Why you should choose independent publishing.
If you’re thinking of Indie Publishing, click this article.
My name is Jay Darkmoore, and as an indie published author of seven novels (at the time of writing), spanning horror, grimdark fantasy, short stories and dark romance, I have dipped more than my toe into the world of self-publishing.
Here, I have listed fifteen reasons that self-publishing has an advantage over traditional publishing, to help you make that informed choice before you commit.
1 – Freedom to write what you like.
You may have heard this one, but the main pull for a lot of aspiring writers to self-publishing is not being constrained to what genre you can and can’t write. You might have a fiction that blurs the line between dark fantasy and action. Maybe you have a historical romance with aliens? Hell, a deep-sea diving book with goblins and werewolves. Whatever your genre, or a mix of genres, you can publish it because there is no specific shelf space that the story must fit into.
2 – Pick your own time frame for publication.
With traditional publishing, you will work to deadlines. This means drafts, editor slots, cover design slots and of course – the book release itself. These can be constraining and can be months, if not years in the future.
With indie publishing, you can decide your own schedule. You can produce work as frequently or infrequently as you like. Want to release three books in three months? Two books a year? Four books in six months then make your readers salivate for the fifth installation? It’s all yours.
And that is a hell of a bonus.
3 – Be your own boss.
If you’re anything like me, then you don’t like being told what to do. With indie writing, you can have your cake and eat it, so to speak. There is only yourself to answer to. You decide how productive you are, how you market and how you go about this crazy thing called storytelling.
You own all your successes and all your own failures.
4 – Market however you like.
Trad publishing will do some of the marketing for you, but not all. Those days are gone when you could get signed, sit back and collect royalty cheques. These days, publishing houses require you to do most of the heavy lifting yourself, and there may be constraints on how you are able to do this.
With indie publishing, this isn’t the case. Want a YouTube channel? Go right ahead. Want a TikTok? Knock yourself out. Want to scream n your neighbour’s roof at the top of your lungs? (Where this isn’t recommended, you certainly can…) Then go for it.
The world is your oyster, and how you reach that world is completely up to you.
5 – Better royalty rate.
A lot of people are drawn to trad publishing because of the advance in royalties you can receive when you get signed, which can be anything up to £10,000. Sounds great right? You can quit your day job and go sipping Pina Coladas in the Maldives.
Wrong. You may get the advance, but you won’t earn a penny until your book sales make that back. And that is with your 10% royalty rate for the face value of the book.
Now, take indie publishing (I only publish via Amazon, so I can’t speak for the rest), but you can earn up to 70% of the face price of the book in royalties.
So, if you sell a book at £10.00 –
Trad - £1.00 - £1.50 royalty
Indie - £3.50 - £7.00 royalty.
There is absolutely money to be made in the indie game. More money, for fewer sales, and if that doesn’t torque your jaw…
6 – Experiment with genres.
If you published your teen YA vampire series with a trad publisher and then decide you want to write post-apocalyptic sci-fi, your publisher might freak out. They might not agree to publish the new book and demand you stick to your current genre. You can be writing yourself into a box that you can’t get out of.
But with indie, that choice is completely up to you. It allows you to be as free and as creative as you wish to be.
7 – It’s faster.
If you submit the final draft to a trad publishing house in January, your book may not be on the shelf until October or even the following year, meaning that after you have been paid your advance and have spent so long writing the story, it won’t be in your reader’s hands for months, if not years! So, you won’t earn that royalty payment back anytime soon.
With indie writing, you decide when you publish, and you can start gaining royalties in just a few days.
8 – You’re in control over just about everything.
You have control over the book cover design, the blurb, the sales copy, the online description, the royalty rate, the scheduling, and the release date. You oversee the project from the first press of the keys to when you hit submit on your outlet.
9 – Financial clarity.
Trad publishers will sort the money side out for you, meaning that you won’t know if you’re making a dime until you get that royalty cheque through. Not only that, you might not even know in what format these books have come from or from where. Is it from your YA vampire series or your paranormal romance series? Is it from audiobooks or from your paperback or eBooks? You won’t know what to expect to come through the mail until it lands on your doorstep.
With indie publishing you can clearly see how much you are making, when it will be paid and through what sales and what format, which will give you a great indication of how to write, what to write and what to invest your time and money in.
10 – You retain the rights to your books.
With traditional publishing, you enter into a contract which you are obligated to, or they will drop you. If you do not honour that contract, and they drop you from their publishing house, then you no longer earn money from the books you have written and are being sold if you do not own the rights to them.
With self-publishing, you have complete control over the rights to your work in whatever format you have them in. This means you are free to write whatever and however you like.
