The digital landscape is ever-shifting. When giants like Twitter can fall in the span of months after standing tall for over a decade as a mainstay of the internet, you can be certain that the only thing that is certain on the internet is change.

And this means changing all of your links. You’ve deleted your Twitter and Instragram, now happily ensconced on BlueSky and Mastodon, you’ve left Goodreads behind and can now be found on StoryGraph, you’ve deleted your Substack and now set up shop on Ghost.io! Your newsletter is now hosted on Buttondown after some steep price hikes at Mailchimp. Amazing! But…

You released that book in 2019 and it’s been sitting on someone’s shelf since then, waiting for that reader to make their way through the other 600 books ahead of yours on their to-be-read list. And finally, in March of The Year of Our Luigi 2025, they pick it up. With a fervency yet unseen in any reader, they devour it completely. They are obsessed. You are their new favorite author. They get to the last page, where you lovingly laid out all of your links complete with little social media icons. They type in your Twitter address, knowing that it’s now ‘X’ and making the URL substitution for you. But the account is gone. They try your instagram address. Vanished. Substack? Gone as if it never existed. Ok! But your newsletter MUST still be there! But the mailchimp address they type in brings up a 404. Your page is still there on Goodreads, at least. But it hasn’t had any updates since 2021…

Where, oh new favorite author, are you? They wonder. How will they get all the bonus content you promised them would be on you Substack? And you mentioned exclusive cover reveals on your insta but it’s gone! And how can they join your ARC team if they can’t even find your newsletter? All of those links you provided so you could stay connected and they are all dead, shiveled on the dying vine of tech companies abandoning their core users in favor of ads!

But what if those links didn’t have to die? What if you could do something so that those links in the back of your book were as fresh as a flower in the spring?

(These overly wrought pollen-laced metaphors brought to you by Cetirizine.)

No, this—unfortunately—does not involve seizing silicon valley for the people and nationalizing the tech industry to serve and benefit the people. This involves owning your own domain name.

Yes, this is another “expense” line in your indie author budget. Domain name prices vary, with ‘dot com’ being around $25 USD per year, and more niche top level domains like ‘dot ink’ being around $60 USD per year. A lot of domain registrars will have sales where some top level domains (TLDs) are discounted to something like $2.99 for the first year and $14 to renew every year after that. Not the largest expense when you consider that many services charge $20 per month for something. But it’s not insignificant if you are still operating in the black with your indie author business.

But that expense could save you hundreds of hours of labor on your part and save your readers endless frustration.

The reader discussed at the start has already spent money on your books once, and is likely to spend more money on you in the future. I would go so far as to say they actively want to find more ways to give you money! They wanna know when your next book comes out! They are looking for your Substack and might be inclined to pay you monthly for it! They are hoping to get that free novella you promised them if they join your newsletter! They are ready to be a member of your fan club.

What if, instead of seeing `twitter.com/authorname`in the back of your book, they saw `socialmedia.authorname.com`? What if instead of seeing `authorname.substack.com` they saw `extras.authorname.com`? What if instead of seeing `authorname.mailchimp.com` they saw `newsletter.authorname.com`?

When you own your own domain name, you can set up subdomains and use “forwards” or “redirects” to point those subdomains somewhere else. You don’t have to create a landing page that then has a button or anything so complicated. Just need to go into your registrar and do some tinkering. Some very simple tinkering, I promise.

Here is what the dashboard for my domain registrar for my main author website looks like if you check my “Forwards.” I have several subdomains set up and pointing to other websites. I use Hover as my registar and DNS service for daxmurray.com

The process of adding a redirect/forward in my DNS registrar is pretty straight forward. Select the forward type (I usually go with subdomain forwards) and then paste in the address you want it to point to! While this is the process in Hover, it isn’t that different in other services!

Once you have your forwards set up, you can change them at any time. Instead of going into the backmatter of all your books and removing the twitter link and adding your BlueSky Link, and then uploading the new versions of your books to IngramSpark and paying the revision fee or waiting for it to get approved on Draft2Digital, etc, you just have to log into your domain registrar and change the forwarding location.

Yesterday, `socialmedia.authorname.com` pointed to Twitter. Today, it points to Mastodon! Yesterday `newsletter.authorname.com` pointed to a mailchimp landing page! Today it points to a buttondown landing page!

But, there are other ways to do this to if you don’t like tinkering in your domain registrar. Both BookFunnel and StoryOrigin let you create custom links using subdirectories rather than subdomain. Subdomains come before your base URL, and subdirectories come after.

I use both BookFunnel and StoryOrigin and have them set up with their own subdomains. They kinda service different but similar purposes, but both easily allow you to create custom links via subdirectories based on your own subdomain.

I use BookFunnel’s custom links to brand my BookFunnel landing pages. I use StoryOrigin to basically do everything else.

After I set up my BookFunnel to use `books.daxmurray.com` as the domain, I could go into the domain manager in bookfunnel and create human-readable links for all of the links bookfunnel provides for their landing pages. Even if I change out landing pages later or update them, the link stays the same, so my promo graphics and links for “Also By…” list in my backmatter are always exactly what I want them to be, without having to update the link address itself.

You don’t have to use a subdomain with BookFunnel, you can create your subdirectories on your base URL if you want! But this is what it looks like either way. Add in what you want to come after the slash, and then where you want it to point!

StoryOrigin has a very similar set up! I use it for basically everything else, including, as shown here, the links to the BookFunnel sample pages. It makes sense in my head, I swear, since I use `read` subdomain on StoryOrigin!

You can create several types of custom links on StoryOrigin, and if you have it set up to have reader magnets, universal book links, and direct sales pages, you can create the custom links pointing to those, too!

StoryOrigin also has a very simple interface for creating custom links based on your own domain name. Enter the ‘path’ (subdirectory) and the destination! Voila!

Having your own domain allows you to keep a consistent brand across your web presence and update where the links are pointing to quicker than a billionaire can buy and ruin your favorite social media website.

This means that the links in the back of your books are always going to be up to date without you spending hours updating each one in the epub, mobi, and pdf and then uploading it to every retailer and storefront in which you have your book available. Readers will always be able to find you even if they bought your book 8 years ago and the entire internet landscape has changed since then.

A most recent example for me, personally, is when I changed the sign ups for QueerBooksWeekly from Calendly to TidyCal. Calendly was $12 per month and I found a special deal for TidyCal for a one-time payment of $40 and jumped on it like a bee to a flower. Plus, it had a lot more robust feature set. Luckily, I had set up booking.queerbooksweekly already. It was pointing to Calendly, but I just had to go in and swap that to TidyCal. I didn’t need to swap out my pinned post on QBW, didn’t need to go through and let all the people in all the discord servers I’m in know that the link was now TidyCal. I just swapped on the backend.

Voilá! I hope this article was helpful for you and that you are able to leverage your own URL to stake out your claim on the web, rather than being at the whims of billionaires suddenly making your favorite website into a one-letter mistake.

If this, or any of my other Marketing for Authors posts helped you out, consider buying some of my queer fantasy books or leaving me a tip! Thank you!

#MarketingForAuthors

This post is dedicated to Ladz, author of one of my newest favorites, Cradle of Eternal Night. They asked over on BlueSky about marketing when there are no big releases on the horizon and while I provided some quick examples, I want to expand on that here.

I know you've written a bunch about marketing for indie authors and I was wondering if you had a thread or a blog post anywhere for how to market in lull years because I don't have anything planned for 2025 and I'm getting the Sunday scaries about it

These tips and suggestions work well for anyone, trad or indie, Amazon Exclusive or Widely Published, but as a widely published indie author, these tips are coming from that perspective.

Here are my suggestions and advice for marketing when you have no new releases coming up.

I've got nearly a dozen strategies here, including newsletters, group promotions, in-person events, discount promotions, re-packaging back list books, making your books available in multiple formats, and more!

NEWSLETTERS: The One Marketing Trick to Rule Them All.

No, I'm serious. Don't let the people who say email marketing is dead fool you. Many readers truly enjoy newsletters, especially when you provide them with exciting things to read. They want to see the photos of your messy desk, they want to see the (blurred out) wall of sticky notes as you plot out the next book, they want those two or three paragraphs of a sneak peek for your latest WIP.

And they want to feel special for seeing it. They want the behind-the-scenes. Keep some of your process secret from social media and only share it with newsletter subscribers. They are your super fans. They are your cheerleaders; give them something exclusive that no one else sees. It doesn't have to be whole chapters but give them a peak behind the curtain of what you are working on. Something they won't find on threads, BlueSky, or Mastodon.

Example of what you can share in your newsletter when you are editing: behind the scenes of your revision process, including carefully selected screenshots from Scrivener or photos of your revision journal.

Example of what you can share in your newsletter when you are drafting: progress updates and selectively picked excerpts that leave the readers asking questions.

Example of what you can share in your newsletter when you are outlining: Notes from your outlining process and thoughts about what this draft in progress has in common with your previous books.

Newsletters in general are great marketing tools no matter the time. I love my newsletter because I don't have to worry about “how many people are online right now / will the algorithm suppress this / am I spamming the skyline too much.” My readers know that they will get my newsletter every other Thursday around 8AM GMT -5. They know they will get funny stories about that time I was accused of being a witch, that time I scandalized a town during a performance of Camelot, or that time I forgot I was walking my dog on a public trail and dictated a spicy scene within earshot of many joggers and bikers, as well as updates on my latest works-in-progress. And pet photos. Can't forget pet photos.

Examples of other things you can share: pet photos and photos of your writing space.

You can share as much or as little in your newsletter as you want, but a newsletter makes sure your readers don't forget about you or your books while you are going through the seventh round of Revision Hell on this book that just won't revise itself already.

There are a ton of other benefits to author newsletters. I could write an entire 10,000 word article on why you should have one. But Tammi Labreque already has written that and more and I suggest picking up her book, Newsletter Ninja (and the follow up, Newsletter Ninja 2: If You Give a Reader a Cookie.)

Having your own newsletter will synthesize really well with some of the next few suggestions, which is why I put it here first.

[Note About Addresses: Yes, some countries require that you place a valid address in the footer of your email newsletters. If you are an author with an agent or publisher, ask them if you can use their office address. If you are an indie author, several author professional organizations have the use of their address for newsletters as one of their perks. Some author collective also allow members to use their address. You can also form your own collective and rent a post office box together, pooling your money to cover the cost. It does have to be a valid address, though.]

RECOMMENDATIONS: The Hype Machine

I have like three different versions of this image, each with a different set of 18 books. I have a good mix of recent releases here, FALL SACRED APPLE and LUCY UNDYING are both 2024 releases, as well as older books, like HUNTRESS which came out in 2011! Also a mix of trad and indie, here! But note, I do have one of my own books in this graphic ;)

Providing recommendations. This means strategically promoting and recommending books by other authors.

Wait, what!?! Isn't this supposed to be about marketing YOUR books?! Yes, it is. And that is what you are doing here.

