Publishing In His Eyes versus Lost and Found
Last week, I shared the differences in my process of writing Lost and Found, a collection of short stories, and In His Eyes, my recent novel. This article is a continuation of that discussion — namely, how I went about publishing each book.
When I self-published Lost and Found, I had no idea what I was doing. It seemed kind of crazy to me that I could publish the book all on my own without the help of any external sources like a traditional publishing house. And while that is exactly what I did, I realize in hindsight that self-publishing, if done well, entails so much more than simply putting a book out into the world and sitting back, waiting for sales to magically happen.
I decided to publish through Amazon after researching a bit and discovering it was one of the most convenient self-publishing options. Initially, I planned on only doing an ebook version because I thought it would be the easiest and most accessible option for readers. Navigating the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform was fairly straightforward; however, as I made my way through the process, I realized I needed a (duh) front cover for my book. As a writer and decidedly not a designer, I felt a little out of my element. What’s more, as an unemployed grad student and inexperienced writer, I didn’t seriously consider hiring a designer to help create my cover — so I went the route of designing it myself on canva.com. To this day I don’t know if this was truly the best decision, but I ultimately see the publication of Lost and Found as an experiment, something fun that I could call entirely my own.
After I published the ebook, some of my friends encouraged me to publish a print version, too, because they would prefer a hard copy (a detail that made me happy because it gives me hope that print books aren’t dead yet). The process of formatting my book for the paperback was significantly more complicated and frustrating than for the ebook, as I was/am still not familiar with how to properly format book and cover image files on Amazon KDP. After a great deal of trial and error over several days, I finally figured it out — and within a few days, the paperback was available for purchase on Amazon. Honestly, I was pretty proud of myself for creating a whole book from scratch completely on my own. The only thing was, I didn’t have much of a marketing or promotion strategy. I posted about my new book on Facebook and Instagram a few times, which was effective in spreading the news to those within my own networks of family and school (high school, undergrad, and grad). Beyond that, however, I didn’t take any steps to promote my book to a wider audience. I don’t consider this a loss necessarily. Like I said before, Lost and Found was a fun experiment, and while I certainly wasn’t expecting massive sales or overnight fame, I appreciate everyone in my social circles who supported me and made me feel like a real first-time author.
Publishing In His Eyes was quite a different process. Since I was working with New Degree Press (NDP), I had a great deal of structure and instruction thanks to the folks at NDP keeping everything running smoothly. While I had no marketing or promotion strategy for Lost and Found and didn’t tell anyone about it until after it was published, I began promoting myself and In His Eyes about nine months before its December publication. At my publisher’s urging, I updated all of my social media — LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram — and even created a Twitter. To be fair, I wasn’t great at posting consistently. I often find social media exhausting, especially if I’m in the position of figuring out what to say in a post. But even as tiring and as difficult as it was initially, I know my publisher had the right idea. By putting the word out early that I was writing a book and by providing (somewhat) regular updates on where I was in the process, I was keeping everyone in the loop, building up anticipation for the book’s release, and inviting people — my friends, classmates, acquaintances, and family members — to be part of the journey with me. At this point, after the book has been published, I’m so glad I started promoting early on because it’s given my book the momentum and energy it needs to reach a wider audience.
Over the summer, I also kicked off a 30-day pre-order campaign on Indiegogo, for which I aimed to raise $5,000 to cover the costs of printing and shipping as well as my editors’ fees. As I mentioned in a previous article, I struggled with this campaign at first thanks to impostor syndrome. Nevertheless, it turned out to be a successful campaign, and I’m glad it was part of the publishing process because it pushed me to get out of my comfort zone, reach out to tons of people, and intentionally and consistently promote myself and my book to the world.
After raising funds, I took other steps before my book was published in December. I created a beta reader community on Facebook, where I updated my beta readers (those who had pre-ordered my book during the Indiegogo campaign) with news and gave them drafts of select chapters to read and provide feedback on. During the final stages of publication, after my manuscript was complete, I worked with a copy editor and proofreader to clean up errors in my manuscript. Whereas for Lost and Found I created a very amateur book cover on my own, this time I worked with an amazing professional designer at NDP to create the cover for In His Eyes. I also collaborated with fellow authors in my program; we gave each other advance praise and reviewed one another’s books on different online platforms like Amazon and Goodreads.
On December 7, I officially published my book by making it available as a paperback and ebook on various platforms, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo. Most recently, I also shipped out books to my beta readers, which involved writing thank-you notes to each person, creating mailing labels, and packaging each book. (While staying at the post office for several hours was not necessarily the most fun part, I have now been informed of a more efficient way to ship large numbers of packages should I ever need to in the future!)
Publishing In His Eyes has been an incredible and rewarding journey, and the best part is, it’s not finished yet! Over the next few months I will be working with NDP to produce a hardcover version of my book, which I’m so excited about. I can’t wait to keep updating you — my wonderful readers, supporters, and friends — on the continuation of my journey.
