Experiments in Self-Publishing A Novel. One Month In.
I recently self-published my debut novel on October 24, 2020, called “Hope Runners of Gridlock”. It’s about finding hope in a cyberpunk city with radical markets.
Thought I’d share learnings and statistics, one month since launch. I am busy writing a separate article entirely on the writing process (that’s part of the original companion guide). This is about publishing.
The decision to self-publish came primarily from the following reasons:
Desire to retain creative control (it’s released under creative commons, for example).
Wanting to ship it faster than the traditional publishing timelines.
Not wanting to get into the traditional publishing world as a debut writer (seemed an uphill battle). I didn’t want to wait months to be reviewed, only to be rejected. Would rather prefer a faster iteration cycle in writing.
Wanting to learn what self-publishing looks like.
That being said. The biggest hurdle is distribution, which is usually a trade-off, even in cases like musicians signing up to record labels. Publishers own channels.
I chose two distribution channels:
Pay-what-you-want on Gumroad that includes additional content (companion guide + music EP + early drafts). Payable in fiat or crypto. Fiat fees: 5% + charge fee (3.5% + 30¢)
$4.99 e-book + $14.99 paperback print-to-order on Amazon. Fees depend on marketplace, but generally: 70 (creator) / 30 (amazon) splits.
Payment processing fees (of PayPal + Bank transfers) is excluded from calculations.
After one month, here’s some stats (up to 31 October 2020):
Total Units Shipped: 158 (~88 were pre-orders).
Total Revenue: ~$1,139.32.
Gumroad
Total Gumroad Units (free+paid): 91.
USD units: 41
Free Units: 32
Crypto Units (ETH+Stablecoins): 18
Amazon
Total Amazon Units: 67
Amazon e-book Units: 50
Amazon Paperback Units: 17 (didn’t expect this tbh)
Averages
Avg Price (over all units, including free): $7.21
Avg Price (for fiat-only purchases): $7.88
Avg Price (for crypto-only purchases): $16
Other Details:
Purchases on Gumroad via Blog Link: ~70%
Purchases via E-Mail/Direct (likely most of it my Substack Newsletter): ~24%
At this stage, I’m still in the red with total costs to produce the novel amounting to: ~$2,868.48. The bulk of which was editing cost of $1,485. The rest was writing software, promotions, and covers/art.
Thoughts:
Pay-What-You-Want + Gumroad
I’m a firm pwyw believer. I don’t think it’s for all content, but to me, the goodwill it generates is alone good enough. What sometimes happens is that a small group of people essentially end up subsidising others (on average) who want to get it for ‘free’. As you can see. In this small sample, the average price (which includes the bundle on Gumroad of course), is higher than than the average hardcoded sale price (of $4.99 on Amazon). The highest payment was $100 for the bundle. The lowest (besides free) was $1.
In a sense, because it is pay-what-you-want + creative commons, you can get it for free, thus any payments via Gumroad is based on what the reader wants to give.
Ultimately, for me, it being my first novel, the more important aspect is building an audience for my fiction, and generating goodwill. I’m fortunate that at the moment I do not need this to support my life, so I can afford to be more generous with readers.
Why Amazon?
Not entirely a fan of how large Amazon is, or how much Audible actually controls the entire audiobook market, but they are the largest book marketplace.
Distribution
Self-publishing means you are really the only one responsible for sales and distribution: getting the book in the hands of people who might enjoy it. Thus far, I’ve received fairly good feedback on the novel. Reviews are generally positive. That being said, at this small scale, it’s likely that if people didn’t like it, they would just choose to forget about it, rather than review it (PS: Review it here if you’ve read it).
Most of the readers comes from an audience of people who have followed my writing and work in the blockchain industry. I have 548 people subscribed to my newsletter and 14.7k followers on Twitter. I got 5k uniques on this blog in 2020. I have an audience which already puts me ahead of other upstart writers. I’m fortunate to have this (hi!).
I’ve started exploring avenues to promote the novel further, and this in itself is a learning curve. Getting the books to reviewers as a self-published novel is not easy. First off: most prominent review publications only want advanced copies and have timelines of months (before launch). Which is fair and reasonable as they want eye-balls on reviews before the book is published, but does make it more difficult. So, that window is mostly past.
I’ve attempted advertising on Amazon, but that’s not been fruitful. That in itself is an art/science that I’m not familiar with.
I’ve used pay-for-review services, but the jury is still out whether this is something I’d do again in the future. Pay-for-review services essentially puts your book in front of prospective reviewers (+ their distribution networks). It definitely left me with a sense of anxiety. Do I want this? Does it matter? It’s definitely unethical to pay for fake reviews, but is it frowned upon to pay someone to review your book honestly? That transaction feels awkward to me, but what’s the difference to someone being swayed by an ad? As long as it felt to me that the review would be honest, it felt okay. That being said, it still leaves me with an awkward taste in my mouth. Don’t know how I should feel about it, which means I’d probably avoid it in the future.
You can see the example of this, here: https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/hope-runners-of-gridlock
It has generally favourable reviews and will be sent out with their newsletters (500k+). Maybe my perception of it would change if their newsletter as a distribution channel actually brings in more readers.
Selling Experiences
Regardless, the act of publishing and selling access to content does feel antiquated in some sense. In an era of abundant information, what you really should be selling is access to experiences. We see this in how franchises like Star Wars make more money from franchising than their content. Similarly, why not write instead with a Patreon and release entirely for free under creative commons? Would that not be a better channel? What about other channels of up-selling (stay tuned)?
Still learning and still experimenting and hope this post gives you some perspective on this journey! Maybe I’ll do a follow up in a few months time as I’ve learned more.
If you are here, read the companion guide I’ve been publishing!
https://blog.simondlr.com/posts/hrog-1-novel-cities-soft-city-and-radical-markets
Part 1 and 2 has been published. Part 3, on the writing process, still to come!
