The Self-Published Author

Here in the UK if you purchase a block of ten ISBN prefixes, you are officially a publisher. It costs about £130, but buying them individually can cost around £30-40. Seeing as I knew my first three books were going to be a trilogy, purchasing the block of ten made better financial sense.

Now that I am a publisher in my own right, approaching Lightning Source, printers to the top publishing houses, meant that I pay less per book and receive a higher quality print than what I get from Lulu.com. I still use Lulu, because the royalties are higher (Lightning Source recommend that you set your wholesale discount at 55% because companies such as Amazon, B&N, WHSmith, wont purchase them at any less). What it would cost for me to print 30 books with Lulu, costs me more than what it costs to print 50 from LS. Plus, money made via Amazon.com and other US sites, is received by them and redirected to be deposited directly into my account. No issues with cheques that cost an arm and a leg to cash.

Personally though, I sell more books offline than I do online. Like many up and coming authors I've spoken to have mentioned, I had a huge issue with promoting myself, but I'm good with a computer and so made sure that my presentation online was impecable. Naturally everything I have done has been on a shoestring budget, but it has been working in my favour to the point that I have become an author coach to others and I run workshops on how to get out there in the most cost effective manner.

First and foremost, if you have a Lulu storefront, spruce it up! To this day I haven't seen anyone who has really utilised the potential of the storefront (take a look at what I mean: http://Lulu.com/n9neformation). It didn't cost me anything to do that. Get yourself a free website on webs.com, it has a site building facility that means you don't have to know about how to code, simply use a template. Get free biz cards from vista print and put the links of your lulu and website on there.

When talking to people, don't go into a conversation saying 'hey I'm an author!' talk about the other person first, then at some point during the conversation a cue might come up for you. At that point casually drop in, 'oh I cover that topic in my book I wrote!' Believe me, the other person will prod you forward from there wanting to know about your title. Hand them a biz card and embelish!

I also made book trailers for my books and put them everywhere I could think to upload video content for free. Where there is a will there is a way and where you have an internet connection, there are free resources EVERYWHERE that are perfect for promoting yourself with, no matter how shy or inexperienced you are with technology.

Google my name and you will see just how many places I have gotten free publicity, all by way of getting adventurous with my computer. You wrote a book! The same skill and imagination it took to do that, is all that is required to get your book out there. Heaven help me, I sound like a sales person (I always wondered how people did that)! Jokes aside though, I can't boast sales of millions, but for the effort I have put in (despite the so call recession), I'm now having to order my fifth batch of fifty print books to meet up with the physical demand. I made my first book available for purchase last year and I know that due to my health, I'm definitely falling short on truly honing in on the full potential to make more sales, I'm only covering less than half of London right about now. There is nothing stopping you from making that next sale. Work it!

Readership: Male vs Female

By default, you should always know your reader base. Who is most likely to buy your books, who are your target audience etc. I know for a fact that my books are for ages 14+, I thought I knew for a fact they aren't gender specific, though women do tend to like that the hero is female.

The other day whilst featuring as a guest on OmegaFM, the majority of callers were male and the majority of those who have entered into discussions with me about my work have come from male readers. Yet I overheard the proprietor of a bookstore, promoting my books to a distributor as being 'a bestseller with the women'. Interesting!

Before buying my book, a woman will talk long and hard, then promise to get her hands on a copy soon. On the other hand, men say nothing, buy the book, then come tell me later about what they thought. Every man has had wonderful praise and commended me for how accurately I nail certain concepts or the portrayal of the male characters. Overall, my reader base seems evenly distributed across the genders, but women first talk the talk, they want to be enticed, coaxed and made to feel special. Men walk the walk, buy the book and surprise me later by telling me just how much they are into the series. I've sat across tables from men who I had no clue had bought the book, until some how the issue of my being an author is raised.

My assessment of who my readers are, has been correct, but it would seem my advertising efforts have less effect on women who are more likely to purchase the book after having some kind of personal interaction with me. Time to put up a new vlog me thinks!