11 – Work as much (or as little) as you like.
This is paired with number 3 of Being Your Own Boss. If you don’t like working mornings and you are more of a night owl, then go right ahead. If you can only write in the mornings and want to dedicate the afternoon to marketing and advertising, then the world is yours to play with. If you don’t like working weekends or on Tuesdays or past 4 pm, then you pick your own hours.
With no publishing house looming a deadline above your head, you can write as much, or as little as you like. This is a three-headed beast though, as you have to worry about burnout and procrastination.
12 – No Gatekeeper.
Who has the final call on a story idea or an ad campaign? You do. Who has to be consulted if you want to translate your stories to different languages and submit them to marketplaces abroad? Only you. Have a new idea? It’s your decision to make.
No relying on the current market or ongoing trends. It’s all up to you.
13 – Traditional publishing is still an option.
If you go traditional first and sign them to five books and then exit the contract, then as I mentioned before, you are going to lose the rights on those books. But if you indie publish first, and then decide to go trad, then you keep everything.
14 – Experimentation with advertising.
A traditional publishing house may require you to advertise or market to a specific audience or niche, be it the over 60’s or women under 30. They may have specific platforms and methods by which you have to do this. But with indie, you are free to experiment in whatever way you like, however you like.
15 – You learn to be a master of the craft.
With indie publishing, there are going to be setbacks (the same with any business venture). This means that you will learn how to market better, write better, edit better and produce better content. Without having other people doing some of the heavy lifting for you, you have to get good and get better with time. Meaning that with enough practise, you will become a hell of a self-publishing badass.
Writing as a Single Parent
There you are, folks! My 15 reasons why you should self-publish. If you liked this article, then share it with someone that is thinking of going trad and wants to know about self-publishing, or save it to your favourites bar on your desktop and have it to refer to in the future.
While you’re here, why not sign up for my newsletter for a free book?
Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.
- Jay Darkmoore
10 Ways to Market as a Self-Published Author
10 Tips to market your self-published books
Hello everyone! Jay Darkmoore here - Self-published author of the dark fantasy series ‘Everlife Chronicles,’ and horror series’ such as The Space Between Heaven and Hell, and Tales from the Inferno.
Being an indie writer is tough, yet very rewarding. The progress is stagnant and slow, to begin with, and it can often be overwhelming when you have to think of all the work you have to put in be it from writing, building an audience, or content marketing to Vlogging, marketing, keywords, etc.
Your mind can easily become overwhelmed to the point where you sit there in a dark corner rocking away, wondering why you ever thought trying to do this task yourself would be a good thing. Luckily, I have compiled a list of tools and tips that can help you in your writing journey, putting them in a nice list that is easy to follow.
I have done a lot of research on this topic so that you don’t have to. If you wish to find more tips and tricks from me, then I ask you to sign up for my mailing list on this website. You can find it by clicking here.
1 – Write more books.
Have you ever wondered the reason why people follow you and read your books? It’s for that exact reason – You have written something that the reader had devoured and loved so much that they want more from you. Like after a great first date, you want to see them again. This is why writing more books and more material is so important.
10 Horror Tropes That Have Been Done to Death
At the time of writing, I have five books out of over three different series in two genres. My readers love that I write in a series, and through doing this I am able to give first-time readers a back catalogue to purchase and devour, as well as pointing existing readers to my mailing list and websites for the exclusive content I offer, while I am busy creating my next installment for them.
Writing more books allows you to expand on your skills as a writer and delve into different genres too. It allows you to hone your craft more easily, and listen to what your readers want next whilst still being true to yourself.
2 – Write in a series and bundle your books together.
When you have someone that has enjoyed your work and they are hungry for the next book in the series, it is great if you have a few more books for them to enjoy. Plus, if they liked the first one (maybe they got it at a reduced price or a free promotion), then they have already said YES to one of your products. If they then see another book in the series at a slighter higher price, then they are much more likely to say YES to that too. If they buy the next one and see the whole six or seven book collection for a much-reduced price than buying them individually, then you have a new and true fan that will read anything you put out because you have given them so much enjoyment. Write more books, write a series, and put them together.
3 – Paid advertising.
Advertising is going to be the backbone of your marketing. You can spend as little or as much as you like, with Amazon offering pay-per-click advertising, which varies depending on the niche and keywords. Genres like ‘Horror,’ would cost more per click, whereas niches like ‘Big Foot Monster Porn’ (Trust me, it’s a thing), would be much less. There are also Google and social media ads like Facebook and Instagram, as well as traditional media like newspapers and radio. However, the traditional media is more of the shotgun method of advertising and less about the targeted ads that will put your book in front of your target audience which social media and Amazon can offer.