Many retailers, like Amazon, have recommendation algorithms. When a certain number of people buy A Bowl of Mac and Cheese by Pahst A. Sauce and also buy A Plate of Noodles and Alfredo by Tom A. Toh, the algorithm will start to associate those two books together, despite being written by different authors. When a reader goes to the page for A Bowl of Mac and Cheese, the algorithm might show a list of items “Customers Also Bought” at the bottom of that page, and A Plate of Noodles and Alfredo will be in that list.

Other retailers, like Kobo, create specific pages for your recommendations that take into account everything you've ever purchased or read in Kobo Plus.

Your goal is to select the books you recommend well enough that your book lands in this list for your Ideal Readers

Your goal is to select books to recommend well enough that your book lands in this carousel for those books and your Ideal Readers see it.

These retailers are promoting your books for you. But you have to make sure their algorithms are properly trained. You can do this by strategically promoting books that you want to have associated with yours. Make a list of books that are similar to yours that you know your readers will love. Include books that are recent releases as well as books that are older. I keep a running list and am always adding to it as I find new and new-to-me books.

Sort those books into different micro-niches. My specific genre I target is “secondary world high and epic fantasy with sapphic main characters.” My ideal reader enjoys deep worldbuilding, dynamic characters, and romance-subplots accompanying epic storylines. They also enjoy rivals-to-lovers, books with disability rep, and court intrigue. I have my list of books sub-categorized and tagged with things like “contains non-human fantasy races” and “goes on a quest” or “loads of court intrigue” or “close knit found family” or “large, diverse cast.”

When sales happen or Pride Month comes around, I have a list I can promote on social media, in my blog, or to my newsletter. I can select ten books from my long list that all have “close knit-found family” and make a blog post of “best sapphic found-family fantasy books for Pride Month” or share in my newsletter “My favorite sapphic books featuring loads of court intrigue.”

For example, when the Queer Your Bookshelf event happened in August, I sent out a newsletter that had six recommendations for sapphic fantasy books to pick up, including my own. When the Itch.io Creator Day happened on Black Friday, I had a list ready to share on social media and promote on my blog.

Readers appreciate these kinds of recommendations because they trust you as an expert in their genre. You will never write fast enough to satiate the most voracious of readers. Other authors are not your competition. They are the reason you don't have readers interrupting you by barging through your door demanding to know when your next book will be released. The reason GRRM doesn't have a protest outside his house is because readers have other things to read while he finishes his next book, and I am sure he is glad for it.

By providing thoughtful and intentional recommendations for other authors, you aren't just training an algorithm, you are also keeping your readers happy and providing them a personalized recommendation service akin to what they might find in a bookstore or library. Except you are much more of an expert on your readers' specific, hyper-niche interests.

I also try to sporadically shout out books that I am reading that I know my readers will like on social media, not just as part of a list or promotional effort for a sale.

For example, I noticed that the author of my the book I am currently reading had posted a promotional skeet for that book—SHE WHO BROUGHT THE STORM. I quote-posted saying that I am currently reading and enjoying this. Genuinely, I am loving the book and do want more people to read it. But I also know it's a good “also bought” for STARS AND SOIL. Both are secondary world fantasy with queer-norm worlds, feature disabled characters, have spicy sapphic romances, and have complex magic systems.

While this post merely stated that I was reading and enjoying this book (because I was eating breakfast and couldn't be arsed to actually use my one braincell for anything other than listening for the sound of my kettle), if I had been more awake, I would have done something along the lines of this:

If you enjoyed the sapphic elements and magical queer-norm world of STARS AND SOIL, you will love SHE WHO BROUGHT THE STORM. I am loving the dragon/human power exchange dynamic. Plus, it has a very unique take on disability in fantasy!”

I would have called out why someone who enjoyed my books will enjoy this book, a tidbit about what makes this book unique, and what I like about it.

I am both marketing my existing back list and promoting a (very awesome) book I know my Ideal Reader will enjoy. (Can I keep pretending that I'm not my own Ideal Reader now or is the jig up?)

I know this might sound crass, maybe even a little gauche. What do you mean, this promotion of other books is all for selfish gain and I have ulterior motives? EWW! ICKY!

Except, it is not. Rising tides lift all ships. Before I published as an author, I was an indie book reviewer, specializing in reviewing queer, speculative fiction. I never got paid for this, I didn't have ads on my blog and I wasn't even an affiliate of any retailers. I was simply an enby with a Netgalley account, a blog, and not enough books. I've been hyping queer indie books since 2012.

The difference between then and now is intentionality. In 2012-2017, I was reading all across the spec fic and queer spectrum and promoting everything. I still read widely, and while I might mention an m/m military sci-fi story I enjoyed off-handedly on social media, I'm likely not going to be including it in my recommendation lists or giving it multiple shout-outs on social media during special events.

And besides, I want to see fellow sapphic authors succeed and thrive. We are a small community, we don't get the kind of promotion and chatter that cis, straight, allosexual m/f romantasy gets. If we don't promote each other, no one else will.

There is a tertiary monetary benefit to this, too. Potential affiliate income. I am an affiliate for Bookshop.org, Rakuten Kobo, and Amazon. When I make my recommendations and link to those retailers, I get a small percentage of income if a reader purchases a book. I don't make much from this, about $50 so far this year. But that covers 6 months of my phone bill. (Mint Mobile for the win. No, I'm not an affiliate for them, just a fan.)

–> Newsletters and Recommendations Combined: Swaps and Group Promos

I wasn't sure whether to sub-section this under newsletter or recommendations, but I think it works best as a subsection of recommendations because that is what this is, and newsletters are just the vehicle.

Now that you know the important of recommendations, one of the best ways you can provide them is in your newsletter.

Group promotions can be found many places, most prominently on Ebookfairs, My Book Cave, Bookfunnel, and StoryOrigin. Group promotions are when multiple authors create a landing page using one of these platforms, each contributing one or more books. Then all authors in the group promote that landing page. You are cross promoting your works, all hoping the share your readership and have readerships shared with you. Some of these platforms are entirely free, some of them have a small cost, some of them have a free tier that still lets you access many of these features.

This is a recent group promotion I was part of on StoryOrigin, here is one I am currently part of on BookFunnel, and here is one that I myself organized on My Book Cave. I've found the best success in organizing my own promotions as it lets me create hyper specific promotions.

A description for a recent group promotion I put together:

This is for secondary world epic fantasy books with lgbtqia+ protagonists. There doesn't need to be a coming out story or a romance. Just so long as it's explicit that the MC is queer. Rated R / Romantasy ok! But please have a professional and safe for work cover.

By creating my own promotions, I can make sure all books in the promotion meet my own standards and fulfill the niche I want.

Group promotions come in many different flavors. Some group promotions involve sharing each others' “reader magnet” (read Tammi Labreque for more info on good 'reader magnets') so that all authors can grow their mailing list, some cross promote ARCs or review copies. But this article is about marketing and sales, so I will focus on the group promotions aimed at increasing sales by sharing Universal Book Links.

If you look at my examples, you will see each promotion has a banner image at the top of the page. A lot of people will just put the group promo banner image at the bottom of their newsletter and hope readers click on it. I personally find this a bit annoying. When I share a group promo in my newsletter, I try to find one book (that isn't mine) in the promotion that my readers will like, usually this means finding the other LGBTQ fantasy books. This gets me more “clicks” in my newsletter (which improves my chances of being accepted into other group promotions) and will help me Do The Algorithm Thing if the reader ends up buying.

A recent group promotion I linked to in my newsletter. This one was for StoryOrigin and was a Reader Magnet Promotion, but note how I chose a specific book and gave a reason why I thought my subscribers would like it.

I try to be thoughtful and intentional when choosing group promotions to join. I look at the other books in the promotion. Do they have covers that match the genre and look professional? Are they aimed at the same readers my books are aimed at? It might seem like a good idea to join any promotions that even are tangentially related to your books, but this runs the risk of ruining your carefully crafted algorithm manipulation. Try to find extremely niche group promotions with books you wouldn't wince at promoting.

It might also seem like a good idea to join as many as you can. But Gmail has a hard limit on email size before it cuts you off with a “click here to see full message,” and you don't want your readers to have to do that. I try to limit myself to two carefully selected group promotions per newsletter.

Another feature of some of these sites are “newsletter swaps.” This is an individual cross-promotion between you and another author. You promote the universal book link for one of their books and they share one of yours. When I do a swap, I share the cover, the title, the author, and a 250-300 word blurb for the book. Some authors just share the cover and link.

I use StoryOrigin to manage my swaps. Their system allows me to look at past statistics for authors and peak at what their newsletters look like so I can see how much (or how little) effort an author puts into their swaps. Again, I am very intentional in making sure I choose swaps where I know my readers will be interested, the cover is professional, genre appropriate, and safe for work, and the author I am swapping with will present my book well, too.

I have heard unfortunate tales where an author agreed to a swap without doing this research and ended up having to share the link to fantasy-noir erotica when they are a contemporary dark fantasy writer. This kind of mishap can result in a loss of reader trust and may end up messing up your books positioning in the algorithms for years.

I want to show a little bit about how your click statistics are influenced by how well you are targeting your specific niche.

In this newsletter, I had two swaps I organized via StoryOrigin. One was for a sapphic dark fantasy romance. The other was for a sci-fi book with no obvious queer elements (it did have queer characters; it just was not obvious from the book packaging).

Taken from my newsletter, here is the swap for Zoe Calloway and the Temporal Tides

Taken from the same newsletter. You might have to squint, but the cover does mention it is a dark sapphic romance, and the blurb is very obvious about this being a romance between two women.

These statistics are collected from StoryOrigin. As you may notice, the book with multiple clues that it was sapphic got many more clicks. HATED MAIDEN had “sapphic” right on the cover and the blurb makes it very obvious that the romance is between two goddesses. More than twice as many people clicked on the link for HATED MAIDEN than did for ZOE CALLOWAY.

This is one of the reasons I started my sign up for queer fantasy books to be featured in my newsletter. There is no “swap” component to these. I am not asking these authors to do any marketing or promotion of my works. I am trying to bring better recommendations to my readers. This builds reader trust, makes them more likely to open my newsletter, and potentially helps train the algorithm. Even though this seems like it would not lead to any sales for me, it is still laying the groundwork for sales down the line and will definitely help train the algorithm in my favor by further solidifying my books as queer fantasy books.

NEW FORMATS: Everything Old is New Again

This one is mostly for indies, but if you are trad published and still have some of your rights, this might be for you, too! Not all publisher acquire the rights for all formats. Check your contracts and if you still have audiobook rights or special edition rights, you might be able to brew up something yourself. Become a hydra~ I mean a hybrid publisher.

Most indies focus on ebooks. This makes a ton go sense as it's easy, cost effective, and simple. But some readers prefer physical books. If your back catelog is only in ebook format, consider making it into a paperback. This can give you a “release date” to hype up and countdown to.

