Self Publishing Lessons Learned

With the release of Invisible on the horizon (only 12 days to go) I have been reflecting on the journey that has brought me to the point of publishing my second novel. The lessons I have learned along the way have changed how I look at books and publishing.

Here are the lessons I have taken away from this experience (in no particular order):

1. Publishing a book is more than just uploading a file and clicking on the publish button. When I signed up for NaNoWriMo in 2012 I had no idea what lie ahead for me. Writing the book is the easy part. The hard part comes when you start to edit. I was naïve when I published Saving Cassie - I thought the free editing would be enough.

2. You get what you pay for. A free edit sounded like a way to save some money and get a professionally edited book. Nothing against the editor - she did what she promised: a final edit for a book ready to be published. Again, due to my inexperience I thought this would be enough. After paying for a full edit for Invisible (many thanks to Kathy Lapeyre of Indie Editing by Kathy for all her help and suggestions on how to make Invisible better) and going through the process I realize how inadequate the free edit was. Don't get me wrong, Saving Cassie is a great story - a full edit would have made it an awesome book. After much deliberation I have decided to leave Saving Cassie as it is as a reminder to the lessons I have learned.

3. Connecting with readers is hard. Take Facebook for instance - I have almost 2,000 followers on my author page but I haven't sold nearly that many books. Part of the problem is just the sheer number of free romances available. I need to find that "magic" post that convinces everyone to go out and buy my book. I am an introvert so putting myself out there has been a big challenge.

4. Publishing on Amazon and B&N is free but it takes money to get a book ready for publishing. A professional cover (thankfully I found Sprinkles On Top Studios - she does great work and has some awesome premade covers for reasonable prices. I did win a free custom cover for Invisible from CoverPub and it is beautiful!

These are just a few of the bigger lessons I learned from publishing Saving Cassie. One plus side of the way I learned by doing - I actually published a book. If I had done the research I may not have jumped into it with both feet the way I did.

Now is the time for the shameless plug... please buy Invisible when it is released on January 31. Add it to your TBR and enter to win a free copy!

Until next time!

L.A. Remenicky

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