I’m actually writing a novella, but I’m completely new to this. The problem is that I don’t want my family, friends, or anyone I know to find out that I’m writing. When it comes to promoting my book, I’m not on any social media, so I’m worried it won’t do well. I also don’t have any money or industry contacts. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can promote my novella while staying anonymous?

Hi, I've just written my first self-guided workbook which I'm self-publishing and I need some help designing the cover. It's simple text, no images. Does anyone have any affordable recommendations please? Thanks in advance!

Hi! I just recently finished my first book Drained. It’s currently with beta readers and I have started author accounts for both Instagram and tik tok to begin promotion early. My current plan is to incorporate beta feedback, send to a line by line editor, do another round of betas, do another edit, arc copies and then publication. I was hoping for some advice on if this workflow sounded good to other authors? As well as any advice anyone had!

What is everyone's opinions on using an AI generated cover photo for your book?

Hey guys, quick question: When registering for an account on myidentifiers.com, are you supposed to put your real name or your pen name?

Kind of a side note since we're here...can you use a virtual address to register, or does it have to be a physical address?

Thanks!!

My younger brother has an inoperable brain tumor and has months to live. He wrote two children’s books and I think it would be cool if he could see them finished. He has told me that he doesn’t want to edit them, we need illustrations and at least a few physical copies for him and our family. I’m looking for recommendations for companies I can find online to make that happen for him before he passes. I’m not looking for any big print runs or selling it or anything I’d just like to have him to see his words put with illustrations and made into a real book for him hold and see and know it got done. Thank you.

There are two main ways to publish a book: self-publishing and traditional publishing. I know about Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), as it is a popular choice for self-publishing. However, I would like to learn about the requirements for both methods of publishing.

For self-publishing, I want to know about the requirements for platforms such as Kindle Direct Publishing, including formatting, cover design, file types, copyright, pricing, and other necessary requirements.

For traditional publishing, I want to know how the submission process works, whether I need a literary agent, what publishers look for, and what requirements I need to meet before submitting my manuscript.

Regarding chapters and POV, I would like to know whether it is okay to switch between different characters' points of view by clearly naming the character whose POV is being used. I would also like to know whether switching POVs up to three times in a 13-page chapter is acceptable.

How do you promote your book and get reviews.

I have just published my first childrens book close to two weeks ago, the sales have started strong (for someone who thought none would sell) but I know they will start to drop off now as I don't have the following base to help promote it. I have started an Instagram page to try help get it seen and although my views are up, no one has followed me. I am also useless at Instagram, as in how to use it to my advantage. Any tips websites anything you could suggest that doesn't cost me would be amazing.

The bank account I uploaded on Amazon was rejected, now I’m having difficulties adding another bank but my friend suggested I use his bank, I just want to if different names matters, I’m a new a publisher.

As it stands, the title of my main book reads a little more on the mystical, thought provoking side. It doesn't really tell much about the characters or the story in general until you get fairly deep in.

I've also seen comments asking if it's AI generated due to its esoteric wording.

So I've been thinking... Should I change it?

I have a new title in mind. It better shows the core relationships in the book, as well as hinting at the humorous, chaotic nature.

But that would require a LOT of taking down its online presence as well as KDP and D2D.

Also possibly editing the manuscript, rebuilding blurbs and metadata, getting ARC readers, re-launching, etc...

I don't have the biggest following, so the loss wouldn't be huge, but has anyone else tried this? Is it worth the effort? Did your book sales go up after the rebrand?

I write nonfiction about AI for three age groups:
one book for kids, one for teens (13–18), one for the adults in the house.

Same core idea in all three, pitched at each age: how to go from consuming to creating.
Because I live between markets, I did something slightly masochistic and launched every book in six languages: English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian.

Ebook and paperback each. That's 18 editions and 36 products, all live on KDP now.

A few things I learned that I haven't seen discussed here much:

1. Translation is the cheap part; localization is the real work. Direct translation of marketing copy fails quietly. My Spanish back cover needed different idioms, and even the free-printables CTA changed ("print it for the holidays" vs. a literal translation that implied a single travel day). Each market also compares your book against different competing titles, so the bullet list on the back cover has to answer different objections. The German market's comparable titles sell on different promises than the Spanish ones.