If you have paperback already, look into hardcover. I just put out a hardcover edition of A LAKE OF FEATHERS AND MOONBEAMS seven years after release and got several purchases day 1 from fans who told me they already owned the ebook.

This book released seven years ago, but it got a whole new marketing campaign because I finally got around to adjusting the cover file to be compatible with hardcover.

If you've already got hardcover and paperback, consider “special editions.” I use Bookvault Bespoke for this as it lets me do foil, sprayed edges, ribbon bookmarks, and more. I include full color maps, glossaries, bonus short stories, and more in these special editions. (Psst: Bookvault does have an upload fee, but it doesn't charge for revisions. If you are a member of the Alliance for Independent Authors, you get free uploads!)

I sell my special editions directly by integrating BookVault with Shopify. One fun thing I offer my newsletter subscribers is a discount code that lets them order special editions 15% off!

Here is a mockup of my special edition for SMOKE AND STEEL when I first started imagining what a special edition might look like. I shared this process with my newsletter and asked for their feedback.

And this is how it turned out in the end...

If you've got all that already, consider audiobooks. This one can be a bit expensive, but there are a lot of narrators who are willing to work with indie authors on a budget! I am very much against exclusivity, but if you are absolutely between a rock and a hard place, ACX lets you do “Royalty Share/Royalty Share Plus” with audiobook narrators. You are signing up to be exclusive to Audible for 7 years, and half of your royalties will be distributed to the narrator, but it is a way to lower costs/make the upfront cost more manageable.

It took me seven years to get from A LAKE OF FEATHERS AND MOONBEAMS being released in ebook to it having an audiobook. Worth it, though! And it set off a fun round of marketing a book I wrote seven years ago.

By making your book available in multiple formats, you are expanding your readership and giving yourself an avalanche of “release dates” to hype up without having to rush to finish half a dozen of your WIPs.

If have have a lot of short stories on retailers for $0.99, consider combining them into an anthology, which you can then create paperbacks and hardcovers for! Find any possible way to re-use what you have already written.

MERCHANDISE: Insert Space Balls Joke Here

This one can be a time sink, a procrastination distraction, and a potentially large expense. Proceed with caution.

Consider what fans of yours might want. If you have a pantheon in your series, do the gods each have their own symbols? If your books take place in secondary worlds, do you have maps?

There are several companies that will do stickers or buttons. Several companies that do cloth banners that could easily be used for maps. For the series and franchises you love, what kind of fan merch do you enjoy?

When I was considering this, I thought of Final Fantasy XIV and my collectors' editions for each expansion. I framed the cloth map that came with the Stormblood expansion box. The Azem pin from the Endwalker expansion is pinned to a canvas board and displayed alongside the job stone pins I have. How can I do something similar with my books?

I don't suggest creating a huge merch store with a thousand different products. Consider one or two things you think readers will enjoy. I hired an artist (and fellow author!) to design symbols for the gods of Ahnlisen and made stickers and buttons. I used Inkarnate to make a map of Ahnlisen and had it printed on cloth tapestries. Have I sold any of these? Not yet! But I have used them in giveaways for my books and subscriber boxes.

One merch item that I have sold is my lore book. I compiled all my notes on worldbuilding I had done over the years and cleaned them up into articles. I also gathered up my short stories, deleted scenes, and even some early but ultimately scrapped ideas. I put them into one book and sell it as a sort of compendium for mega fans!

These items built hype for my books, got people interested in reading them when I would mention working on them on social media or in my newsletter. They are another thing you can have a “release date” for, another thing you can do a “reveal” for without writing a whole new book in a month.

As I said, this can lead down a rabbit hole of you coming up with ideas and then wondering if you can afford an artist to do design work for you. Try to keep it simple to start with! If you want to involve your readers, put a poll in your newsletter or on social media. Ask them what they would want. If you are hiring a graphic designer or artist, consider what your budget is before you start making plans.

Remember, if you hired someone to do your cover, check what your license is for the cover itself and alterations to it. I make sure when I hire a designer that I have the rights to display my book covers on bookmarks and other promotional materials. This might make the cost slightly more expensive, but I like having the rights to use my book covers in potential merchandise materials. If you aren't sure what rights you have, email your designer or artist. If you don't have the rights you need/want, most artists and designers will sign a new contract for you to have those rights for a small fee.

SHARE YOUR RESEARCH: Those Hours Looking Up Obscure Facts Will Not Be Wasted

I am sure you have experienced the following: you write a sentence about a character doing something mundane like climbing onto a horse. You pause, scratching your head and wondering if you described it accurately. You move your cursor over the icon for your internet browser.

Three hours disappear.

It's now, somehow, past supper time and you have three dozen tabs open and you now know more about saddle construction than you ever wanted to know.

Don't let that time be lost. Write a blog post about it!

“I'm still hard at work on A Bowl of Chocolate Ice Cream, and the chapter I am working on (spoilers!) involves a high-speed horse chase. Anyway. Did you know that the first saddle was...

Keep tying it back to your back list or your work-in-progress and explain why this is so important for you and your readers to know! If you write stories about swordsmiths, share your research about forging and the history of the broad sword compared to long swords. If you write science fiction about a corporation harnessing a black hole to power their terraforming machines, share some research you did on the physics behind black holes or terraforming. If you choose meaningful names, write an article about the names of your MCs for your back list books. If you were inspired by a folk tale or myth, write a post on how that myth started and how it's changed over the years.

SHORT STORIES AND DELETED SCENES: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

These are usually newsletter fodder, but you can also put them up on Patreon, Ream, Ko-fi, Itch, Campfire, or your own website and have them freely available.

In my experience, readers love deleted scenes. Posting these sorts of things between releases lets you talk about the book that maybe released a few months ago while sprinkling in some tidbits about your WIP.

I had to cut this cute scene because it was slowing things down in A Bowl of Mac and Cheese just as tensions were starting to rise. But here's what happened in the inn the night before the big battle! I am determined to have a cute scene like this in A Bowl of Chocolate Ice Cream. Stay tuned to see if I manage it. (PS: Who do you want to see have an “Inn the Night Before the Battle Scene?”)

Again, I personally save these things for my newsletter and tell people “Do you want the spicy bonus scene I cut between Arlina and Caitlin? Make sure you sign up for my newsletter this week so that you get it!” But many authors do this just as successfully by hosting these things on other platforms. Some even charge via Patreon or Ream!

Originally, STARS AND SOIL had two points of view: Caitlin and Kegan. Kegan's parts ended up getting cut, but I repurposed them into a novella. That novella is now available free to my newsletter subscribers, and it is the ONLY place you can find it. Originally, I released it episodically/serially, so each week another bit of it was released. This let me do constant marketing of it for 24 weeks. Words I had already written did NOT go to waste on the cutting room floor!

SERIALIZATION: Danger! Danger!

Continuing the train of thought from the previous section: serials are very easy to market all the time. You release a new chapter / new episode a week? Each week you have a very specific reason to be posting on social media about it!

This sounds great if you are in a lull, but if you are already having trouble getting your next book together and looking at a release date that is getting further away instead of closer, this marketing tactic might not be for you.

If you do have a fun side story that you want to tell, you could use your blog, Itch, Ream, or other serialized platforms to release an episode when you have the time. Make your commitment clear: you are releasing sporadically, potentially not regularly, etc. Don't make promises you can't keep.

Another way you might handle this is by creating a closed-off/password protected or paywalled space where you upload chapters of you WIP as a draft. Perhaps you can call it an alpha or beta program for your most loyal fans, who can comment as you draft. But I know many people feel shy or hesitant to put out works as they write it before there is a finished product. If this is you, you might instead “serialize” this “early access” after you have done a few rounds of edits but are waiting for your cover artist to finish, your proofreader to get back to you, or something else that is holding up publishing.

I mention it because it would feel inappropriate to not mention it, but this is a potentially dangerous method of marketing yourself if you have an ever-changing amount of spoons or unpredictable schedule. It does give you the opportunity to promote something “new” (chapter, episode, etc) more regularly than you would with a full book, but there are pitfalls, too.

(I do love serials, though, and I did write a blog post on how you can structure a serial if you decide that is something you really want to do.)

GIVEAWAYS: The Thing Everyone Loves

I host giveaways a few times per year, most recently in October when I had a huge multi-author giveaway to celebrate my birthday. But I also had one to coincide with the release of my special editions for Smoke and Steel back in June.

This usually involves giving away signed paperbacks of my books. I run them via Kingsumo, but there are multiple other platforms for this. (Kingsumo's free tier is usually good enough for most people's needs!)

My most recent giveaway included all of my books, plus books from my friends! It was a lot to organize but I had fun doing it and nearly 100 people who were not already on my newsletter list entered. The terms and conditions of this giveaway required that they be newsletter subscribers, and I use link tracking and special sign-up forms to know where my new subscribers are coming from. Nearly 100 readers who had never heard of me learned about my books by seeing other people promote the giveaway.

You don't have to do a huge giveaway like this. You can just keep it to one signed paperback and limit it to everyone who re-skeets a post. It doesn't have to be complicated or time intensive. But this gives you a specific reason to be talking about your back list books.

I suggest making the length of the giveaway at least a month. This is enough time for you to send out at least one newsletter about it and possibly two! Enough for other authors to share it in their newsletter if they are participating, and enough time you to heavily market it on social media if it's going to be a Big To Do where you give away multiple books.

I like KingSumo because it allows people to get extra entries by sharing on social media, hence extending the organic reach of the marketing. Part of the Birthday Giveaway I did involved getting extra entries for following the other authors involved in the giveaway. It was a win for everyone, that way.

If you are doing a physical giveaway, I would look into Pirate Ship if you are in the US. They make it very easy to find the best shipping rates, print out a shipping label, and request pick up from UPS or USPS. Plus, their customer support is great. They've saved me SO much money on shipping and so much headache, too!

NEW COVERS: Book Glow Ups

If one of your backlist books is older than 5 years old, it might be time for a new cover. Cover trends change over time and your book can quickly look out of place in your genre if you don't keep up.

And, as I found out the hardway, they can even change between when you commission the cover and when you release it. When I commissioned Sarah Waites for the cover of Stars and Soil, having a figure/character on the cover of a fantasy book was 'in', as was monochrome color pallets. But by the time I released STARS AND SOIL, typography and symbol-heavy covers had taken over. And my sales suffered because of that. My book looked out of place, and I had to get a new cover.

But this was also an opportunity. Another cover reveal!

I hired GetCovers because they do awesome work, and I love supporting a Ukrainian business that doesn't use generative AI. Plus, they fit my budget at $10-$90 USD depending on what I need.

This resulted in a “new cover incoming! If you like the current one, make sure you get your paperback or hardcover now before it changes,” entry in my newsletter and on social media.

A cover change could lead to better sales overall, but also gives you an opportunity to hype the back list.

