Publishing on Amazon

 

So, In 2024, I published my first dystopian fantasy fiction novel on Amazon.

It's meant to be the first in a series of nine books, and so far I have only written the first with the second in mind, mapped out, ready to go. 

Lessons learned

Amazon manuscript template

Manuscript Template

The first lesson I learned when publishing on Amazon is, download the size template you want your book to be from Amazon before you write your manuscript; otherwise, you will need to stuff around with reformatting once you've finished your manuscript and it's ready to publish.

Marketing Your Book

The second lesson I learned was that you need to market your book before your book is published. I didn't do this and sold roughly fifty odd books in the first month, then one every now and then, then nothing.

It's depressing. You put all these hours, days, months, and years into your work, and then silence. 

Image by Geralt on Pixabay

So, start a Tik Tok account, an Instagram account, a Facebook account, a Twitter account, and market the hell out of your manuscript. Sadly, I have worked in marketing and business development for a long time, but cracking social media to lead to sales apparently isn't my strong suit. 

Plenty of people are good at it and have many followers, but I wonder how many of those followers buy the books. Without a way of inserting a link to your book and reaching a large audience, it's difficult to get people to actively search for your book. 

Cover Design 

Thirdly, I designed my own cover as I have the programs and marketing experience to create the correct sized files and manipulate the design programs. However, the cover I chose to make was based on my own wants. I don't have people on the cover of my book. I don't have anything relatable. It doesn't follow any trends. The cover is abstract blue smoke with flecks of glitter to symbolise the end of the world and the collision of the realms. 

Release Timing

I also released my book when romantasy started to trend. My book Valkyries on the Rise is set in an apocalyptic dystopian world where the realms are no longer completely separate. Demons and malevolent fae are able to slip through the temporary tears, and the last thing on their minds is love. Humans are food. So is anything and everything else. It's basically the complete opposite to Romantasy. 

Image by Steve Buissinne - Pixabay

My only hope is that Not a Love Story trends at some point. 

Hopefully, my lessons help you out a bit. Also, I've been formatting documents in Word for over twenty years, and Adobe InDesign and Illustrator for roughly ten years. I'll be creating some tutorials in the future, so keep an eye out on my blog.