Eating Your Own Tail: Self-Publishing Websites

Are you interested in publishing your own book? Many anime bloggers aspire toward it, but when you start researching, it seems books about self publishing dominate self publishing. Self-publishing websites all parrot each other. They all sell their own books full of secrets and tips. While there’s nothing wrong with this, you have to wonder about those tips when their best-selling book is about making a best-selling book.

I will be the first to tell you that I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to book publishing. I focus on making the best books I can; I despise advertising. I loathe it, and I want to see 90-95% of advertising to disappear. In fact, if that would happen, advertisers would suddenly see their ad effectiveness increase. Rarity draws our attention. Most self-publishing websites focus on how to advertise and how to build a platform. If you look closely, most of these websites say the same things and reference each other. They’ve made a platform out of providing information and services to people who want to self publish.

I distrust this ouroboros. Few of the websites I’ve visited present solid, academic research on their posits. Usually, they link to success stories and suggest you too can do the same. While these case studies have some use, success stories are usually outliers. You don’t see stories that speak of a writer who funded a modest vacation from her books. You don’t see a writer who makes an extra mortgage payment from book sales. Instead you see the breakout successes. You see the authors who live the dream of writing full-time. Few of the self-publishing websites I’ve visited show the real facts.

Anyway, here are the facts about self publishing most ouroboros websites don’t offer. This data comes from a survey conducted by the Authors Guild (2019):

• Median income is $6,080.
• 21% of full-time authors derive 100% of their income from books.
• 25% of self-published authors earn $0.
• When that 25% is included in the median, real earnings fall to $1,784.

According to Forbes (2013), 20% of authors earned nothing and the median income was under $5,000. Six years separate the articles, and it has gotten harder to make a living with self publishing. It has gotten harder to even break even after you invest in editing and the like. You can expect to sink at least $1,000 into a book, depending on your editing requirements and cover art.

Of course, the ouroboros websites don’t reveal this. They want you to feel encouraged so you will buy their books. I wouldn’t scoff at an extra $6,000 a year. And yes, I dream of writing full-time. I enjoy working as a librarian, don’t get me wrong. However, I aim to write full-time even if it is only a slight chance.

Many websites focus on how to advertise your books because of these factors. After all, it must have worked for them! Look at their successful looking website! Sometimes I like to pop onto SimilarWeb to see what their traffic is compared to JP. Most of the time, JP crushes them (Thanks to you!) Traffic doesn’t measure ad effectiveness. After all, their Amazon pages could see a lot of traffic from the ad pushes. However, when traffic is perhaps 1,000-1,500 views a week (JP sees 1,500-2,200 views daily. Again, thanks for all your support!), I suspect hyperbole with how effective their platform and advertising works.

I’m tired of that word: platform. You will see the ouroboros websites touting platform. A platform is your home base, your headquarters. It’s your starting and returning place for your readers. Namely, it is your website and blog. It is how you interact with your readers over social media. It’s the type of books you write. Platform is how you present yourself, and it takes time to build.

Now, I’m not against the idea of a platform. It makes sense. But platforms can also be unnatural. For example, as an author you must be on social media. Whichever social media platforms (there’s that word again!) you choose, you must be active and be yourself. Well, the thing is, many like me despise social media. I won’t get into how it is bad for our minds in this article, but this link will take you to that rant o-mine. I can’t be natural on social media as I can on JP. It doesn’t give me the room to think. Besides, I’m not a natural conversationalist unless it’s on topics of history, theology, anime (of course!), and other topics that don’t led themselves to social media’s bites. I’m not convinced social media activity leads to book sales.

In the end, ouroboros self-publishing websites are just like all those 10-steps-to-wealth books that pop up time-to-time. The tips can work. In fact, they have. But the odds of immediate breakout success are against you. It works similar to the lottery. The big winners dangle in front of you, while everyone ignores the every-day small winners. You’d still be better off investing your lottery money. In fact, that his how I view book writing. It’s like a stock investment that takes time to create a return.

My Advice for Self Publishing

I’m not the best one for publishing advice. I haven’t had any break out success or really made back all my editing expenses. But then, failures like me might well offer the most realistic advice.

Don’t expect to make a lot of money.

As Forbes and Authors Guild report, the majority of self-published authors won’t make a lot of money or be able to quit their day jobs. But you can make some extra money on the side and find fulfillment. And if you bang at it long enough, you can still succeed. If nothing else, your books sales can help fund your retirement investments (and you are investing right?) and pay for editing future books.

Be patient.

It’s cliche to say writing is a marathon. But cliches hold truth. Focus on making each book the best you can. As you keep writing and learning, you will improve. In fact, I don’t know if I would want to be a breakout success. Setting such a high standard out of the gate leaves you with little room to make mistakes and grow.

Hire a good editor.

I made the mistake most self-published authors make: I released a book that wasn’t looked over by an editor. Now, I had released three books previously, the Hunted Trilogy, that went through editors. Total cost: about $4,000. Well, I thought I had learned enough to release Come and Sleep without an editor. I was wrong! Luckily, one of my library’s staff members went to college to be an editor before she went into libraries. She’s my go-to for any editing, including retroactive editing like she did for Come and Sleep. She’s also far less expensive than the professional editing house I went through for the Hunted Trilogy. She also knows my bad habits and strengths, which makes the editing process smoother and more useful. I still flub verb tenses despite how she beats me with her red pen.

Beware Ouroboros Websites.

I got suckered into the websites we’ve discussed when I first got started. They do have some useful information, but be careful of the snake oil too. I’m not convinced about advertising and social media, but the strategy might work for you. You might have the personality that’s best suited for those methods. Read them and be aware of what the community leans toward. If nothing else, it will give you an idea of what not to do. After all, if everyone has a newsletter, you won’t stand out if you follow the trend. Does anyone seriously subscribe to those things? I certainly don’t. I don’t have time for such emails.

Find Your Own Path.

Experiment and see what works for you. For example, I never thought I would write about anime and Japanese culture. I especially never thought I would see 45,000-60,000 visitors each month on JP. I didn’t even have much interest in anime and Japan when I started. I was a Roman history and Christian history buff.  Try different things, even if they are outlandish.

Don’t be afraid to fail. That’s the biggest thing. Fear of failure is why so many ouroboros websites exist. And not just in self publishing and writing. Everyone copies each other when someone finds a moderately successful path. Finding your own path means failure…and a lot of it! But really, true failure is not learning from the event. If something doesn’t work, you’ve learned something. You’ve also learned what could succeed with your goal too. And sometimes you learn that goal isn’t the right one.

Well, there’s my 2-yen worth. If you want to write and publish your own work, do it! As a published friend says, the key to being an author is to write the damn book. Don’t talk about it. Don’t read websites about it. Don’t worry about advertising. Just write the damn book. That applies to everything. If you want to write about anime, write about anime. If you want to be an artist, draw and paint. Make the time to do it and be prepared to fail. And fail. And fail. The only true failure is giving up and giving in to what everyone else tells you to do. Yes, it’s boilerplate. It’s even a bit trite. But too often we try to be perfect and reach our far-flung goals only to forget that reaching and falling and being imperfect is more important than attaining the goal.

References

Authors Guild (2019) Authors Guild Survey Shows Drastic 42% Decline in Authors’ Earnings in Last Decade. https://www.authorsguild.org/industry-advocacy/authors-guild-survey-shows-drastic-42-percent-decline-in-authors-earnings-in-last-decade/

Greenfield, Jeremy (2013) How Much Money Do Self-Published Authors Make? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremygreenfield/2013/12/09/how-much-money-do-self-published-authors-make/#315a303065bc