And the “get the old cover now” thing works. How do I know this? Because when Nicolin Odel changed the cover for THE SHEPERDS OF THE SUNSTONE, it resulted in me sending a frantic message asking if he had copies of the old cover still available to purchase. Yes, his new cover is AMAZING and objectively much better than the original cover. But I fell in love with that book with the old cover. I wanted that version on my shelf!

NEW DESCRIPTION: Realigning the Stars (and Keywords)

This is more of a behind the scenes thing and won't necessarily lead to you hyping your backlist or giving you opportunities to bring it up, but it can still help move books into reader hands.

Like cover trends, trends for descriptions change over time. Once upon a time, many descriptions in the spec fic genre started with, “In a world where XYZ, one hero does ABC.”

Now, many of them end with, “Time is running out, and HERO must do IMPOSSIBLE TASK, otherwise VERY BAD THING.”

Here are some real examples of the “Hero Must Do X Otherwise Y” trend I found for popular books. These aren't exactly in this format, but they give you an idea of who the hero is, what their goal is, and what will happen if they fail:

An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin-and his world-forever.

Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.

...Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

“In a world where...” is cliché now, and you won't find it in any descriptions. And if you do, you probably won't click the Buy button. But that last line is in almost every book description.

Take a look at your descriptions and compare them to the descriptions of the new releases in your genre. What do the new descriptions have in common? Does your description have that?

Another thing you might consider doing to your blurb is evaluating tropes in your books. A decade ago, love triangles were the Cool Thing to Have and you wanted your description to somehow highlight that or hint at it. Now, it's enemies to lovers. And hey, your book happens to have that, too! Rework the blurb to emphasize the enemies to lovers aspect and maybe not go into so much detail about the other love interest. See what tropes your book already has and rewrite your blurb to focus more on the currently poplar tropes.

(I hope I don't have to say this but just in case; don't try to make your blurb highlight tropes that are only there if you squint. This is a bit deceptive and will lead to bad reviews.)

Take this as an additional opportunity to find ways to incorporate some new keywords and search terms into your blurb. When I last re-did my blurb for STARS AND SOIL, I added this:

Stars and Soil is the first novel in the Scions and Shadows series and is perfect for those who like their fantasy full of court gossip, political intrigue, shifting alliances, deep worldbuilding, backstabbing and betrayal, and sapphic and disability representation. Fans of Seth Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant and Tessa Gratton's The Queens of Innis Lear will feel right at home in this magical, queer-normative world.

For the purposes of showing what I did, I bolded the “keywords” and “search terms” I wanted to make sure my book is associated with and give the readers a good opportunity to nope-out if they didn't already realize that my books are full of rainbows and unicorns. Can you do something like this for your back list books, too?

This won't give you an opportunity to do more back list marketing, but it will make sure that the back list marketing you do is more effective at leading to a sale or library check out.

IN PERSON EVENTS: Introverts, Just Skip This Section

This is not one I personally do often, but the people who do it that I know have much success with this. It is obviously dependent on energy, transportation, time, and risk profile. I don't do this as it's hard to do when disabled and impossible to do as someone with an autoimmune condition when there are bad viruses running rampant. But I do want to mention it!

These don't have to be big book festivals or conventions! If you have a local farmers market that had a crafts and artist section, check if they allow authors. If you have a local holiday market, check if they allow authors. Libraries often host authors, as do bookshops.

This can be a bit expensive up front, as you will want to have copies of your books available, potentially a banner, business cards, and stands for displaying your books. This also often involves having some sort of means of accepting electronic payment, which can also come with some costs. A lot of places also have tabling fees.

One way to make this a bit more manageable is to find fellow authors to table with, preferably in your genre. You and the other authors split the cost of the table at the event, and you each get a small section of the table. There are some pop-up book shops that do this quite frequently, too!

My friend, Liz Sauco, tabling at the Scituate Art Festival. She's got an amazing table runner, her books displayed prominently, and an easy to scan QR code for people to join her newsletter with the snap of a camera. I don't know how she does it, but she attends events frequently.

But if you are an extrovert, can take on the upfront cost, and have determined that a public outing is within your tolerance for risk, then these can be fantastic ways to sell back list books and make super fans. Bookfunnel provides a way that you can sell ebooks in person, too, by letting you set up unique download links and qr codes. Simply print out cards with these links and qr codes and give those to the readers when they pay. Voilá! Ebooks sold in person.

I'm an introvert, and I haven't done this since 2018, so I don't have a good frame of reference for doing this in a post-pandemic world, but it might be something to look into!

OTHER MULTI-AUTHOR PROMOTIONS

Join groups for other authors and be on the lookout for other kinds of multi-author events. Right now, I have one of my books in the Sapphic Book Advent Calendar event hosted by Jae. Jae also does Sapphic Book Bingo every month and did an amazing Give Something Away Day in July. The moderators of the r/fantasy subreddit put on a mega sale every December to fundraise for charity. Authors on Itch.io frequently put together co-op bundles. Narratess puts on a giant indie sale in August and April. There are SO MANY ways in which authors collaborate to cross promote. These are great opportunities to promote a first-in-series book or an excellent stand alone book.

I took part in several big author-collaborative events in the same weekend, including the Beloved SFF Sale and the Narratess Sale. I made separate recommendations for each.

These events are often in the same vein as the group promos I mentioned earlier but are far more limited in time and frequency. It's cross-promotion and sharing readerships. But there's often a more personal touch to them, and they are hyped up in more places usually than just newsletters.

These events give you the opportunity to promote your book by promoting the event and also give you the opportunity to put together recommendation lists.

Talk to other authors. Collaborate with other authors. Be in community with other authors and you will naturally hear about these events and be able to participate in them.

PROMOTIONAL SITES AND PROMO STACKS: High Risk, Reward Not Guaranteed

This usually involves spending money and making sure to discount at least one of your books. You pay to have one of your books featured in a regularly sent promotional newsletter like BookBub.

There are MANY BookBub-like competitors. Many of them far cheaper, too! But not all of them are worth it, and it's unlikely you will make your money back if you only have a handful of books published. I do not recommend this unless you either have at least 5 books published or a series with at least 3 books out a pre-order running for another book in the series. You make your money back on these newsletter promos from readers buying the rest of your books.

Some of my favorite ones for fantasy specifically [note: prices are accurate as of 12/4/2024, I cannot guarantee that I will update the prices here if they change.];

• SciSpry / BookSpry SFF – Cost: $7 – $65 depending on what you want to promote and if you want premium placement. THIS is my TOP recommendation! It's affordable and I have always had a positive return on investment from it! Just Science Fiction/Fantasy Books! (Don't confuse with their separate Romance newsletter) (Also, Bookspry has a very hand tool that is free to use that lets you check if your books have been sent to the dungeons on Amazon!)
• BookDoggy – Cost: $22- 24 depending on if you are promoting a free book or a discounted book. All genres, but lets you link to your newsletter, your direct store, or other retailers! A cool thing about it is that it lets you promote your reader magnet! My promotion of my reader magnet a few months ago ended up getting me nearly 100 new subscribers to my newsletter. Definitely worth looking into if you are trying to grow your newsletter, but they've also been consistently great about getting sales, too. This promotional site is highly recommended.
• Fussy Librarian – Cost: $13 – $80 depending on if you are promoting a discounted or free book—it's cheaper to promote a discounted book—and what genre it is. All genre, but lets readers pick which genres they want to see in their daily newsletter.
• Book Barbarian – Cost: $40 – $60 depending on the price of your book. Just Fantasy and SciFi! They prefer books that are widely distributed. They also only promote stand alone novels or first in series, and unless the book is a new release, they want a 3.5 average rating with at least 10 reviews on Amazon (the exception to this being if you have other books released and they have over 50 reviews). Read their submission guidelines carefully! They are very strict with some of their rules. I've had good success with my books that are more action oriented, and decent success on my more feels-y books.
• Bargain Booksy – Cost: $25-$100 depending on your genre. Fantasy is $45, and most Romance genres are in the upper range of $60 – $100. Run by Written Word Media, who also runs Freebooksy. All genres, but allows readers to pick the genres they get in their newsletter. Now allows direct store links! I haven't ever used Freebooksy but I hear it is good.
• EReaderIQ – Cost: $10 – $30 depending on your genre and the price of your book. They only promote Amazon links as their secondary function is a price tracker for Amazon books, allowing readers to “subscribe” to books on Amazon and get email alerts when the price drops. One of the unique things about them is that they allow you to promote one primary book and up to 5 more secondary books so long as they are under $2.99. Each additional book you want to promote is $5. They also allow you to provide audiobook links. They are great for promoting a series. Read their guidelines; they get picky about covers and ratings.
• BookRaid – Cost: They do a “Cost Per Click” model with their maximum being $60. They also stop counting clicks after 3 days, so if someone hasn't checked their email in days and only gets around to the email a week later, you won't be charged for those clicks. Prefers books that are widely distributed AND lets you see how many clicks you got during the promotion.
• BooksGoDirect – Cost: $10 They only promote direct sales links. If you are really trying to get more people aware of your direct store, this is a great way to do it! They are still rather affordable right now, but not very well known yet. This is especially good if you have a series bundle on your direct store that isn't available elsewhere!

Example of what a Fussy Library promo looks like:

Example of an EreaderIQ promo, note the 'You may also like...' section at the bottom that lists other books by me.

Here is a screenshot from the BookRaid promotion dashboard showing how many clicks I got for each retailer and showing the cost breakdown.

I've tried SO MANY of these and after much experimenting and trial and error, this list comprises the promotional newsletters I found that strike a balance between affordability, customization, and return on investment. There are aggregate platforms, like CraveBooks, that allow you to book promotions from multiple platforms at once, but I suggest booking directly with each platform as it allows you the most customization (ex: Booking for EreaderIQ on Cravebooks doesn't allow you to also link your audiobooks or additional secondary books).

One of the key factors I look for in these promos is the ability to link to my direct store. Many of them require books to be $0.99, which means I get between $0.30 – $0.45 per sale on most platforms. But my direct store nets me $0.65. It's easier to recoup my costs if I have at least a few people buying directly from my store (as a bonus, they have the chance to join my newsletter!)

Make sure you vet these newsletters before you purchase a promotional spot. Make sure that the books they promote are in line with what you write. This will make your book more likely to get clicks and less likely to screw up the algorithms. Subscribe to them before you try them and get a feel of what books are most likely to be featured.

I don't suggest doing this more than once every 90 days. Readers are often subscribed to multiple discount book newsletters and do start to get fatigued if they see the same books over and over. This is great to do once in a while to try to reach new readers you wouldn't otherwise find, but it's not something you should be doing all the time.

“Promo Stacking” is when you purchase slots in several of these promotional newsletters at once within a few days of each other. This is usually a strategy used to make the most out of Kindle Countdown Deals for authors who are KU exclusive. The purpose is to move a lot of free books or discounted books in hopes of getting into the top 100 in a category or in all of Kindle. By doing this, you can get a “halo” effect where you will still get prominently displayed by the algorithm for several days to several weeks later, even as your book has returned to full price.

