Feb 9, 2023Liked by Winston Malone, Brian Reindel 👾⚔️
As also a self-published author, I can't stress how true all of this is lol. You can transfer most of this knowledge to paperback books and nothing will change. Thanks Brian for putting it all in one post for people to see.
Thanks, Victor! It's great to have this confirmation from other self-published authors as it helps new authors trust the process is going in the right direction.
Thank you, Johnathan, I'm glad it was helpful. I knew going in that I wanted to capture the info and share it broadly, and it's nice that Winston's community has been so receptive.
Aug 17, 2023Liked by Winston Malone, Brian Reindel 👾⚔️
We spent a lot of time getting our book ready to publish, and finally made it during the heart of the pandemic when we had some extra time. It was agonizing!
This probably would have been really helpful, Brian.
Apr 18, 2023Liked by Winston Malone, Brian Reindel 👾⚔️
Great breakdown of a process I completed in January. After paying an editor and cover artist to do my art (both are friends and I designed the cover using Canva), I'm still waiting to break even, but it's so rewarding to have the book in my hands. Working on my next project now and I'm planning to use the same process again.
Feb 8, 2023Liked by Winston Malone, Brian Reindel 👾⚔️
Can you see where the sales occur? Like, can you tell if your mom bought ten copies, or if traffic came from your substack post, or do you just see total numbers?
If you run a promotion on Amazon for a book you can see if sales originated from that promotion. For regular sales they don't give you any referring source information or user data, most likely because it would violate privacy. I only know the source if someone told me they bought a copy.
Hi Brian, thanks for the info. I'm preparing a book and was wondering if you have a recommendation for font type/size (for the main story text)? I did another book a couple of years ago with Calibri 11.0 but not sure if that's the best choice. What do you think?
Hey Victor, for the print copy, usually the size of 11-12 is good, depending on the font. I will usually print one page and compare it to books I own to determine if it's in the right size range. I used a serif font called Palatino Linotype because it's a popular, easy to read font. Amazon recommends the following fonts in their help documentation, which you might find useful:
For the ebook I chose to use Bookerly because that's the default Kindle font, and users can choose to use it over the author's supplied font. Hope that helps!
Brian, thanks a lot. I downloaded Open Sans. That's a good one. 11.5 seems to be just right. The Palatino is nice too, but I tend to like sans-serif more. Thanks again, you set me on the right path!
'Queue those celebratory fireworks!' - this should be 'Cue those celebratory fireworks!' Not that I'm a pedant. However KDP is my and my company's go to 'sp' platform and we really must have the same exacting standards as everyone else.
Thanks for writing and sharing your experience, Brian! Very helpful article.
Thanks for giving me the platform to do that, Winston!
As also a self-published author, I can't stress how true all of this is lol. You can transfer most of this knowledge to paperback books and nothing will change. Thanks Brian for putting it all in one post for people to see.
Thanks, Victor! It's great to have this confirmation from other self-published authors as it helps new authors trust the process is going in the right direction.
Wow, thanks so much for this comprehensive guide! Bookmarking this for future use :-)
You're welcome!
Great stuff, Brian. Very useful to have this outline aggregated into a single post.
Thank you, Johnathan, I'm glad it was helpful. I knew going in that I wanted to capture the info and share it broadly, and it's nice that Winston's community has been so receptive.
Here's a couple of additional useful resources (I'm not affiliated, just a satisfied customer):
1) Publisher Rocket plus other useful templates and tools for Self-Publishing authors : https://kindlepreneur.com/tools/
2) How to recognise and deal with KDP / KU scams : https://kindlepreneur.com/amazon-printing-scams/
We spent a lot of time getting our book ready to publish, and finally made it during the heart of the pandemic when we had some extra time. It was agonizing!
This probably would have been really helpful, Brian.
But you did it! And that's what matters most. Next time around you'll have all of the resources at your disposal and be a veteran publisher. 😁
I bought Atticus earlier this month and it's up there as one of my favorite purchases for writing so far.
Thank you for sharing, Patricia! I know it helps when writers make the right choice when recommended software.
This is a great primer. Particularly on ISBNs and copyrights. This is where your take true ownership of your work as an indie writer.
Thank you, Vince, I'm glad it was helpful.
This was extremely informative and helpful. Thank you, Brian! It's also one of the most well-edited newsletters I've read.
Thank you, Marisa! You can also thank Winston for that, who is the well editor. 😁
Great breakdown of a process I completed in January. After paying an editor and cover artist to do my art (both are friends and I designed the cover using Canva), I'm still waiting to break even, but it's so rewarding to have the book in my hands. Working on my next project now and I'm planning to use the same process again.
Congratulations on getting through that process, Sarah! Even if you never broke even, publishing your own book is a huge accomplishment. 👊👊👊
Thanks! And I think my husband would like me to at least break even to justify the work away from family 😉
Extraordinarily helpful Brian, not least because I trust the author! I’m going to bookmark it.
Thanks, Tom! Any time you got a question about the process I'm happy to discuss.
Can you see where the sales occur? Like, can you tell if your mom bought ten copies, or if traffic came from your substack post, or do you just see total numbers?
If you run a promotion on Amazon for a book you can see if sales originated from that promotion. For regular sales they don't give you any referring source information or user data, most likely because it would violate privacy. I only know the source if someone told me they bought a copy.
Congrats! 🎉
Thanks, Michael!
This is stellar! I've been through most of what you write about and wish I had this as a reference at that time. Well done.
Thank you, Finlay!
Hi Brian, thanks for the info. I'm preparing a book and was wondering if you have a recommendation for font type/size (for the main story text)? I did another book a couple of years ago with Calibri 11.0 but not sure if that's the best choice. What do you think?
Hey Victor, for the print copy, usually the size of 11-12 is good, depending on the font. I will usually print one page and compare it to books I own to determine if it's in the right size range. I used a serif font called Palatino Linotype because it's a popular, easy to read font. Amazon recommends the following fonts in their help documentation, which you might find useful:
https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G202145450
For a sans-serif font, I think Calibri is just fine, but you might also consider Open Sans, which can be downloaded here:
https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Open+Sans
For the ebook I chose to use Bookerly because that's the default Kindle font, and users can choose to use it over the author's supplied font. Hope that helps!
Oh, this is helpful for my next project!
Brian, thanks a lot. I downloaded Open Sans. That's a good one. 11.5 seems to be just right. The Palatino is nice too, but I tend to like sans-serif more. Thanks again, you set me on the right path!
Don't forget that for eBooks the eReader will determine the font and text size according to the user settings.
'Queue those celebratory fireworks!' - this should be 'Cue those celebratory fireworks!' Not that I'm a pedant. However KDP is my and my company's go to 'sp' platform and we really must have the same exacting standards as everyone else.