From any angle, writing a book is a huge undertaking — and then when it comes to publishing, that’s even huger, whether through the traditional route or by self-publishing. While I struggle to complete my novels while building an author platform, Mental health nurse/blogger/author Ashley L. Peterson of Vancouver, Canada, has put out several books!
She first visited HBT here — and now she’s back with a new book and more self-publishing advice!…
“Self-Publishing: It Gets Easier” by Ashley Peterson
I remember how overwhelming it was when I published my first book. I felt like I had no idea what I was doing, and I was just flying by the seat of my pants. I had no idea what to expect when the book was released.
My second book was released 7 months later. I felt much more prepared, but then tossed in the new challenge of selling on sites other than Amazon, including my own website. There were also some hiccups; it felt like forever before Amazon accepted the file for my paperback, which turned out to be because there was a special character that it didn’t recognize and therefore didn’t accept. The biggest problem was my paperback cover; it wasn’t showing up on the Amazon listing as the same colour in the cover file I’d uploaded. I spent a whole lot of time trying to get that sorted out,
Now with my third book, I’m a lot more relaxed about the whole process. Sure, formatting and converting file types is still frustrating; I don’t think that would change even if I’d published a whole bookstore. Overall, though, I’m much more at ease. I feel a sense of mastery that I know how to do this – a very different feeling from the first time around.
I’m a huge list person, and my book launch lists are nicely fine-tuned. I’ve got all the steps laid out, so I can just do things without having to think about them.
While the learning curve is steep and self-publishing can be daunting, it gets easier – really. And if you’re thinking about self-publishing, dive right on in; the water’s warm.
Details on my new book Managing the Depression Puzzle can be found here.
What’s your experience with publishing and building a platform?
Happiness Between Tails by da-AL 
[…] When it comes to self-publishing, she finds it’s wise to stay flexible with her listings at Amazon. On a daily basis, she experiments with keywords, especially in terms of how they work with setting bids per clicks on ads at the amounts suggested by Amazon. She has a guest blog post for Happiness Between Tails H-E-R-E. […]
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Ashley is the best!
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no argument here 🙂
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I am quite fortunate, in that I have a small publisher who deals with Amazon in entirety as well as Lulu and sells my books on her own site. I still do most of the marketing and that has been hit and miss for me for the past 3.5 years as I have tried to build a platform on WordPress, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. I think WP and FB are my favourite and most productive platforms. Twitter feels a bit like the rubbish dump of social media but I do maintain a presence there because it is expected.
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I’ve had the most luck running ads on Amazon, although I think that’s probably easier with writing nonfiction like I do rather than fiction. That’s driven the vast majority of my sales.
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That is good to know.
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Your social media strategy sounds great — I’ve often heard that it’s best to not spread oneself too thin. My non-scientific guess is that since blogging & facebook require more reading than the others, they are hopefully the ones that attract the most book buyers. Also, goodreads is probably good, tho I don’t invest in it as much as I should…
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I tend to agree with you. I do post all my reviews to Goodreads and spend time there but, somehow, I never think of it as a social media. It is though.
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any thoughts on having the author page there vs regular page?
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I do have an author page there, actually, I have two. One as Robbie Cheadle and one as Roberta Eaton Cheadle (adult books). I also have my reader profile. The author page is nice as it collates all your books in one place and you can link your blog and even post videos and pictures.
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That sounds lovely – many tx for the input, Roberta ❤
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Great information you share, thank you Ashley and congratulations for your third book. Would you share which other way you used after your Amazon experience. I am trying to publish a photography book and haven’t found a publisher yet, other than thinking of Amazon. Thank you so much, have a great weekend.
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I’ve used Google Play, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books. I’ve found that it’s much harder to get sales on those platforms than on Amazon. A publisher/distributor like Smashwords allows you to deal with one site but have your book available across multiple platforms.
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Thank you so very much, Ashley for your advice, I really appreciate your sharing thoughts on that. So far I’m a bit blind minded how to go about publishing a photography book. Have a great weekend and thanks again.
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Hope you have a great weekend too!
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🙂
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Ah, Amazon, which we love to hate yet can’t get away from…
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Yeah it’s market share is just too big.
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Congratulations, Ashley. You inspire all of us.
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Thanks so much!
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Very informative
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Congratulations on your new book, Ashley! Sharing and Twitter and wishing you much success. 🙂
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Thanks! 😊
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Congratulations to Ashley for her third book! Well done Ashley!
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Thank you! 😊
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