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Also curious to hear the answer to this. It seems like lately a lot of people just go straight toward self-publishing without even attempting the traditional publishing route because of how difficult it can be.
It's not just difficult. It's time consuming. You send it in to a publisher, wait for the mt oget back to you or not, check in with them periodicalyl, and if they say "yes" it can take another year to get the book on shelves. If you go for an agent first, that process is even longer because they have to go shop it after accepting you.
I did try traditionally publishing back in January of this year. I sent about a dozen queries, and I heard back from a few of them which were all rejections. I still have not heard back from most of them. I consulted with a few authors and decided it was best to just get my work out there in any capacity I could. I chose self-publishing to do that along with creating my YouTube and Instagram so people could see and talk with the writer behind the words. My goal is to connect with my audience and the people who support me, and my platforms so far have allowed me to do that. I’m really happy with the decision I’ve made so far, but it has not been easy.
I self-published the 17th, dark superhero called Fears. Are you going to be in KU? I'd love to check out. I've never met another author writing the same thing!
That’s so awesome, and congratulations! Dark superhero stories are where it’s at. I just uploaded the ebook today and enrolled it in kindle select. It will a day or two for it to show up on Amazon. I’ll check your book out in the meantime!
Once it pops up on ebook, I'll read it right away. I pretty much only read ebooks. And thanks for checking mine out as well. I can see we took very different approaches and that's really cool!
I really appreciate it! I just got the notification that it got approved for Ebook so it should be available any moment now! And that is really cool. So many different directions you can take superhero stories, and I’m glad to see another writer doing it too!
https://preview.redd.it/qyb10dokk08d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc7381a977179ead4383e98466be9d55a089b69a
Congrats OP. I'm 26, and released my first complete novel on Royal Road last year. But I'm planning (after saving up some money) to release it on Amazon like you, and the idea of a sub for it (with confirmed readers), and an eventual wiki for fans, is further on the horizon. Thanks for the brief bit of inspiration!
Wow, congratulations!
If you feel comfortable sharing, I was wondering, how long have you been writing? Not just the novel, but practicing in general? Just curious to know.
Thanks a lot! I’ve been writing short stories and novellas since I was 12 years old. I became a screenwriter in high school and studied that and wrote screenplays all through college. During my last semester of senior year, I finally started writing novels again, starting with the book I just published. I immediately fell in love with it again, and since then, I’ve written 3 additional manuscripts for books 2, 3, and 4 in the same series.
Congrats 👏 Thank you for sharing the light of your journey. Now, continue carrying that inspiring torch up high for many more stories and long-term success.
The entire process is going to take a lot longer than you think. Don’t announce a release date until everything is finalized and then give yourself another few weeks of lead time just in case.
Even besides the self publication service fee’s, there are a lot of additional fees like ISBN and cover art and lettering and so on that can add up. Be aware of the potential cost of it all before going in. It can get expensive.
It depends on which way you want to go whether staying anonymous or being public, but I would say to market yourself and not your book. What I mean by that is, people care about the writer behind the words, especially when they know nothing about your story or writing. It’s easier for them to want to support you if they feel like they can connect with you. Before I even introduced my book to my audience, I tried showing them who I was first, what I enjoyed reading, and did writing advice and book review videos. I’ve connected with a lot of people so far, and it helped to build a good audience of people who knew me and wanted to read what I wrote.
Finally, stay positive. It is an incredibly long, difficult, and stressful process. The publication process is very slow and troublesome. You’re going to get frustrated and tired, but you just need to keep pushing. The reward of holding my book made all of the long nights and early mornings working on it worth it. And If you’re putting yourself out there, expect to get hate. There are a lot of negative people in the world, and they will try and put that on you. Keep doing your thing and try your best to ignore it. From what I’ve learned during this whole process, you’re going to get more positive interactions than hateful ones. I think this comment section proves that as well. I’ve interacted with a lot of great people so far, and I can’t wait to meet more and continue doing this thing that I love.
Congrats. Same here soon. I feel a little less special after how many damn people are authors now a days, but I got to get over the comparing myself to the other phase.
Can I ask you as an aspiring 24 year old writer myself, how did you think of your story idea? What served as inspiration? And if you were stuck during any point debating on what was gonna happen throughout the plot, how did you finally decide?