Myths of Traditional and Indie Publishing
Also, market yourself through your content whenever you produce a Vlog or an email campaign. Do this sparingly, however. People don’t want to see you screaming at them ‘BUY MY BOOK!’. Instead, target the right audience and engage with them with your content, and maybe when they have learned about you a little, throw a book or a pitch in there. It’s a tightrope, and not always guaranteed to succeed just because you throw money at it, but it can yield great results if you play around with it a little.
Also, a bonus tip – Do keyword research and try to find your niche. It is better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.
4 – Utilize different platforms.
I touched on this one above – Build an audience on different platforms. I currently use Instagram, Facebook, Spotify, YouTube, and TikTok. I use some more than others, but I post regularly on each one, utilizing hashtags and keywords that keep the algorithm happy.
Each comes with its benefits. Facebook for articles, links and videos, as well as to speak to your fans through the direct message and comment action. Instagram is brilliant for those that are visually-minded. YouTube and Spotify are great for people on the go, as they can let the audio play whilst doing other things like cooking or relaxing.
Media is there to be taken advantage of, and if people like what you’re putting out, then the platform will show more of it to more people. Throw in some advertising in there too, and whoa, you just went global.
5 – Build a brand email list –
This one is a tried and tested way to make some guaranteed sales, and fans and to shine a light on your reader’s day. You can build anticipation for an up-and-coming new book, and you can entice those on the platforms above to sign up to your email marketing list by promising them a free giveaway opportunity, or exclusive sneak peeks at new releases. This is your way of collecting your own group of fans and followers.
Be consistent with your email campaigns. I have tried sending daily emails and weekly emails. I found that every day was too spammy for my followers, and it made me become a little too much. But then when I dropped to weekly, I found the open rate massively increased. But the key is to be consistent. That way, your readers will look forward to getting that new email from you every week and hearing about your new video, new blog post, and new content. Throw an email address in there and connect, or maybe a social media page too. Your email list is your own private flock of readers that will follow you wherever you go.
6 – Free promotions.
Free promotions are a great way to attract new readers into your world and by putting links to your mailing list and website at the back of your free books, you’re likely to attract a lot of new people to your material.
I find that with Amazon KDP enrolment, I am able to cycle my books through a 3-month period of free download and every month my social media and mailing list grow. It’s good to have a ‘dead book,’ in which I mean this is the book you sacrifice in the series and make it free whenever you can, in order to draw those readers to your content in exchange for them signing up to your channels and offering them the next book in the series at a reduced rate to really get them hooked.
7 – Upsell new titles.
As mentioned above, when you have someone download and love the free instalment in the series, offer the next title in the series for a reduced rate. They have already invested their time in reading your story and have signed up to your emails, so the next book for a smaller price is much more tantalising. Follow that up with a bundle, and boom – You have a reader for life.
8 – Free copies and ARC copies.
To capitalize on your mailing list, offer your readers and followers free copies of your book for an honest review in an Advance Review Copy. Set your new book for pre-sale and order some books to send out to those on your mailing list for a review and a promotional post online, or send them an eBook copy for free through email. It will get your ratings right up there and will make it more likely new readers will download the story when it gets put for free (thus repeating the cycle above) or they are more likely to buy when they see it already has a tonne of good reviews.
9 – Collab with other writers and readers.
I really enjoy doing this because not only do I get to speak to other people that are crazy like me, but it also allows us to share audiences. We are not in competition with each other, dear writer. We should work together. This is because we cannot possibly fulfill the appetite of those voracious readers all by ourselves, so therefore we collab together and make the reading world a better place.
I enjoy doing this through Instagram Live each week. It’s great fun and a great way to hear what other people are doing and pass on your wisdom and knowledge and talk to each other about your projects that are coming up.
10 – Be consistent
This is the biggest one of all my friends. Be consistent with your work. Produce books regularly and engage with fans. Be consistent, as people love patterns and predictability. Make them look forward to Sunday, Wednesday, the first of the month when they know that you will be releasing something to them or posting something else online or sending out that email.
This is a long slog of a career, and they say it takes ten years to become an overnight success. We compare ourselves to those that we see have made it straight away, but we don’t see the hours and hours of content creation they did before making their first sale or book signing. Be consistent. Dreams don’t happen overnight.
If you would like some further reading, then please check out my other blogs, and look at my own books, and YouTube channel and podcast. The links are all here.
Books I have found useful on this topic –
Write, publish, repeat – Johnny B Truant
Self-Publishing – Joanna Penn
On Writing – Stephen King
Thanks for your time.
- J