I have done a lot of “Promo Stacking” even as a wide author. It's not as effective at getting me to “climb the ASBR” due to readers purchasing my books on multiple platforms. I might sell 100 books on day one of the promo, but only 40 of them are on Amazon, so my ASBR does not rise respective to my total sales, only Amazon sales. I've still found it worth it, however. It just doesn't have the same “juice” as it would if I were Amazon-exclusive. But my goal is a wide reach of readers, and these stacks still let me reach readers on Kobo, Smashwords, Apple, B&N and more.

If you want more information on other promotional sites and an in-depth explanation of Promo Stacking, there is no better resource right now than David Gaughran's list. There are a few sites on his list that I tried and didn't have success with, but that is why I advise that you subscribe to the lists first to make sure your book fits in.

Again, this marketing technique is, in my opinion, only worth it if you have a sizable back list of books that readers can purchase at full price. If I have a series of three books, but only book 1 has released and I want to promote it, and I put the first book to $0.99 and pay $18 to Fussy Librarian for a promotion, I need to sell 55 copies of book 1 to break even. But if I have books 2 and 3 released and available for 4.99, I only need 2 people to decide to buy my whole series at once and I've got a positive return on investment. The sell-through is how you recoup your costs on these promotions!

If you are doing these, make sure your back matter in the book you are promoting prominently mentions your newsletter if you have one and the next book of yours they should pick up! These kinds of promotion make money via sell-through, so make sure it's easy for them to grab your next book!

Updating Your Back Matter

Speaking of back matter, it might be time to re-evaluate yours. I just went through and did this with all of my books last quarter, and it was enlightening. “Birthing Orion” still had “Coming Soon: Shades and Silver” at the end—Shades and Silver came out in 2021... Others didn't have any mentions of my newsletter! Go through your backmatter and make sure your books tell readers where to find you and where to find the next book.

For books which you do not have many reviews, I suggest adding a scene break on your last page and adding a short thank you to the reader and ask them if they would leave a review. The reason I suggest doing this after a scene break and not a page break or starting a new “chapter” is because some e-reading devices will go back to the beginning of the book after you turn the last page of the book itself or take over the screen with their own recommendations. By putting this as a scene break, you make sure the reader sees it. Here is an example of one of these review 'asks.'

Thank you so much for taking the time to read A Lake of Feathers and Moonbeams. When I first wrote this, there was a lack of LGBTQ fantasy books that just focused on the story and not on their sexuality. Most LGBTQ fiction at the time was about 'coming out.' But it can still be hard for readers to figure out if an LGBTQ book will contain the story and representation they are looking for. If you have a moment, could you leave a short review? It doesn't need to be long. Two or three sentences is more than enough to help make sure future readers know if this is the book for them or not.

I word my asks as a plea to help other readers. Some authors word theirs as if they are looking for feedback and will take the reader's review as critical feedback as they work on their nex book. I understand why some authors do the latter; it creates a sort of relationship with the reader. But a lot of readers prefer it if authors don't read their reviews, often saying “reviews are for readers.” And that is why I word my request for a review the way I do.

Aside from this, make sure any “Coming Soons” or “Sneak Previews” are for the appropriate books and your “Also By” page has all of your works! You might want to read over your bios in those older books, too, making sure to add any accolades or awards you've since accumulated or update your pronouns if you've had recent identity revelations. It might also be time to remove your Twitter links in the back of your books and add BlueSky.

With each new book you release, I suggest taking a moment to update the backmatter in the rest of your books. Tools like Atticus can help with their reusable template pages and Draft2Digital even has their own tool for keeping all your back matter in sync.

(If you are wide, make sure you are using universal links in your back matter or creating separate copies for each retailer if you do want to include retailer specific links!)

GOING OFF LINE: Heads down, only write

OK but like what if you need to just go offline so you can finally finish this draft without distractions? How the heck is one supposed to market when OFFLINE?

Sign posts and newsletters.

If you have read Newsletter Ninja, you will know about Automations and Welcome Sequences. To be brief, an automation is when a series of triggers or events happens and it results in a specific pre-written email being sent to a pre-selectef segment of your newsletter list. A welcome sequence is an automation created specifically to welcome new readers to your newsletter.

A welcome sequence had a few goals: establish when a reader can expect your emails, what a reader can expected go find in your emails, and what your whole Deal is. Part of “what is your deal” is making a reader more familiar with your backlist. For example, if I know a reader joined my newsletter by scanning the QR code in the back of STARS AND SOIL, they probably already have read SHADES AND SILVER and might be looking for SMOKE AND STEEL. But they might not know about my stand alone works! A welcome sequence for this reader might include a section introducing them to the books, where they can be found, and in what formats in addition to the gentle nudge to check out the next book in my series after STARS AND SOIL.

OK, but what does this have to do with going offline? Simple: make an automation in your newsletter for while you are offline and encourage your social media following to sign up.

Step 1 would be creating a specific automation for your “offline period.” The content for this automation might be a series of emails each containing a quiz about a back list book. Subscribers to this specific automation will be encouraged in the emails to respond to them with their answers. Winners will get a personalized post card from you, will get a signed book plate from you, etc. Something meaningful for readers and, easy for you / not expensive for you. Something valuable! Maybe bookmarks. Maybe stickers!

Once you've set up the automation, assign it a group / segment (whatever your email platform calls it.)

Then, set up a specific page for readers to join that specific segment. Tell your regular newsletter subscribers about it.

Then, you will make sign posts on social media. Go on every platform you are on and post something like this:

I am going on hiatus until this book is done! But I've set up something special! Sign up over here: (link!)

Pin this comment and/or link to the sign up page in your bio! If someone stumbles onto your profile, you want this to be what they see first!

Voilà. You can log out of your social media accounts. You don't have to worry about automated posts to social media being found by trolls while you are unaware of what's happening. You still have regular content going out to the people who want to see it!

Some technical notes: I can only speak to mailerlite, but custom unsubscribe pages that allow people to opt in and out of different groups is a paid feature. If you can't make these kinds of unsubscribe pages, then someone unsubscribing from your Hiatus Automation will also be unsubscribed from your main author newsletter if they were. If this is the case, make sure your readers know that by placing a note by the unsubscribe link.

WRAP UP: Bringing it all together

You can't do all the marketing, all the time. Pick one or two of these strategies to focus on while you write your next book. The majority of your time should be spent writing/drafting/editing/outlining/proofreading/whatever you do to get the book finished. Finishing that next book is the best thing you can do to advance your career. Keep your focus there. If you have to give up social media for a month to do that, give up social media. It's better to post nothing and finish the book than to post and delay the book.

I've run into too many authors who have gotten stuck in a rut because they put their focus on marketing their first book rather than writing their second. One such author said he couldn't bring himself to start the next book until book 1 was selling consistently. The unfortunate legacy left by GRRM is that many readers won't pick up a series if only the first book is out. I explained this, other's explained this. Without reader trust that book 2 is on the way, many are hesitant to pick up book 1 for fear that they will be left hanging. It's really a chicken and an egg problem, but authors are the ones that have to solve it.

Write the next book, select the marketing tactics that are within your budget and within your time, battery, and spoon allotment. Bonus if it's a marketing tactic that you find fun or engages a different part of your brain from writing. Dedicate everything else to finishing whatever you are working on now.

Addendum to Answer Questions:

Who makes your promo graphics? I make them using Canva and/or Pixlr. I do not pay for Canva. I do pay for Pixlr occasionally so that I can get more than their 3 downloads per day. I like that Pixlr allows me to do gradients on text and bevel text.

Where do you get your background images for your promo graphics? Either Free ones from Canva or DepositPhotos. AppSumo usually has a special twice a year where you can buy credits for 100 photos on DepositPhotos for only $40. I buy that whenever it becomes available. If you join David Gaughran's or Tammi Labreque's newsletters, they will ALWAYS make sure to let you know when that special is available! One pack of that usually lasts me a whole year and then some. I think I have enough credits right now for 150 photos?

Who designed your special editions? All me. I used photos from DepositPhotos and Pixlr to design it myself. I designed the interior pages, the dust jacket, the case laminate, etc. The biggest cost was the font I used, but I had purchased that license a few years ago (Yana / Yana Swash).

Where do you get those mockups of your books in paperback and hardcover? BookBrush. 3D mockups are part of their free tier! I use them ALL the time!

What do you use for your newsletter? I use MailerLite. They are free to use if you have fewer than 1000 subscribers! I did have to upgrade to a “Growing Business” plan recently as I went over 1000 subscribers. If you are keen to start a newsletter, please buy “Newsletter Ninja.” It will seriously be the best $5 you have spent. It's more worthwhile than all those self-publishing courses that cost thousands of dollars. Tammi will walk you through what you need for a welcome sequence, the importance of segmenting, and more! All in an easy to understand way an a wicked sense of humor.

Who formats your books? I do. I use Atticus and Sigil. Atticus to do the initial conversion from docx to epub and get basic formatting done, and then I use Sigil to edit some of the finer details with CSS. Most people only need Atticus! I have used Vellum in the past. I still have the license for it, I just don't have a Mac anymore. Once a book is in Atticus, though, I use their feature that lets you re-use back matter and update it across multiple books at once!

What was the last con you sold books at? ReaderCon 2018! I only sold 3 books but I had a BLAST. (I only sold three because I kept wandering out of the Merch Alley and into the panel sessions. I had set up my books on “consignment” at a bookstore that was tabling there. Technically, that bookseller was selling my books but I was doing my best to point readers to that bookseller to find my books.)

bonus note for introverts and those also haunted by anxiety who don't know if they can do a newsletter: samsies. same hat!

I hear a lot of people who are intimidated by starting a newletter and honestly, same. My current newsletter is not my first attempt at this! I was scared, worried I would be annoying people, not sure what to say!

But there are no trolls keyword-searching other people's email inboxes to find people to harass. No one will randomly come upon your last issue and try to start a whataboutism or a buthaveyouconsidered comment thread to your letter. You aren't spamming anyone's inbox: they specifically, intentionally signed up for it. They literally asked you into their inbox.

A lot of “grow your email list” advice tells you not to use double opt-in. Double opt-in is when someone has to confirm their email address by going to their inbox, waiting for a confirmation email, and then clicking on it to confirm they want to be on the email list.

But if you have anxiety about “but what if people don't actually know / realize what they are signing up for and then get mad at me?” then use the double opt-in method! It's what I do!

These people on your list want to know more about you. They want to hear about your writing. They want your emails! Don't worry about getting it right the first time. You can iterate over time. I started with a “welcome sequence” with one email. Over time, I improved my welcome sequence to have 3 emails. I used to only seperate my list by “signed up on my website” and “signed up elsewhere.” Now I keep meticulous track of where people signed up!

