As I near the completion of the first draft for Shadows of Atlantic City, I’ve decided to set up a new series for self-publishing the book. It’ll be similar to the series when I published A Freelancer’s Tale, but hopefully a bit more detailed.
The idea is to show just how much work goes into self-publishing and why I respect successful indie authors as much as I do. Well, at least the ones who don’t use AI to write parts of their books.
I am very anti-AI-generated content.
Nonetheless, I hope to help others get into publishing their own books while possibly educating those who think self-publishing is “cheating” and of “lower quality.”
In reality, it takes a serious amount of work to get a book published. This is especially true if you care about producing something people will want to read.
If you don’t have a lot of money, it’s even more of a difficult path.
The Plan for the New Series to Publish a Book
Of course, one of the primary objectives of the series is to give me more content to share. After all, I’m trying to maintain a blog and YouTube channel.
However, it’s not just about the content. As I said earlier, I have a helpful nature and want everyone to succeed in their writing journeys. And one of the best ways is to show others what has and hasn’t worked for me.
Sure, everyone has their own unique experiences. But at least by sharing mine, you can get an idea of what to expect and possibly come up with strategies that work best for you.
So, what’s the plan for the new series?
Focusing on Specific Milestones and Progress
In this upcoming series, I am focusing on major milestones and specific moments during the process. That means going over step-by-step moments from when I finish writing the first draft all the way to what I do for marketing.
Currently, I am sharing the timeline of Shadows of Atlantic City on my personal blog. But I want to go a bit deeper and really dive into the nuts and bolts of how I am managing each step of self-publishing the book.
This will also include setting up outlets other than Amazon. So, I suppose I better get my Barnes & Noble account fixed.
YouTube Videos and Blog Posts
Not everyone who reads the blog posts watches the video content, and vice-versa. Each step of the process for publishing Shadows of Atlantic City will have both versions of the same material.
I’m actually quite interested to see which one generates more interest. Lately, the YouTube channel has far more views because Google’s search algorithm cut the blog off at the knees. Before, the blog generated more interest.
Or, the new series could perform as well as the last one – meaning not much interest at all.
That’s the fun of being a creator. Sometimes you’ll put something out that you think is crap that winds up being everyone’s favorite. Then, you put in a ton of work on something that hardly gets noticed.
Setting Up a New Category and Tags
I’m setting up new categories and tags for both the blog and the YouTube channel for the new series. That way, it’ll be easier to promote and link the content together.
If I can find a good way to show the video playlist on the blog that won’t upset the delicate doily that is the Google algorithm, I’ll show the videos on the site as well.
In any case, I might wind up publishing enough blog posts that the tag will show up in the top 25 topics in the sidebar of the website.
Providing Real Data for Expenses and Income
For those who have followed me for any amount of time, you probably saw this one coming.
Yes, I’m creating an expense and income spreadsheet specifically for Shadows of Atlantic City. It’s a great way to show you how much I’ve spent compared to the book’s income.
That means I’m going to play with a lot of different paid marketing platforms, including Facebook and Google ads. Hopefully, I won’t bankrupt myself in the process.
Anyway, it’ll be a live spreadsheet on a specific page for Shadows of Atlantic City, and I’ll make it as easy as I can to follow.
Sharing Each Step on Social Media
One of the things I need to do more of is marketing myself better on social media. I kind of take a lackluster approach to social media, mostly because I’ve never found the allure of a constant flow of memes.
Personally, I’d rather spend that time writing a book or a blog post.
Unfortunately, social media is still the most cost-effective method of marketing and building an audience. You can’t really do that if you only post once per week. You gotta feed the algorithms to draw an audience.
This is probably going to be the most difficult aspect for me to document. I just have such a hard time really getting into sites like TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.
Both Good and Bad of the Process
Lastly, I’m looking to highlight the pros and cons of self-publishing as I experience them. The idea is to show you just what can happen and help you develop a strong base when you publish your book.
I’m sure that I’ll make a few bad decisions, probably waste a few bucks, and experience a few frustrations. Hopefully, those experiences will give you ideas of what to avoid.
Sharing all of the good and bad elements of self-publishing will also help me create better strategies when it comes to my other books. So, in reality, everyone wins.
Perhaps the New Series Will Become a Regular Thing
One of the ideas for creating this series is to keep me on task. I get sidetracked a lot when it comes to creating my own content, and I am hoping the series will remind me that I need to get certain things done.
For one thing, I need to learn to market myself and my books better. I’ve already planned a blog post on different marketing methods and how well they’re working, but documenting all of the experiences will be helpful for me, I believe.
So, you see, it’s not just about trying to help others put together a strong strategy for self-publishing. The new series is just as much for me as it is for you.
Depending on how well the next few months go, I might just turn this into a regular thing for each book. Then, I can adjust the strategies for each depending on what happened in the last series.
I plan on writing a lot of books in the coming years. I have a lot of stories to tell and look forward to sharing them all. And although some of them will be free to read on platforms like Wattpad or Inkitt, I still think it might be worthwhile to create a similar series.
Now that I think about it some, a similar series could have an impact on new stories written for those types of platforms.
I Love to Share and, Hopefully, Help Others
At the end of the day, it’s all about sharing what I learn while potentially helping others. And that includes sharing my screw-ups and highlighting what not to do.
Don’t get me wrong, I love sharing my successes. But sometimes the best lessons are when we fail. Then, we learn from those situations and improve our chances for next time.
What series would you like me to whip up next?
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