The Student Room Group
the lovely @Tootles is self published
Reply 2
Original post by MissVampire
What's your experience like? What platform or methods do you use to get yourself out know there?
I use KDP for ebooks and paperbacks, and ACX for audiobooks.

I write each chapter in a separate Word document, and then give it a first pass of editing after a month, and give it to a beta to pick apart. When they've done that, I look through their suggestions and act upon them in whatever way seems best for the story (sometimes incorporating those changes because they're right, like too many "and then"s in a paragraph; sometimes ignoring things like vernacular spellings the beta didn't like, or profanity in stressful situations).

I then use a DVR inside a folded up T-shirt* to record the book, doing final edits along the way (there's no better way to make sure wording is right than to read aloud, and you're more likely to notice spelling/grammar mistakes when you're looking at each individual word in turn), making sure to pay attention to noise peaks and pauses and background noise.

Finally, I use Sigil to prepare a .epub file, feed that through kindlegen to make it into an Amazon .mobi file, and upload that - ebook's done; typeset the paperback using LibreOffice Writer (which has much better typesetting features than Word); and edit the audiobook using Audacity (which I then get another beta to listen to, to look for mistakes I've left in or parts that aren't clearly audible).

I then upload those, set the prices (I go with $2.99** for ebooks in the US and £2.49 for the UK; $9.99 / £7.99 for the paperbacks. Audible sets audiobook prices automatically based on the length of the work), and set a publication date.

Sometimes I use promotions on KDP (put the work up for free, or maybe have a countdown promotion) for books that precede the newest one, and I keep a Facebook author profile which I post related news (and sometimes short standalone stories) in.

Hmm, now my experience. Pretty good, I've made enough to get myself out of trouble, financially. I need to get a better grip on self-promotion, really, if I want to make a living out of it.

And thanks to @PQ for tagging me here :hat2:

I'm not the only self-pubbed author on here, I know of at least one other - @PinkMobilePhone.



*Believe it or not, a good DVR inside a T-shirt can produce similar quality recordings to those done in a studio, especially at the low quality (192kbit, 44.1ksampel, mono) that ACX requires.

**I'm from the UK, but my work is more popular in the US so I have to prioritize the market over there.
(edited 7 years ago)

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