I feel far more comfortable with my newsletter now than I do on social media or any other platform. I can be more authentic, I am not competing in an algorithm or hoping so show up in a search. I don't have to perform, I can be myself with people who have already decided they enjoy my writing and support me. It's liberating! I do not have to wear a mask!

Find some of your own favorite authors and sign up for their newsletter. See what they do. Learn from those you think do it best!

Thanks for reading this article, I really hope that it helped you out! If you want to support me, you can leave me a tip or purchase one of my books. Also, feel free to join my newsletter, I'd love to have you!

Want to get all of my Marketing for Authors content in one epub? Get all of my current Marketing for authors content in a convenient ebook format here.

#IndieAuthor #MarketingForAuthors

Niche or Smaller Option

Aside from the major retailers, there are many smaller ones that cater to specific genres or offer unique features that you won't find elsewhere. Having your books available on these retailers can help you bring in readers who are looking for something a little more unique! This list is by no means exhaustive, but it does include only smaller retailers that I have direct experience with and feel confident commenting on!

Campfire

If you have readers that love extras—bonus scenes, character sheets, maps, lore articles, etc—this is the platform you will want to send those readers to! You can even monetize these extras! You spent all that time worldbuilding; this retailer lets you show it off and earn some money from it. Plus, they have 80% royalties. That's better than every other retailer right now. You get regular payouts via Stripe.

They have their own dedicated reading app that works on mobile, tablets, and certain ereaders like boox!

They have a huge list of tags with everything from tropes to identity to niche sub-sub-genres, so readers who are used to searching for things via AO3 tags will feel right at home. They have a separate system that lets you easily apply content warnings, too. They allow pre-orders, and it's rather easy to put your book on sale or create a promo code.

One unique feature is the “home page” for the book that you can set up very aesthetically (check out Stars and Soil's home page!)! You can enable reader comments on the home page, which are separate from star-reviews. So, if you miss the kind of comments that you would get on AO3, you can still get that reader engagement here.

The readership here is still small, but it is growing every day. There is a very loyal cozy fantasy and cozy mystery reader base here right now, too. And their appeal to TTRPG writers is waxing, so if you write LitRPG, progression fantasy, or base your stories on your favorite DND games, this is a platform you should definitely consider uploading to!

One great thing about them is their community of readers and writers on Discord, and their amazing blog that features not just fun writing types and deep dives into genre, but promotes the authors and books on their platform, like this post about magic systems that mentions Stars and Soil, The Handler's Gambit, The Whisperer in White, and Lost Blades—some of my absolute favorite books.

They do allow on-going/incomplete stories, but you cannot monetize them. They do not allow genAI art or genAI writing. The staff manually reviews every story uploaded when you apply for monetization to make sure it does not contain any advocacy or endorsement for violence against marginalized groups. You aren't gonna have your book shelved next to fascist propaganda wrapped up in fantasy tropes. Their review also checks to make sure that you are not using art or images without proper attribution. This company is very conscious about protecting intellectual property rights and not inadvertently harming creatives.

You can only get on this platform directly. Currently, no third-party aggregator supports Campfire due to their unique system and extras. Here is a tutorial for the process and don't forget to make sure your work complies with their content guidelines. They do allow spicy books, but they do not allow erotica.

Fun Fact: Campfire started out as a writing app with tons of features to help writers keep track of their worldbuilding, their characters, their lore, and even their research! It's where I have written all of the Scions and Shadows series so far!

Fable

You can only get to this platform using Draft2Digital (read the blog post about this partnership), however, it's a well-worth it platform to be on. Readers form “clubs” and the app tracks everyone's collective and individual reading progress, letting clubs leave comments, highlight, and chat about where they are in the book. This is an amazing way to reach readers who prefer to read socially and treat it like a group sport rather than an individual pursuit. Some authors have started their own clubs and invite their super fans to join it so they can read not just their own book, but some of their favorites, too. A great way to support other authors in your genre and build rapport with super fans!

Unfortunately, I cannot find any details about author royalties on Fable.

Itchio

Itch.io started out as a platform for indie game devs and is popular for having diverse stories from marginalized game devs. It's also got a great fanbase of otome games and visual novels, which naturally leads to people who also enjoy reading! Since Itchio has opened their virtual shelves to authors to share their books, it's become something of a haven for LGBTQ+ novelists to share bonus materials, short stories, and even their own novels.

One of my favorite things about Itchio is the customization! You can make your “shop page” any color combination you want (checkout mine!), and the sales pages for your books are also able to be customized from the font style, to size, to color. I've set up my pages to match the color pallets of the covers.

They also frequently have “jams” that you can join, which are games and books bundled together that share a common theme or genre. These bundles are then sold for one price, and the proceeds are split among all participants. Some of these bundles are even for charities. This is a great way to get greater exposure and get your books into the hands of readers who may not have heard of you before. Full disclosure, I've never participated in a jam, but I've purchased them before.

If Amazon pulls out the rug from under LGBTQ+ creators or erotica/erotic romance authors, then itch.io might be a viable alternative. They have a tagging system specifically for NSFW games and a system in place to make sure that the games only show in discovery to those specifically looking for them.

Itch.io does have its own discovery system and an active base of users who know the value of supporting indie creators and value creative works by people from diverse backgrounds.

Itch pays out either via PayPal or Stripe. PayPal and Stripe are a $0.30 fee plus 2.9%. They have two different payout modes, one where the money is collected by itch and paid out to you, and one where the payments go directly to you. In the former, the payout method, itch is the Merchant of Record and handles VAT, taxes, and fraud detection. It is liable for chargebacks and will issue refund payments on your behalf if necessary. This payout method also allows you to participate in bundles. This is the method I suggest and the one I use. I do not have the spoons to worry about VAT!

The one downside of this method is you do not get your funds automatically and there is a minimum $5 threshold you must meet before you can request a payout. If you choose the “direct to you” method, you get your funds as soon as they clear from the person purchasing your book. I suggest reading their page on payments for more details.

A unique thing about Itch is it allows revenue sharing. If you co-authored a book or want to share revenue with an illustrator, this allows you to do so.

Going Direct

This is my favorite part of being wide. I get the best return, I can release editions with bonus stories, glossaries, or maps that would otherwise eat up my royalties on Amazon due to their “delivery fees,” and offer my most loyal fans discounts and promotions via exclusive codes only found in my newsletter.

With most direct sales methods, you will also get the customer's email address. Most will let customers choose whether or not they also want to join your newsletter at checkout (if you don't have a newsletter, please start one). They also will usually let you customize your sales receipts so you can include a discount code for the next purchase, include a personalized thank you, and maybe even a pet photo or your digital signature.

By having a direct sales channel, you are creating a more personalized and customized experience for the reader; you are offering something that you can't in KU: access to you. I always encourage readers to reach out if they have any issues with their purchases and give them my address. I've gotten several who have emailed me to let me know they finished reading it and enjoyed it!

I'll never forget when I found Sylvia Louise Engdahl's email on her website and she encouraged readers to write to her. I was a middle schooler and had just finished reading “Enchantress from The Stars” after I checked it out from the library. That's the book that made me want to be a fantasy author. I told her as much in my email and I never expected to get a response, but I did! I wish I still had that email, but she was very grateful that I enjoyed her book and wished me luck on my author journey. It's up to you if you want to use your direct sales channel as a way to connect with readers. Everyone has different boundaries when it comes to readers and authors. You don't have to make this an avenue for reader connection, but it opens it up when you can't expect that much on KU.

StoryOrigin

I got to be in the beta launch of this and troubleshoot for Evan Gow, the (singular!) developer behind Story Origin, and I was thrilled with the results. I upload my manuscript to StoryOrigin's Direct Sales option, set up the API token from LemonSqueezy, and set up a listing on LemonSqueezy, and it will connect the two and create a landing page for readers to purchase the book directly. There are several great tutorials for how to set all this up, no code required. This is the one I will be going into the most detail about as it's the one I have the most experience with.

Here's my page for Stars and Soil that Story Origin made automatically. Because I connected my domain name, it also lets me add branding colors and a custom URL address.

This integration means that when a reader purchases the book, StoryOrigin will send them the download link, and StoryOrigin (Evan Gow) will handle technical support if anything goes wrong in this process. Savvy readers know how to side-load a book, but for some, this might be their first time, and there are detailed instructions for how to get the files onto your e-reader of choice.

The payment processor behind this is LemonSqueezy, seller of digital goods and subscriptions. LemonSqueezy accepts payments from 135+ countries, has local currency support, and accepts credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Diners Club, JCB and China UnionPay), PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, AliPay, WeChat Pay, Cash App Pay, Bank payments, and more. They handle all sales tax, and you can choose whether your prices are inclusive or exclusive of sales tax, and they will calculate accordingly. So, whatever the retailers above don't cover in terms of payment methods or country/currency support, you're likely going to get it with LemonSqueezy and many of the other direct sales methods.

They also have “Pay What You Want.” This lets your readers choose to pay you more than the suggested price. About 25% of the time, a reader who purchases on my direct store will choose to pay a higher amount.

But how much do I get to keep? LemonSqueezy takes 5% + $0.30 per transaction. For $0.99 books, that means I get $0.64. Way better than what I get on Amazon. For a $4.99 ebook, I make $4.44. And there are NO delivery fees! My lengthiest novel, Stars and Soil, I make $3.31 after they take out their $0.26 delivery fee! I make over a dollar more on the same book when a reader purchases direct.

If you do know how to code, it's rather easy to embed a “buy” button from LemonSqueezy directly on your website that will open a pop-up modal for purchasing. This is what I do on my main website's book pages. It still triggers the email from StoryOrigin for them to get their files. If you don't want to do that, you can use StoryOrigin to build a storefront using book collections and link collections (mine is here), and LemonSqueezy also has a store builder. The LemonSqueezy store builder doesn't let you store products, but it does let you do a lot of other customization and use a custom URL (you can find my LemonSqueezy storefront here.

If you do like coding, I wrote a tutorial on getting the “buy button” working on your own website.

One thing to note: you DO have to pay $10/mo to use StoryOrigin. But there are a LOT of other services and features it offers. I was already using StoryOrigin to organize author swaps for my newsletter, group promos, delivery my reader magnet, distribute ARC copies, get my manuscript to beta readers, and more! I could go on for hours about how much I love StoryOrigin!

BookFunnel

Very similar to StoryOrigin. BookFunnel lets you upload your book, and connect it with several different payment processors. They let you integrate with Gumroad, Payhip, PayPal, Shopify, Thrivecart, Woocommerce, or Zapier (Zapier is more of an integration that connects two different services, so you'd use Zapier to reach an otherwise unsupported service).

I have used BookFunnel to participate in promotions and am about to use it to deliver digital goods to Kickstart supporters, but I haven't used it for direct sales. I do know plenty of authors who have used it for such, though!

