Some self-publishing tips

1. Trust your creative history and instincts. I started this writing journey by writing short posts on Facebook in September 2015. I didn’t have a plan at the time; I just had insight on some situations that had occurred in my life which I wanted to share. The feedback was amazing, and it encouraged me to set up this blog.
2. Know your why. Why do you want to write? For me, the answer is simple-it makes me happy. It is something that is completely mine, and I treasure it greatly. Remembering this fact encourages me when I experience disappointments in my writing journey.
3. Do your research. To be a self-published Author who wants to share your work online, you have to learn other skills: basic graphic design (apps like Easel, Desygner and Canva are very helpful), social media utilization, and other very specific online communication skills.
4. Push yourself but know your limitations. Remember that Authors who have the backing of a Publishing House have more resources at their disposal: established marketing teams and publishing budgets, for instance. Do your best, but don’t beat yourself up if you are not reaching a very wide audience. For me, I just do what I can. I understand that things like sharing a lot of personal details or photos, for example, might get a lot of attention on social media for promoting my books, but at what cost? I would rather just do my best to promote my work and hope that it reaches the right audience.
5. Assess the ‘competition’. I publish my books on an app called Okadabooks, and before I set their prices, I checked to see what other fiction Authors set as their own book prices. I don’t see the wisdom in putting very high process on my books when I am not an extremely popular Author (for now!).
6. Define what success means to you. Listen. You have to celebrate everything. A book sale. A positive review of your book or a nice comment on your story. A retweet. Celebrate everything. That is what I do. It tells me that I am on the right track, that I am doing something right.
7. Always learn, always evolve. I have more knowledge about using social media than I did when I first started sharing my writing online in 2015. My blog appearance has changed multiple times. I started out only wanting to write short essays, but I moved on to writing poetry and short stories, and then to self-publishing 4 books. I am a Writer of different things that I enjoy.
8. Be patient. Unless you are very lucky, you are not going to become a Millionaire from self-publishing books. There might be people who have achieved this, but be patient and focus on your own journey.
9. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Some days, your posts will have a lot of views, and you will have multiple book sales. On other days, there will be no engagement and you will wonder if all the readers in the world are asleep. Don’t feel bad about it. You are still a great Writer.
10. Enjoy yourself! This is the most important point. If I did not enjoy writing, I would have given up a long time ago. Like when my work was constantly being plagiarized by other blogs and I had to make official complaints to WordPress. Or when I was expected to continue writing for free for a website as they advertised for paid writing roles. Or when my work was mansplained to me. There has been more good than bad in my writing journey, so I keep at it and remain hopeful for more success.

Written by

Ivie M. Eke 2022