I really like self-publishing. Maybe it’s because I like to stay in control of my project. When you create, that’s your baby and you don’t necessarily want to hand it off to someone else. So by doing it myself I retain control of it.

I currently have 11 or 12 titles in my bookshelf in Kindle Direct Publishing, not all of them published. Some of them are just works in progress. I started with CreateSpace which merged with Kindle Direct so I’ve been at it a long time and I’ve learned a few things along the way.

My writing skills have improved with time. My first story was about something traumatic that happened to my family. Writing it down was a way of putting it on paper before I forgot all of the little details of what it felt like. And since it was a big deal in our family, this was one way to share what each of us had experienced with them.

I don’t know that a publisher would or wouldn’t have been interested in that story, but I felt the need to get it out there without going through the years of sending it out just to find someone to publish it. 

I may have edited it a time or two along the way. Usually, when I read through my older books I find errors, either typos or plot holes that need filling, or a lack of description so that readers can get a sense of what I see in my head when I wrote that. Not to mention that it was fashionable to double space at the beginning of every sentence back then. I’m editing that out in one of my early books now.

If I had never put that first one out there and then continued to write I wouldn’t have improved my writing so much. I like seeing those books in real life and that pushes me to get better and to keep writing.

Edit, edit, edit. Take time between drafts before going back and rereading. I find something to update on every read through. And reading something years later makes me realize the mindset I had at the time I wrote it, that maybe didn’t translate well to someone without the same mindset.

Get Proofreaders. I’m embarrassed to say how many times I’ve had to fix my manuscript even after it was published. Get all the input you can. Send your friends the pdf and ask them to go through it. Or order a few extra author copies to hand out so that you can get some feedback. Your proofreaders should be looking for the typos as well as offering critiques about places where the story doesn’t make sense or you need a bit more of something.

Don’t be afraid of criticism. We all have a particular way of looking at the world, but the goal in writing is for others to enjoy your creativeness as well. If they don’t get it because you need to put more description in then you haven’t done your job. 

My sister is very good at asking me questions about the plot and pointing out when she feels like she missed something. The correction may be a couple of sentences or a whole new chapter, but anything that fills out the story better so that the reader can see what I see is helpful.

Use professional photos for the cover. Nothing screams amateur more than a poorly formatted cover with low-quality pictures for the front and author photo. It’s better to go without photos than to use poor-quality ones.

For my covers, I normally use Shutterstock photos. But I also have artists in my family and I’ve found some good fits with some of their work.

Create in as many formats as possible. As long as the publishing platform you are using supports ebooks, there is no reason not to publish in that format. KDP makes it fairly easy to convert your manuscript into an ebook.

They also have Kindle Vella which allows me to publish my stories in episodes as I’m writing them. I like this format because it gives me a timeline to follow. I like to publish one new episode per story per week at the very least. These episodes are usually a second draft for me and don’t end up being what’s published in the paperback, but that doesn’t bother me.

Audio books aren’t really worth it as a beginning self-publisher. I personally love to listen to audio books, however the cost vs. return on investment isn’t great for authors who aren’t selling a lot of units.

Don’t focus on the bottom line. It takes years plus a lot of work to actually start making money on your writing. If you love to write then do it and put it out there. And make sure you are staying true to yourself, not writing what you think other people want to read. If you like it then there will be someone else who resonates with it. I like to read books that I don’t feel comfortable writing.

Focusing on the bottom line actually limits your creativity. If you’re always worried about how much return you’ll get on what you create then you’ll be less likely to put it out for others to see. Think about it in terms of building your brand, not total sales. Whatever gets you known is what matters.