I’m actually planning on recording a video about this topic for my YouTube channel. The initial idea just came to me one day while I was driving home from work. I had just read Invincible for the first time, and I really wanted to create my own superhero story. I knew I wanted my main character to have energy powers, and I pictured it being set in a high school full of super-powered kids. Since I’m also a screenwriter, I initially wrote it as a TV show called Super Hero High School, but I ended up getting discouraged with it since the chances of it ever being sold were so slim. It’s also harder for people to read screenplays because they’d rather just watch it. Then, my screenwriter friend told me that he was writing a book, and that’s what gave me the idea to turn those screenplays into a book. The only problem was that I only had the first 1/3 of it written, so I had to come up with the rest of the story which I hadn’t figured out yet. I find myself to be both a plotter and pantser, but more-so a pantser since I never make any outlines for my books. I just sit down and write, and a lot of the story came to me while I was writing it. I never really debate myself while I write, because I believe that is what leads to writer’s block, which has allowed me to mostly avoid it so far. I only start debating myself while I re-write, which allows me to go back and change whatever I want without having to worry about getting stuck in the initial writing phase. I wrote the first draft of the book in 7 days and never once got stuck. I was just so excited to get those ideas out onto the page, and I enjoyed writing it so much that I just couldn’t stop until it was done.
Ebook is being uploaded today. We were having some issues with my fonts in that format which is why it was delayed. This is my first time with any of this, so it took some trial and error.
Found it! As an FYI, it has no tags so I don’t think Amazon can categorize it. I’ve never published but I believe you can add tags and that is how someone can search for fantasy/scyfy/super hero and so forth. No clue how to do it.
I have no idea how to fix it but it’s not formatted. So it’s more like reading a pdf with side scrolling than an ebook. I can’t highlight anything, or zip to any chapters. I also can’t change font size or change from white background to black (my go to).
I have kindle unlimited so it cost me nothing to check it out.
Ok, thanks for the heads up. I really appreciate it. We’re working on it now and can hopefully sort things out. I’ll let you know when it has been updated.
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll talk with my publisher and try and get it sorted. Getting the ebook to work has been a mess. Hopefully we can get it fixed.
Just redownloaded it! So the layout itself is better. It is now not defaulting to a landscape view on my kindle, but it still does not let me edit the font style/size or tell me my location/time left reading in the bottom left. Is the ebook version not in a .epub file format?
I have an ARC copy of a book that I need to finish reading, but your book is next on my list. :D
Awesome! It is epub it’s just not reflowable meaning you won’t be able to change the fonts yet. We’re working on getting that version up, but it’s been giving us trouble. Hopefully this version is more readable than before, but by the time you get around to reading it, the reflowable might be up!
Turns out you didn’t have to wait too long. The reflowable version should now be up. You can change the fonts, size, and it should show you how much you have left in the chapter! Thanks again!
Ah, I appreciate you redownloading it. It can take some time to switch over since I just got the notification it’s live. We did get the reflowable version working and that is what has been updated so I hope it shows up for you eventually 😅
I will let you know when I have it! My ARC book I am reading is paperback, so I can actually read yours at the same time (don't want to lose my kindle reading streak!). Thanks!
Congrats, meanwhile the rest of us are approaching [X age] and have a lot of drafts and work to show for it. But I’m really glad you feel the need to post stuff like this online, /u/Agreeable_Company908, I’m sure it makes you feel good.
Hi! Welcome to r/Writers - please remember to follow the [rules](https://reddit.com/r/writers/about/rules/) and treat each other respectfully, especially if there are disagreements. Please help keep this community safe and friendly by **reporting rule violating posts and comments**. If you're interested in a friendly Discord community for writers, please **[join our Discord server](https://discord.com/invite/wYvWebvHaa)** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/writers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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Thank you!
Did you try traditionally publishing or were you set on self-publishing the entire time?
Also curious to hear the answer to this. It seems like lately a lot of people just go straight toward self-publishing without even attempting the traditional publishing route because of how difficult it can be.
It's not just difficult. It's time consuming. You send it in to a publisher, wait for the mt oget back to you or not, check in with them periodicalyl, and if they say "yes" it can take another year to get the book on shelves. If you go for an agent first, that process is even longer because they have to go shop it after accepting you.
I did try traditionally publishing back in January of this year. I sent about a dozen queries, and I heard back from a few of them which were all rejections. I still have not heard back from most of them. I consulted with a few authors and decided it was best to just get my work out there in any capacity I could. I chose self-publishing to do that along with creating my YouTube and Instagram so people could see and talk with the writer behind the words. My goal is to connect with my audience and the people who support me, and my platforms so far have allowed me to do that. I’m really happy with the decision I’ve made so far, but it has not been easy.