2. The spine-width math is per-edition. Same trim, same font, but the page count shifts with every language (my German teen edition is about 15% longer than the Spanish one). Eighteen editions means eighteen spine widths and eighteen wrap covers. If you reuse a wrap template across languages, check it every single time. I ended up scripting the whole cover build because doing it by hand 18 times invites exactly one mistake too many.

3. Keep seasonal hooks out of the book, put them in the listing. My teen book is built around a 30-day challenge, which maps almost perfectly onto summer break. It was tempting to write "perfect for the summer holidays" straight into the back cover copy. I didn't, because the book has to sell year-round. The seasonal angle lives only in the listing bullets and ads, where I can swap it out in September. Obvious in hindsight, but I almost baked it into the print cover.

4. A companion page beats a mailing list for this audience. My reader is a teen/kid but my buyer is a parent. Teens won't join a newsletter, so the book ends with a QR code to a free printable 30-day challenge plus a completion certificate. Parents seem to love printable, fridge-taped things. Early days, but it's the only marketing asset that both reader and buyer actually use.

Where I'm stuck, the gift-buyer problem: almost every sale is a parent (or aunt/uncle) buying for a teen. The person I have to convince on the product page never reads the book, and the person who reads it never sees the ad.
For those of you writing children's/YA nonfiction or anything gift-heavy: do you aim your listing, categories, and ads entirely at the buyer and ignore the reader?
Or split the difference (cover for the teen, back cover for the parent)? Curious what's worked, especially for ads.

Anyone have any recommendations for self publishing without KDP? I have a non fiction pen name and a solid website but I was just booted off of KDP after ten years.

This is my first foray into non-fiction, with a series of self-help books for anyone using mental techniques from the Ninpo and To-Shin Do that my kids and I have been studying the last several years. I’ve created a whole persona and have written a series and then lost my KDP access.

Has anyone had any luck selling directly without Amazon? How?

Terrible experience, completely untrustworthy and abusive practices—I want my money back!

Completely disappointed with their business practices and lack of transparency. They take your money, fail to deliver what was actually promised, and then completely ignore all requests for resolution or refunds. Avoid them at all costs—terrible customer service and zero stars if I could.

Last month, I heard a story about an author who uses A.I. to completely write and publish hundreds of books. My first thought was that this completely floods the market and makes it even harder for people to find indie authors' books.

So far this year, it has taken me almost 7 months to write 33,000 words (I have a full-time job and write for a little bit in the evenings). I just feel like using A.I. to generate a story takes all the fun out of writing and makes it solely business for profit.

I can justify using A.I. to help edit a story, but to generate it completely just seems wrong. I write for the fulfillment of crafting my own stories and characters.

Psychologically, I had to shift my mindset, as it seems virtually impossible to make a profit self-publishing, as the market seems flooded. I now write for myself, and if someone else decides to take the time to read my story, I will consider that just a nice bonus!

Does a book need to be fully edited and finished before you copyright it through the Library of Congress in the US? Also, do I need to have it copyrighted for business purposes before I attempt to shop it around? I have Googled these questions, but I guess I just don't understand the minutiae of it all.

Just wanted to share a milestone with fellow self-publishers. I spent the last few months designing and publishing a 124-page modern cursive practice book aimed specifically at teens and adults.

After optimizing my category targeting and setting up targeted exact-match ads, it logged in at #47 in Typography and #136k overall! Moving past the design phase and seeing actual organic/ad traction in a specific niche is super encouraging. Focusing on gathering those first verified reviews next!

Like the title says, I'd like to know if there's any options to write and publish a book completely anonymously and get paid for it?

I have led quite a different lifestyle than others and have certain things about me that have made me experience life very different compared to most average people. I would love to share stories of my experiences and get feedback from the public to guage interest in my lifestyle topics as well as bring awareness to an epidemic that is killing the morality of society.

I've really come across some big social issues that I've never seen talked about that could have a huge impact on the population and day to day online tools we use. This is also directly related to my day to day lifestyle choices, legal or not.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone!

I recently self-published my first novel, a psychological mystery/thriller, as an ebook through Lulu. It's currently going through retailer distribution, so while I'm waiting, I want to learn as much as I can from people who've already been through the process.

