short, while all kinds of reviews are great and serve a great value, I decided to focus marketing my book to everyday people and getting reviews from them, instead of trying to get bloggers (though I've had a few and they've been AMAZING as well!). But there's only so many book bloggers in the world, and not all readers are book bloggers, so READERS are who you REALLY need to connect with. Book bloggers can help you do that, and some helped me big time, but you can ALSO reach out to readers yourself, and that has some amazing benefits as well.
I hope this helps. Most of my marketing was giving away free copies directly and asking for reviews I also did a blog tour that helped a lot, too!
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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Well, I am glad to have contributed, miniscule though my contribution may have been.
When you speak of giving out books directly, do you mean through a website or blog of your own? I opened a twitter account and then promptly began ignoring it. I can't really picture how it helps you (though this is my own failing. I'm not very savvy with social networking. My kids have way more facebook connections than I do, by magnitudes of ten. While I imagine I could set up a facebook page for a book, I don't know what would steer people to it.
At any rate, congratulations. I shall certainly be following your progress.
Cheers.
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Joined: 5/8/2011
Posts: 52
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What I mean by directly is that ... instead of making my book free on amazon (where anyone could download it), I emailed copies to people. I do this on twitter. I had contests to win a copy (using games like Twitter hangman), and I had the winners email me for the copy of the book, which I then sent with an invitation to share their thoughts if they felt comfortable.
What I noticed was that I got an immediate response this way (people reading my book within days) whereas the busy blogger, while still helpful, sometimes takes months to get around to reading your book. So, this is the best way to get immediate reviews.
I can't help with facebook. I'm still an idiot where that is concerned. The people who do visit my facebook page all found it through twitter lol.
Thanks you for the congrats
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Joined: 4/27/2011
Posts: 608
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That is just fantastic, InkMuse! Thank you for sharing your success story; it makes for wonderful reading.
@Atthys: Always good to see you contributing, sir! How's your own writing going?
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Joined: 2/27/2011
Posts: 25
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First - mega congratulations on the agent bit!! How exciting - and exotic!!! - to have an Italian agent. I ventured out a few months back with self publishing a trio of novellas, because it makes sense to me to have a foot in both the traditional and indie world. But I really didn't have a clue what to do with them, and they're still sort of hanging out in no man's land with a few readers but not a lot of action. With both the novellas and my most recent traditional release I'm definitely needing more Amazon reviews and have been debating how to get them. The ones that are up are good, but there are not enough of them. It never really occurred to me to just ask - or maybe it did but I've been reluctant to do so because it seems like a huge imposition. It's encouraging to know that you've done this and it's worked out well for you. So maybe I'll have to give it a go...
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