P&W 9. How To Self-Publish 2

Jane Curry and Seana Smith take a deeper dive into self-publishing, using Seana’s self-published books as examples.

Seana’s first self published book, made the mistake of not researching what people want to read. Did not sell at all well. And was pulled.
So the next project was better researched and planned, Wildly Weird But Totally True: Australia.
Commissioned a cover, and layout, which didn’t work well.
Learning curve, it started selling when I began running adverts on Amazon.
All the ways Amazon earns money; printing books, sales commission, advertising, Kindle downloads.
Ingram also does print on demand, how Amazon interacts with them.
Once books start selling on Amazon, Amazon helps you sell more.
Amazon advertising, pay per click, but impressions are not paid for.
The joy of checking daily sales.
Jane’s now running advertising for some of her books via Simon and Shuster. Leaning int o the algorithm.
Next came Wildly Weird But Totally True: Animals but it has not sold well, probably because there is a lot of competition in that area.
Amazon does make it easy and intuitive to advertise, and support is good.
Jane is now researching digital-first publishing for Ventura.
But remember, there are many books on Amazon that sell no copies.
Can also use Amazon to self publish books for yourself and family, it doesn’t have to be sold ever. A cheap and cheerful way to print books.
Bookbub is an American company, a paid service to help you break into book selling.
Many red flags, so many companies who are unscrupulous, selling very poor courses.
Best to learn how to do the process yourself. Do one course, stick with that one teacher.
Kindlepreneur is my favourite information source. Heaps of free information there.
Another example, Jericho Writers are doing a course, expensive but you might choose to invest in what is a business.
Book covers can be a great downfall, there are so many bad covers.
Some Facebook groups can be helpful.
Description in the mechanics of uploading a book onto a digital platform.
The importance of the metadata, the description and the keywords that you put in.
It’s a data driven world.
Using Amazon Plus content to get more traction to your book listing.
Seana’s earnings from her two fun facts books.
Jane’s company now having a foot in both camps.