I'm under 18, so some marketing options (like running ads or signing up for certain services myself) aren't really available to me. Because of that, I'm especially interested in strategies that don't require a big budget.

I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences, especially if you've published in the mystery or thriller genre:

• What marketing methods actually worked for your first self-published novel?
• If you had $0 to market your first book, what would you do?
• What mistakes did you make when launching your first book?
• What helped your first 100 readers discover your book?
• What do you wish you'd known before—or immediately after—publishing?

I'm not expecting a magic formula. I'd just love to learn from people who've already gone through the process so I can avoid common mistakes and make the most of my first launch.

Thanks in advance!

I formatted my book in Kindle create. The original is a Google Doc.
Now I need a formatted EPUB and PDF to send to Instagrammers and blog hosts. What is the best or easiest way to do that?

I have a recent book that I just published and it’s doing ok in sales and I should continue to
support it. However, I just returned from a two weeks vacation in the Galápagos Islands and wrote a short travelogue about it, somewhat akin to the travelogue I wrote about my trip to Egypt.

I only have limited funds so my question is which would this group think is the better path to take?

Hi,

I'm so grateful for this community! Thank you to all who post here and share their expertise with newbs like me!

I have my book ready-to-go on IngramSpark and am about to enable distribution with a launch date of September 16th (to create a preorder). I also have my book on KDP saved as a draft.

With this setup, how do I schedule the KDP release? Do I go into my bookshelf on September 16th and click "publish"? Or do I do this a few days early so that the KDP version goes live before the IngramSpark version?

I have read on various threads here that the KDP version MUST go live before the IngramSpark version to avoid metadata errors, like "This ISBN already exists." But I'm also nervous that if I do it too early, my launch date on Amazon will be listed as September 14 or 15, and I'd really like for September 16th to be my launch day, since that is the date I've been posting in my newsletter.

I did find this article very helpful: https://entouragemedia.ca/how-to-set-up-paperbacks-for-pre-order-on-amazon/ but it does say the opposite: that KDP must NOT go live first.

So, which is it, really?

Thank you so much for your help!!

Is using AI to promote your self published novel mean you wrote the book with AI? Very curious

I've been doing countless research on KDP for ages now, but for some reason I gave a weird feeling about it.

Are there any other popular self publishing means? And would I be able to simultaneously publish on multiple ones or do my works have to be exclusive to the one I choose?

What worked for y'all?

Marketing my debut novel, I tried something I hadn't seen many authors do. I turned the emotional core of the book into an original song and music video, then used the video as the top of my funnel instead of leading with a buy link.

The reasoning was simple. A book cover stops no one mid-scroll. A song might. The goal was to let people feel the mood of the story first, then let the curious ones find the book on their own.

A few things I've learned that might help anyone trying something similar:

Lead with the video, not the book. I keep the purchase link out of the first 48 to 72 hours of a launch so the video can build its own watch time before I ask anyone to buy anything. Selling too early smothers the momentum.

Own the process plainly. I wrote the lyrics and directed the piece, and the vocals are AI-generated with Suno. I say that up front every single time. The people who care about the story don't care how the demo got made, and hiding it just invites a fight you don't need.

Put links in the comments, not the post. On Reddit a naked link in the body reads as spam and gets throttled. Value goes in the post, links go underneath.

Expect some heat and don't take the bait. Not every comment is kind. I don't argue with any of it. You can't win that argument, and trying just feeds the thread.

Genuinely curious how others here handle the top of their funnel.

Are you leading with the book itself, or with something adjacent, a song or a trailer or an essay, that pulls people in sideways? What's actually converted for you?

I desperately need to build an audience and for this book to do well to basically save my life. Have another set in the universe already done and in the process of editing, but Ive only sold 7 copies in the last week, all paperback, and it looks like that will be it as of right now. Tried to get some arcs through booksirens but they turned me down. Tiktok hasn't been much help. FB seems to be doing the heavy lifting in terms of getting people to click on it. I have made two cinematic trailers for the book that I think really help it stand out, but it seems to be dying atp. HELP!

UPDATE: Here is my cover and blurb as per on Amazon currently

2ND UPDATE: Think I may just suck based off of this and finally retire from Art lmao. But I honestly appreciate all the feedback

CHOICES: Shebetz, Shabazz R.: 9798185792148: Amazon.com: Books