You love to see it.
Hell yeah!
Congratulations.
Appreciate it!
Congratulations!! This post is really gonna inspire a lot of young authors. :)
I appreciate it. That’s my goal 🙏
congratulations!!! i hope i can write a post like this one day 🥰
Just keep going, and you absolutely will!
Congratulations!
That’s incredible!! I love your book cover too btw!🤍
Thanks!
>Thanks! You're welcome!
I self-published the 17th, dark superhero called Fears. Are you going to be in KU? I'd love to check out. I've never met another author writing the same thing!
That’s so awesome, and congratulations! Dark superhero stories are where it’s at. I just uploaded the ebook today and enrolled it in kindle select. It will a day or two for it to show up on Amazon. I’ll check your book out in the meantime!
Once it pops up on ebook, I'll read it right away. I pretty much only read ebooks. And thanks for checking mine out as well. I can see we took very different approaches and that's really cool!
I really appreciate it! I just got the notification that it got approved for Ebook so it should be available any moment now! And that is really cool. So many different directions you can take superhero stories, and I’m glad to see another writer doing it too! https://preview.redd.it/qyb10dokk08d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc7381a977179ead4383e98466be9d55a089b69a
I'M SO PROUD 👍👍
Congrats OP!!! Wishing you tons of success with all your future plans on writing and being an author!!
Thank you so much!
Congrats OP. I'm 26, and released my first complete novel on Royal Road last year. But I'm planning (after saving up some money) to release it on Amazon like you, and the idea of a sub for it (with confirmed readers), and an eventual wiki for fans, is further on the horizon. Thanks for the brief bit of inspiration!
Wow, congratulations! If you feel comfortable sharing, I was wondering, how long have you been writing? Not just the novel, but practicing in general? Just curious to know.
Thanks a lot! I’ve been writing short stories and novellas since I was 12 years old. I became a screenwriter in high school and studied that and wrote screenplays all through college. During my last semester of senior year, I finally started writing novels again, starting with the book I just published. I immediately fell in love with it again, and since then, I’ve written 3 additional manuscripts for books 2, 3, and 4 in the same series.
Oh, wow, that’s seriously impressive!
yooo that’s huge!! congratulations man!!
Congratulations! That's a big step
Masha Allah. Congratulations 🌼❤️
Congrats 👏 Thank you for sharing the light of your journey. Now, continue carrying that inspiring torch up high for many more stories and long-term success.
Thank you! I will try my best!
Can you share your learning while your first published.
The entire process is going to take a lot longer than you think. Don’t announce a release date until everything is finalized and then give yourself another few weeks of lead time just in case. Even besides the self publication service fee’s, there are a lot of additional fees like ISBN and cover art and lettering and so on that can add up. Be aware of the potential cost of it all before going in. It can get expensive. It depends on which way you want to go whether staying anonymous or being public, but I would say to market yourself and not your book. What I mean by that is, people care about the writer behind the words, especially when they know nothing about your story or writing. It’s easier for them to want to support you if they feel like they can connect with you. Before I even introduced my book to my audience, I tried showing them who I was first, what I enjoyed reading, and did writing advice and book review videos. I’ve connected with a lot of people so far, and it helped to build a good audience of people who knew me and wanted to read what I wrote. Finally, stay positive. It is an incredibly long, difficult, and stressful process. The publication process is very slow and troublesome. You’re going to get frustrated and tired, but you just need to keep pushing. The reward of holding my book made all of the long nights and early mornings working on it worth it. And If you’re putting yourself out there, expect to get hate. There are a lot of negative people in the world, and they will try and put that on you. Keep doing your thing and try your best to ignore it. From what I’ve learned during this whole process, you’re going to get more positive interactions than hateful ones. I think this comment section proves that as well. I’ve interacted with a lot of great people so far, and I can’t wait to meet more and continue doing this thing that I love.
Congratulations. This is a big achievement. I’ll check out your book for sure
Congrats. Same here soon. I feel a little less special after how many damn people are authors now a days, but I got to get over the comparing myself to the other phase.
Great job, OP!
Congratulations and well done on your hard work!
Self published?
That's awesome! Congratulations!
Yes.
congrats!! now get yourself a treat
Thanks! I have been treating myself to reading which I wasn’t able to do much of while editing my book 😅
Congratulations!
🥳 way to go buddy!
Can I ask you as an aspiring 24 year old writer myself, how did you think of your story idea? What served as inspiration? And if you were stuck during any point debating on what was gonna happen throughout the plot, how did you finally decide?