It's mostly the same deal, the payment processor does the payment processing, and then BookFunnel delivers the book and provides tech support with getting it onto a reading device.

Further, however, BookFunnel has its own reading app, and readers can create libraries to host the books they've purchased directly and any of those free reader magnets they got from signing up. This is a feature that I wish StoryOrigin had. Maybe one day.

Because BookFunnel integrates with several different payment processors, I am not going to get into all of the details of that here, since some of them I will mention on their own. But suffice it to say, among your options, you have plenty of countries and currencies you wouldn't otherwise have access to using only the standard retailers.

Same note as I mentioned for StoryOrigin, but BookFunnel is between $10 and $15/mo depending if you want direct email service integration. It has a ton of other features, including organizing author swaps, group promotions, and newsletter reader magnet delivery.

You can use both StoryOrigin and BookFunnel with other services, however. Both allow you to create download pages, and you can link your receipts from the other services to these download pages. You would have to consider how to keep that page private and only available to people with verified sales.

PayHip

For a long time, this was the go to way for indies to sell direct. It integrates with BookFunnel, but you can also upload your own files. They report and pay digital EU & UK VAT. They have a “Free” plan that is $0.49 per transaction if using Paypal and $0.39 if using Stripe, plus 5%. At $29/mo, that transaction fee is only 2%. You'll have to weigh whether or not you think you'll be losing more to that additional 3% or not. If you are first starting out and go with PayHip, I would suggest starting with the Free plan and moving up only once you have a well-oiled machine.

You can also use PayHip to integrate with BookVault if you plan on selling physical books, too. I think that's a nice bonus! It used to be that the BookVault <–> Payhip integration was done via Zapier, and I tried it and it didn't work too well. But! Now they have a direct integration and it's fantastic. I'm getting ready to move off of Shopify as my store front for my Special Editions and onto Payhip!

They also let you upload a free preview file. If you want readers to be able to have the first two or three chapters, you can do that! I don't think I know any other platform that does this. They also do PDF watermark stamping, so you can track down anyone who might go on to distribute that PDF without your permission. You can also set download limits.

It integrates with Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Diners Club, and JCB cards, PayPal, and Stripe for accepting payments. It also has easy integrations with most Email Marketing services including ConvertKit, MailChip, SendFox, and Zapier and is GDPR compliant.

My original direct store was via PayHip, and while I liked it, I wanted the customer support that came with StoryOrigin.

If you do know how to code, it's rather easy to embed a “buy” button directly on your website that will open a pop-up modal for purchasing. But they also have a very robust no-code store builder for free.

Gumroad

This is technically a retailer, but a lot of authors use it as either the payment gateway for BookFunnel, or directly as their direct store. It's super easy to set up. I've had a Gumroad store for a long time, and it has some fantastic discovery tools. I don't advertise that I have a Gumroad shop, but I still get sales on it. It lets you know if the buyer found your product via Discover. It's full of not just books, but also Notion templates, fan arrangements, Canva templates, Excel templates, and more! There is a thriving audience on Gumroad, as I've found, for Notion Templates. My Chronically Ill Author Notion Template is actually my top seller, with more sales than all of my books on the platform combined—yes, I have it listed for free, but people still pay me for it!

It lets you use your own domain if you choose, and it lets you organize your products. If you checkout my store, you'll see that I have my books separate from my author tools.

Gumroad takes a 10% flat fee and has no other transaction fees or payment processing fees, and no monthly subscription fees. This is one of the higher fees out of these options, and a large reason why I do not make it my “main” direct store and instead direct people to my StoryOrigin/Lemonsqueezy store. But I do like the organic discovery options on there. There is the option to have a small fee taken out of any sales you make to have your product more prominently featured in Discover. It's like an Amazon AMS Ad type situation, except you pay per sale, not per click. Also, unlike Amazon, they do not have an “Also Boughts,” so when a customer is on your page, they will not get distracted by other books being shown.

It also lets you create 'Variants,' so you could make a “regular” edition of your ebooks, and then a “Special Edition” variant that contains tons of bonus content, deleted scenes, etc. Another fun aspect of Gumroad is that it also allows a “Pay What You Want” model. As I alluded to before, my Chronically Ill Author Notion Template is “Pay What You Want” with the suggested price of free, but people have paid me $10 when they wanted to.

If you are afraid of piracy, this platform does allow you to apply digital rights management and watermark your pdfs. Another safeguard is you can place download limits on the products.

The one thing I dislike about setting up products is the weird dimensions they have for thumbnails and product images. I always confuse them when it comes time to make them!

They also pay out weekly! No other platform does that!

Ko-Fi

You probably know this one from authors, artists, musicians, and other creators using it for tips, and sometimes artists using it for commissions. Did you know that you can set up a store now, too? If you check my ko-fi page, you'll see that right under the “buy a coffee” box is a “shop” box. You can see thumbnails and prices for each of my books. You can also link people directly to your shop and set up tags to sort your books.

Ko-Fi lets you set a “Pay What You Want” model. When a reader purchases a book on my shop, it links them to a download page that I've set up on StoryOrigin. Some authors have it link to a dropbox file, others upload the mobi's and epubs directly to Ko-Fi.

There is no monthly fee to use Ko-Fi, but there is a 0 – 5% platform fee. 0% is for any tips or donations, and 5% on Memberships, commissions, and selling products. I mentioned in Part II about authors using Ko-Fi to set up their own subscription services, and this would involve setting some of your books to “Members Only.”

Ko-Fi accepts PayPal, Venmo, all major credit cards, Apply Pay, Google Pay, Cash App, and more.

You can choose to get paid via PayPal or Stripe. You get paid instantly, there is no threshold and it's not a “once a month” thing.

You can set up discount codes for your shops.

There are easy-to-use widgets and code snippets that allow you to integrate it directly onto your own website if that is something you are interested in doing. I use their “tip me” widget on my website.

I like Ko-Fi a lot, but I have heard that some creators of erotica and erotic romance have run into issues, largely around PayPal being weird. You can read more about their NSFW policy in their Content Guidelines.

I think every creative should have a Ko-Fi to ask supporters for tips, and even if you stay in KU, Ko-Fi might be a good place to sell bonus materials and short stories and could be an alternative to Patreon if you are unhappy with Patreon's new (Apple-enforced) rules.

Shopify

The Big One. The one with all the moving parts, add-ons, apps, and more. It's got several tiers if you are concerned about payment. The very limited $5/mo starter tier, and the “basic” plan $29/mo, all the way up to “Advanced” at $299/mo.

Most authors that I know that use Shopify pay the full $29/mo and use its store builder. My friend Liz Sauco has a beautiful Shopify shop, and she uses their POS system to sell her physical books at conventions and maker markets.

If you are an author that has or wants to have merchandise like mugs and bookmarks, you have a ton of special editions, or you see yourself wanting to create lots of bundles (either series bundles or you want to bundle ebook, audiobook, and print book all into one), this might be what you want. It integrates with BookFunnel and BookVault. It has a “starter” tier that is $5/mo, but if you want to go all out, you're gonna be paying $29/mo.

I user the $5/mo starter tier. Shopify is what I use for my special editions. I use their “Buy Button Sales Channel” and copy and paste the widget code into my website. This code creates that button directly on my website and creates a shopping cart, too. It is integrated with BookVault. This works for me for now. I know how to put the code I want directly into my site and don't have to worry about the higher cost and maintaining another store front. I will be re-evaluating this as I go.

Shopify supports 23 countries at this time. It also supports over 100 different payment methods, depending on your country. In the US, it has all the standard Paypal, Credit Cards, Stripe, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.

I think it's currently the only one on this list that accepts Afterpay, Affirm, Klarna and other predatory “buy now pay later” methods. They also have their own payment methods, Shop Cash and Shopify Payments. They also support some crypto currency payments, if that's something you think your readers prefer. (Mine don't, so this isn't a selling point for me, it might be a selling point for you, though.)

Each of these payment gateways have their own fees and pricing structures, it doesn't cost you anything on Shopify's end to integrate them, though.

Transaction fees on the Starter Plan are 5%, the “Basic” plan is 2.9% + $0.30, and the percentage goes down the higher tier plan you are on. The higher tiers also offer things like shipping discounts, and the ability to add “staff” accounts so you could give certain privileges to a virtual private assistant if you use one without having to give that VPA your password.

Do I think this is a good option if you're just getting started in direct sales? Not really, unless you have a large backlist and are selling a lot of products. If you are just trying to start by selling ebooks direct, I don't think this is the smartest option. If you're wanting to do what Liz Sauco does and offer multiple bundles as well as merch? And/or you like to do a lot of in-person selling? This is a good option!

Other Options

Other options do exist. BookFunnel also integrates with ThriveCart and WooCommerce. But I've never used ThriveCart before, so I can't comment on it, and I don't know anyone who does use it to ask them. Do your own research, keeping in mind you want to consider transaction fees, supported currencies, supported payment methods, and supported countries. As for WooCommerce, that is a WordPress plugin. And I do not mess around with Wordpress. That way lies much evil. I do not recommend it. If you are already using Wordpress and like it, great. But if you aren't already using it, it is not my recommendation for website creation at this time.

I am sure there are some I missed! Ask around to other authors and get their feedback, do some DuckDuckGo searching, find some Indie Author discord groups or facebook groups and see if any of the stores you come across in your travels speak to you.

Other Cool Features To Look Out For:

Some things you might also want to consider when choosing a platform since I can't get into every feature of every platform.

• Abandon Cart Emails – You think they sound annoying, and you personally don't like them? That's fine. But they do have a track record of bringing in sales.
• Bundles – Some platforms allow you to bundle items together
• Upsell Emails – Some platforms let you email customers a week after they've bought the first in your series to remind them that you have ten other books they could buy
• Affiliate Marketing – Some platforms allow for Affiliate Marketing, meaning if you give your affiliate link to another author so they can promote your book in their newsletter, that other author gets a cut of the revenue. And likewise, if you promote another author using their affiliate link, you get a cut of that sale, too. This is great if you frequently do “Author Swaps” in your newsletter!

Other Considerations

So, now you have all these retailers, sales channels, and income streams. How do you keep track of all of it?

ScribeCount

I started off using an Excel spreadsheet but got overwhelmed quickly. Now I use ScribeCount. It's $9.99/mo. Yes, I know, another subscription. But this uses a cool browser plugin that pulls your sales data for you. It automatically pulls in your numbers from KDP, D2D, Kobo, BN, Apple, Smashwords, as well as your numbers from IngramSpark, ACX, and Shopify. It also allows you to import sales from other places. I import my sales from LemonSqueezy at the end of the month. It also can be used to track the effectiveness of your email campaigns by integrating with EMS services like Mailerlite, and if you do run Amazon Ads or Facebook Ads, it can pull those numbers in, too.

You can also use it to track expenses. I also use it to keep track of my promotions on places like BookSpry and BookDoggy, adding the cost of those promotions to the Expense Tracker. I also track my expenses for covers, editing, and any software I purchase. I can then assign those expenses to a book and figure out when I've made back my initial investment and how much profit I have.

