As a first-time author, I would like to put across my views in terms of experience with self publishing. What began as a hobby, at an age of 13, took shape in form of blogs in the year 2008, and eventually I came forward to publish my first ever book, “7 Vows of Marriage” in the year 2016.
Self Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing
Due to low word count (10k words), I was not able to find a traditional publisher. Publishers remarked, “the printing cost will be more than what we can raise even in a year’s time.” Secondly, copyright will be held with the publisher, for which I felt slightly uncomfortable. Some publishers liked the subject but wanted me to extend the content to about 35,000 words.
So, I took the plunge and published the title on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Since there was no financial investment involved, I was comfortable with the royalty packages. My basic objective was to make people aware about my content.
The best advantage I have with Kindle version is that I can update/edit the chapters as I wish. No additional editing charges involved.
Few of my readers suggested to launch a paperback version, since the content was good. I was looking for a good publisher who would print such a small book. Another person from my network recommended Pothi.com.
I thought of giving a try and the paperback version was available soon, and that too at an affordable price.
Designing book cover
Amazon Kindle has several design templates to suit every genre of writing. If required, you can also hire a freelancer from Fiverr.com at $5; bet you, they do a good work. Nowadays, you can also design your book cover through online tools like Canva, etc
Avoid Assumptions
Once you publish a book, you should not worry regarding sales aspect. If the content is good, combined with its promotional strategies, your book will be HIT! However, self published authors may fail in their ventures due to lack of book promotion and marketing skills.
Book Launch at Jaipur
One of my friends, Sahiba Sethi, Founder-HelloMeets connected me with the founder of Sattviko, also a community member, who helped in launching my first book at Jaipur. They implemented promotional strategies for social media to increase reach and awareness about the book launch event. It was successful, as I had a healthy discussion with the audience and each participant had bought a copy of the book. The event was held on 30 April 2016.
In the event, I also gave my first public interview to Jaipur Women Blog, an organization promoting women achievers in the city of Jaipur. Mind you, no family and friends were present in the event. I also met the founder of Book Fever, who agreed to display my book in their library. No planned strategy at all; but my nature of meeting new people helped me.
How I promoted my first book
Coming back to my approach, I distributed copies in my own network (since author copies come at a discount price), I bought 50 copies from Pothi, and within a month no more copies were left with me ? I recorded a profit within two months of sales. I used to talk to people about my book. Few colleagues at work also extended their support and purchased the copy.
Book Launch at New Delhi
After a successful book launch at Jaipur and amazing reader response, I decided to launch the book at Delhi, the hub of readers and book lovers. The event was launched at Innov8, Connaught Place. The audience was engaged throughout the event, as it was an open discussion on the modern perception of marriage. One of the participants said, “I used to feel hesitant about marriage and in fact I would never like to get married. But, your book has changed my perspective.”
Book Reviews
Without paid advertising, I had received Amazon reviews. People had mixed opinion about the book. It is obvious. If you keep receiving only good feedback then there is something wrong with your product/service.
As a first-time author, receiving a feedback for my book was enough – negative or positive. Few women readers expressed, “You have told what we felt always but never had the guts to say it aloud.” Few readers said that I was highly biased against women and woman empowerment.
Obviously, when you launch a product/service in the market, you need to be ready to accept positive as well as negative feedback. People call me weird since I accept criticism or negative feedback. Few reviewers have marked my book 1-star and termed it as a bad experience.
However, I had appreciated their efforts they put in, the fact that they have invested time and efforts to criticize the content, which implies they had scrutinized the content. This book led to a huge debate among my college community; people who didn’t interact with me after passing out of the college expressed disgrace that they happened to know me. I had also heard comments that I am dishonoring womanhood by writing this book.
I have an interesting thing to share here, out of context though. When I relocated to Hyderabad and shifted to my new accommodation, my roommate asked, “Are you the author of 7 Vows of Marriage?’ There you go! I had a Fan in the kitty!! Sometimes, monetary benefits do not give you this level of satisfaction.
Currently, the book’s content is under revision, therefore, I am not promoting it as much as I should be. I am writing a chapter, on public demand, to highlight on how a woman perceives this institution and whether Is marriage a consideration for people even today.
Ashvamegh’s Review on 7 vows of Marriage
BookGeeks Review on 7 Vows of Marriage
Book Promotion Plans
The book will release on 02 October 2017. So, I plan to promote the revised version in the following steps:
- I have created a Facebook page that has 1000+ likes
- Promote images with short excerpts from the book on social media
- Promote my author website
- Online polls
- Coordinate with urbookmyreview.com and Salismania for authentic book reviews. These are paid reviews though.
- Avail promotion packages of Pothi.com
- Coordinate with physical bookstores for retail sales
- Video marketing on the subject
If you are interested in ordering a copy for yourself, please send an email to author.devika@gmail.com. Would be glad to hear from you ?