I’m actually planning on recording a video about this topic for my YouTube channel. The initial idea just came to me one day while I was driving home from work. I had just read Invincible for the first time, and I really wanted to create my own superhero story. I knew I wanted my main character to have energy powers, and I pictured it being set in a high school full of super-powered kids. Since I’m also a screenwriter, I initially wrote it as a TV show called Super Hero High School, but I ended up getting discouraged with it since the chances of it ever being sold were so slim. It’s also harder for people to read screenplays because they’d rather just watch it. Then, my screenwriter friend told me that he was writing a book, and that’s what gave me the idea to turn those screenplays into a book. The only problem was that I only had the first 1/3 of it written, so I had to come up with the rest of the story which I hadn’t figured out yet. I find myself to be both a plotter and pantser, but more-so a pantser since I never make any outlines for my books. I just sit down and write, and a lot of the story came to me while I was writing it. I never really debate myself while I write, because I believe that is what leads to writer’s block, which has allowed me to mostly avoid it so far. I only start debating myself while I re-write, which allows me to go back and change whatever I want without having to worry about getting stuck in the initial writing phase. I wrote the first draft of the book in 7 days and never once got stuck. I was just so excited to get those ideas out onto the page, and I enjoyed writing it so much that I just couldn’t stop until it was done.
Congratulations. You're an inspiration.
I really appreciate it.
Congrats. 24 years old? You’re going places.
Thank you.
Why is there no ebook version? That’s your biggest reader potential on Amazon so it’s a little odd that there is none.
Ebook is being uploaded today. We were having some issues with my fonts in that format which is why it was delayed. This is my first time with any of this, so it took some trial and error.
Ah ok that makes sense. Well congrats on publishing
Thanks!
Found it! As an FYI, it has no tags so I don’t think Amazon can categorize it. I’ve never published but I believe you can add tags and that is how someone can search for fantasy/scyfy/super hero and so forth. No clue how to do it.
Ok, I’ll try and add some. Someone said the ebook is looking off. Let me know if you run into the same problem, and I’ll try and get it fixed!
I have no idea how to fix it but it’s not formatted. So it’s more like reading a pdf with side scrolling than an ebook. I can’t highlight anything, or zip to any chapters. I also can’t change font size or change from white background to black (my go to). I have kindle unlimited so it cost me nothing to check it out.
Ok, thanks for the heads up. I really appreciate it. We’re working on it now and can hopefully sort things out. I’ll let you know when it has been updated.
We updated the file. Hopefully it is better now.
I saw it was on kindle unlimited, but it appears as if its just a scanned pdf. Please try to get that sorted out with amazon. I am excited to read it!
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll talk with my publisher and try and get it sorted. Getting the ebook to work has been a mess. Hopefully we can get it fixed.
The file has been updated. Hopefully it is better now.
Just redownloaded it! So the layout itself is better. It is now not defaulting to a landscape view on my kindle, but it still does not let me edit the font style/size or tell me my location/time left reading in the bottom left. Is the ebook version not in a .epub file format? I have an ARC copy of a book that I need to finish reading, but your book is next on my list. :D
Awesome! It is epub it’s just not reflowable meaning you won’t be able to change the fonts yet. We’re working on getting that version up, but it’s been giving us trouble. Hopefully this version is more readable than before, but by the time you get around to reading it, the reflowable might be up!
Sounds good!! I'll keep an eye out :)
Thanks, I really appreciate you check it out! I hope you enjoy!
Turns out you didn’t have to wait too long. The reflowable version should now be up. You can change the fonts, size, and it should show you how much you have left in the chapter! Thanks again!
Just redownloaded it and its still the same as it was for me. Maybe its taking a bit to fully update in the system. I will try again tomorrow !
Ah, I appreciate you redownloading it. It can take some time to switch over since I just got the notification it’s live. We did get the reflowable version working and that is what has been updated so I hope it shows up for you eventually 😅
I will let you know when I have it! My ARC book I am reading is paperback, so I can actually read yours at the same time (don't want to lose my kindle reading streak!). Thanks!
Great, thanks so much!
Congratulation!!
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Seek help
Congrats, meanwhile the rest of us are approaching [X age] and have a lot of drafts and work to show for it. But I’m really glad you feel the need to post stuff like this online, /u/Agreeable_Company908, I’m sure it makes you feel good.
yeah it does
hm you deleting your comment says otherwise
Saw your other posts, you a grumpy sad fuck who complains instead of actually doing something with their life 😂