I finished my book!

speedboatchase

Hey everybody. After over 18 months of procrastination, occasional writing and seeking advice on this forum a few times, my debut book has finally been released. It's a list-based humour title called 99 Reasons Everyone Hates Facebook. I've set up an official website here and it's now available on Amazon, iBooks and a few others. I also joined GoodReads as an author too.

In the end I decided to go down the self-publishing route with BookBaby and I'm in the midst of an expensive but hopefully fruitful US-centric publicity campaign with a group called Smith Publicity.

Anyways, if anyone needs any advice if they're looking to take a similar approach or if anyone has any feedback for my title then I'd be delighted.

alfa beta

just quickly read the first extract on your site there - the pointless groups one.

did make me laugh I have to say - loved the comparison between the 'like if you love your kids' population and that of Estonia!!

good funny easy to read writing style

well done for getting as far as you have with the book and best of luck now when it comes to sales.

adroidannoyed

Congratulations on finishing your book. I read some of it on the website. I'm not on facebook and after reading some of your reasons to hate it, it does seem a daft place. How do you find BookBaby for self publishing, and will you be posting updates on the publicity campaign? There's anoter crowd called Bookbuzzr that might be worth a look. I still finishing my book so I'm gathering information.

ThePinkCage

Well done! Curious to know what made you go down the publicity route you chose, and whether it is starting to yield results.

speedboatchase

Adroidannoyed, I found BookBaby to be fantastic. They were very quick to respond to any queries and the book was uploaded on the majority of bookstores a lot sooner than the timeframes that are on their website. As for updates of the publicity 'campaign', it was really just a case of me using a crowd called Smith Publicity for a three-week period to send out a press release to targeted markets to gauge interest and put the book on NetGalley for reviewers.

ThePinkCage, I hadn't planned on going down the publicity route but in the end I weighed up the costs and opportunity and it was a question of whether or not I should spend two week's salary on something I had worked on for 18 months. I decided to give it a go and the results were mixed. It was great to see the book reviewed on a few sites and blogs but did I break even from the investment? I'm not sure because I have to wait around 2 months for royalties and sales data from BookBaby, though I doubt it. On the other hand, I can say that I gave the book a fighting chance and as long as I'm gainfully employed at my current position I won't starve for a while at least!

alfa beta

thanks for posting that info speedboatchase

I had a look at Smith Publicity website a few weeks back (after your post above) - and obviously it's full of sales waffle - so good to hear what a real person like yourself made of it

ThePinkCage

I suppose in your position, where you're working full time, I can see why you went down that publicity route.