Reddit reviews Write. Publish. Repeat. (The No-Luck-Required Guide to Self-Publishing Success)
We found 10 Reddit comments about Write. Publish. Repeat. (The No-Luck-Required Guide to Self-Publishing Success). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
> I hold out vague dreams of being a writer, and have completed one novel with another on the way, but that's not capitalistically viable. If I churned out some kinky monster-fetish schlock or wrote harlequin romances, maybe I'd be a slightly more productive cog in the machine.
Shut the fuck up. Being writer is hard without people like you writing some niche shit and expecting to be prised by general public. It won't happen. Ever. You know how many writers are in your position? Most. You either are writer who will publish something closer to market's demand and make every nth book more artsy OR you'll find a tiny but loyal audience.
Now you're just complaining.
Writing is neither "drinking latte and taking notes in my Moleskine" nor is it "a poet with a life broken tells how it is". Writing is mostly you typing, day in, day out, without much chances for success, for your audience.
Your woe is me story is nothing special, and had you spent the time you've spent arguing on reddit, writing short stories, you could at least self-publish something for 99 cents.
You can start here.
https://www.amazon.com/Publish-Repeat-No-Luck-Required-Self-Publishing-Success-ebook/dp/B00H26IFJS
There's as good a chance that a traditionally published collection would get lost in the noise (or worse: the publisher's slush pile). Lots of luck and hard work is required either way.
For a short story collection, one benefit of self-publishing via KDP, Smashwords, etc. is that you can choose to publish each story individually for a super low price (or offer one for free as a promotion, if you like), and also publish the collection as a "volume discount" deal (cheaper than buying all stories separately). That way there's very little risk for the reader to try out one of your stories, and if they like it, they'll be more inclined to buy the collection.
I got a lot of great ideas from Write, Publish, Repeat. These guys have distilled a lot of good info about the self-publishing world into a solid book. I suspect it will answer a lot of questions you currently have.
These are the books I've read recently and liked a lot:
These are not affiliate links.
I'd say start by going through what you've already written and recruit a few beta readers to see if anything is publishable. Edit as necessary and then learn how to format.
I've found Let's Get Digital and Write. Publish. Repeat. to be very helpful. Also Million Dollar Outlines.
You'll want to start going through the posts here to learn about covers and do's and don't's for the various publishing platforms. Learning how to self-publish and the conventions of the erotica genre might seem a bit overwhelming but hopefully there's a few ideas here you can start with.
I'd recommend reading Write.Publish.Repeat. and checking out /u/sapoia's posts.
Like /u/TildenJack said, write more books. Most of the time, you're better off writing than using social media or figuring out promos. Having that third book under your belt (kudos on the third!) seems to be the tipping point for many authors, and the more books you have out, the more likely it is your sales will grow.
Write, Publish, Repeat is popular.
Also, David Gaughran has two titles, Let's Get Digital and Let's Get Visible, which are highly rated.
Be sure to check out the this forum: https://www.kboards.com/index.php/board,60.0.html
I haven't published yet but I've done lots of research on self publishing and it seems like the most common advice is start working on your next book. Most successful self-published authors only got there after having multiple books released.
You might also check out the book Write. Publish. Repeat.
And this series of books on self publishing by Chris Fox
I've heard http://www.amazon.com/Publish-Repeat-No-Luck-Required-Self-Publishing-Success-ebook/dp/B00H26IFJS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396188306&sr=8-1&keywords=write+rinse+repeat
is a pretty good book. They also have a podcast that I listen to.
I encourage you to read Write, Publish, Repeat
It's not the holy grail of self publishing, but it has a lot of useful stuff about self publishing and some good tips.
Like anything, you get out of it what you put into it. I only started doing scifi adventure to earn a little side income and I already earn a few hundred a month extra for putting my hobby out there for people to read.
> I used to write horror erotica just to stretch my imagination, so eh, I will think about it.
Swing by /r/eroticauthors and start talking to the people there.
If you're tempted to give it a go, then go for it. I'd advise you to think ahead, though. If you just write one book, you can expect it to swim and then drift downwards. I did originally think standalone before I started. My research quickly put that notiob to rest. I had to start with a series. I wrote my first three before even marketing which worked really well. (If you see my OP you can look at my stuff)
I highly recommend you read two books right now.
One is this (essential): https://www.amazon.com/Publish-Repeat-No-Luck-Required-Self-Publishing-Success-ebook/dp/B00H26IFJS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484083927&sr=8-1&keywords=write+publish+repeat
And here's the other one - it's technically for screenwriting, but the tips in there apply to books (essential for helping you write and think about your stories): https://www.amazon.com/Story-Substance-Structure-Principles-Screenwriting/dp/0060391685/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484083965&sr=8-1&keywords=mckee+story
Hope this helps! Am happy to help you along the way, hit me up on FaceBook if you like.