Absolutely, this is worth it. And I'm saying this as someone who loves a good spreadsheet (just look at the one I give out for free, it's got xlookups!)

It's got a 15-day trial, and I waited to do the trial until about 2 days before I had a large multi-day promotion where I was expecting a lot of sales. My book would be promoted that week in Fussy Librarian, Book Doggy, Bargain Booksy, EreaderIQ, and it would be part of the “Queer Your Ereader,” event, the Naratess Indie Sale, and the Beloved SFF Indie Sale. I wanted to see this thing in action before I pulled the trigger. So a few days before that hullabaloo, I signed up for the free trial, and only checked ScribeCount on the promotion days. And I was impressed. It was, indeed, impressive.

Metadata

Metadata is the information about and surrounding your book. It's the title, the publication date, the author name, and so much more.

You have blurbs, publishing dates, epubs to keep track of, dates you last revised or updated those epubs, and more. And you gotta keep track of it because you need to be updating it across multiple sales channels. How do you do that? Some people use a spreadsheet; others use a Word or Google doc.

I created my own system in Notion.

The Chronically Ill Author's Goal Tracker

I made a very nice Notion Template to track my goals, my progress, my spoons, my health, and my word count all in one place. And that includes keeping track of all my books Meta data. The Notion Template is FREE if you want it, and you can just grab the metadata tracking pages if that's all you need.

I made this for people with chronic conditions and disabilities, but anyone who does want to track their health can use it.

Wide Wizard

Another option is this browser extension. You fill in your books' metadata once, and it will auto-populate the details when you are on a retailer's website. It works for most major retailers, but some smaller ones, you will have to manually fill in. I have it installed and it works decently. I still prefer to keep my metadata in my Notion so I never lose it and have access even when I'm not at my PC.

Back Matter

Backmatter is where you want to list your author bio, your “Also By” page, and any sneak previews for your next book. If you are uploading to multiple retailers, you will want multiple versions of this. Draft2Digital is not happy if it sees an Amazon link anywhere in your book. Apple will outright reject it. What should you do, then?

I create a version of my backmatter for each store I am uploading to directly. I use Atticus to do my initial formatting and Sigil to do the finishing touches (Sigil requires that you know the basics of HTML and CSS). In Atticus, is use “Master Pages” to have set of backmatter for each store I upload to individually. Amazon backmatter links to Amazon pages, using a UBL to ensure it opens the right store geographically. Kobo gets Kobo links, BN gets BN links. I can assume that if a reader has purchased a book from that specific store, they will purchase from that store again and likely have a preference for it.

My books that get uploaded to Draft2Digital have another “Also By” page that uses my Link Collection that has ALL the potential retailers. I use my custom domain name for this link collection so that no retailers can get mad at me for linking elsewhere. This means that I have roughly 6 different versions of my book by the time I am done. It is a bit messy, and this is the longest part of processing my manuscripts for publication or updates.

If you don't want to do that hassle, just use a BookFunnel, StoryOrigin, Books2Read, or Booklink Universal Book Link. This will get the job done just as well. I promise.

What I Do Might Not Be What Is Best For You – And That's Okay

A quick overview of my process for promoting widely:

• I make my manuscripts. One for Amazon, Kobo, BN, GPlay, Campfire, Itch, Gumroad, Ko-Fi, and StoryOrigin. This takes me a day or two, depending on my health.
• I upload to the retailers and direct stores. This takes a day or two for a new manuscript, depending on my health, and half a day if it's an update I am making and do not need to enter in all the metadata.
• I monitor sales and track expenditures in ScribeCount. It sends me a report every morning, too, counting the previous day's sales.
• I use the promotional tools that each retailer has available, ex: checking the promotions tab in Kobo and searching Itchio for game jams, as well as seeking out promotions specifically for certain sales avenues, ex: seeing if BookFunnel or StoryOrigin have group promotions for Direct Sales. I am also pretty big on making those group promos on StoryOrigin if I can't find them.
• I seek out indie sales like Naratess Indie Sale or Queer Your Bookshelf and make sure to submit universal book links to them, not just an Amazon link.
• I use Book Promotion Sites like BookDoggy and BooksGoDirect that either focus on direct sales or allow you to submit a direct sales link. BookDoggy lets you post JUST your direct sales link if you want and BooksGoDirect is ALL about direct sales, no one else. Fussy Librarian, BookSpry, and BookRaid have all also let me submit direct links in addition to the other retailers. BookBarbarian, for Fantasy authors, doesn't allow direct sales links right now but does prefer books with multiple retailers. (Note: because you won't have access to kindle countdown, you won't be able to set your book to free! That's fine, though, FussyLibrarian charges less for bargain books. Another Note: BookSpry has two lists, one that is Romance-focused and one that is SciFi/Fantasy focused. Make sure you are signing up to promote on the right one! The SciFi/Fantasy one is called “sci-spry” and is $7, compared to the Romance list being around $40.)
• When I make my link collections, I always put my direct store link at the very top, and then I list the retailers alphabetically after that. I try to drive as much traffic as I can to my direct sales because I want that higher return and I also want those email addresses so I can build my newsletter.
• I do author swaps with authors in my niche and genre, promoting their books in my newsletter, and they promote mine in theirs. I always provide my link collections/UBLs so their readers can pick their retailers.
• Making promotion graphics that highlight as many retailers as possible, and also graphics that highlight one specific retailer and calling out a feature that you get when going to that retailer (ex: a graphic to promote my book on Campfire because of its bonus content, a graphic promoting my books on Hoopla to show readers where they might get my books for free.)
• Becoming an affiliate of as many other retailers as possible to double-dip on my sales

My process is tailored to how much energy I have on average, how much time I have in my day, and how much headache I am willing to endure for certain idiosyncrasies. You have to make your own assessment about what you value and what you want your daily life as a wide author to look like.

But guess what my day doesn't involve? Weekly re-examinations of my KDP keywords and daily re-assessments of my AMS ads. I don't bother to worry about my sales rank because it doesn't matter. I am not trying to hit the best-seller page because I know I never will since I am not in KU. I do not care. I do use Publisher Rocket to help select keywords when I first publish a new book, and then I re-evaluate them every six months. But I'm not trying to find “competitor ASINs” so I can add them to my ads and what not. That's not my game. My time is better spent writing since I know those royalties from KU aren't lost; they are just coming from my direct store instead. I need to convince fewer people to buy my book in order to make the same money from my direct store as I would from them reading it in KU.

These are choices you need to make. I hope this series was helpful to you. Maybe you are more firmly in the KU camp than you were before, maybe you've decided to take the plunge and go wide, maybe you need more time. Regardless, I hope this information is useful in your decision making process.

I didn't set out to write three parts, and who knows, maybe I will write a Part IV. But for now, this is it.

Thanks so much for reading.

If you found this helpful, consider leaving me a tip!

Want to get all of my Marketing for Authors content in one epub? Get all of my current Marketing for authors content in a convenient ebook format here.

#IndieAuthor #MarketingForAuthors

I mentioned briefly that going “wide” means taking a different marking approach a is a bit of a mindset shift. A lot of people in KU spend tons of time on PublisherRocket trying to find the perfect keywords for their book in hopes of climbing the Amazon Best Seller Ranks, making it to the top of search results, and getting into the “Also Boughts” of their “competitors.”

Note: I do NOT consider other authors to be my competitors, no matter how closely they align with my niche—sapphic thigh high fantasy. Readers can read my books in 10 hours. I cannot ever hope to write, edit, format and publish a book in 10 hours. Other sapphic thigh high fantasy authors are who I send my readers to so that they can keep getting their fix while I write the next one, but Amazon encourages this “competitor” mindset, and this is a mindset you have to break out of if you are to be a “wide” author!

Another mindset shift you have to get over is the assumption that all other retailers are just Amazon with a different logo. Many believe they will have to learn how to manipulate, game, work, and massage multiple algorithms, assuming that Kobo, Barnes & Noble, etc, have as sophisticated a system. Amazon started as a bookseller, yes. But that was never their end goal. They were always a technology company first and foremost, unlike other booksellers, who prioritize books first and foremost. That means that other retailers don't have an overwhelming number of variables in their algorithms.

But then, how do these other retailers know when to show your book and how high up in the search results to place it? Most of them (please sit down for this) actually read your book. They scan the contents of your book and count up the number of times “magic” is mentioned, the number of times “swords” are mentioned, the number of times the word “spaceship” appears! Some of them use AO3 type tags! Some of them have non-standard categories or niche categories that let you get VERY specific and let readers search via micro-genres.

This part II is meant to give a brief overview of some of the most popular KDP alternatives—the major retailers and library services. I will get into smaller retailers and direct platforms in Part III. It certainly won't cover all of them, and it isn't meant as a step-by-step guide for each of them. They all have their quirks. I. But for now, I just want to give you enough information for you to get closer to making an informed decision about what is best for your circumstances and your author career.

Some of these major retailers have affiliate programs, too. Books2Read and StoryOrigin both let you add affiliate links when you make your Universal Book Links. I think BookFunnel does, too, but I'm not 100% on that. I don't use BookLinker, so I'm not sure about that one. Please do your own research on this, though. It's definitely worth it if you are going with other retailers to try to get into their affiliate programs and use those affiliate links!

(By the way, even if you do choose to stay in just Amazon, I suggest using a Universl Book Link tool because they do geo-location and will redirect a reader to the correct store for their country of origin.)

One more caveat, this is meant to discuss ebooks only, but I might mention that some platforms also allow you to publish physical books or audiobooks. The focus is still on ebooks.

Aggregate vs. Going Direct vs. Direct Sales

“Going wide” can look like a lot of things. It can be as simple as uploading 1 manuscript to 1 place and auto-magically having your manuscript appear on dozens of storefronts. It can mean creating seven different versions of your ebooks and uploading each to a different retailer. It can mean creating two versions of a manuscript, one for the aggregate publishing platform and one for your direct sales channel. It can mean making your ebooks available on Ream, Patreon, or Ko-Fi via membership subscriptions.

For the “wide” author, there is much freedom to determine what is best for you; for you to weigh the financial cost against the time cost and make the choices that fit into whatever restraints your life has.

But what are aggregate publishers? What does it mean to “go direct” versus “direct sales”?  

Aggregate Publishers

Aggregate publishers are how many, many indies first get their toes wet when they decide to go wide—whether it's with their debut or with their 30th novel. These platforms have contracts with dozens of other retailers so that you can upload your manuscript to just one place and have it appear on every retailer you select from their choices.

Some of these take a small percentage out of your royalties, some of them charge a monthly subscription fee. If you're just starting out and don't have many books, it might be a good idea to go with a deduct-from-royalties model. But if you are expecting to sell a high volume of books to the point where the cost of the subscription is less than the royalties lost, then the subscription model might be for you.

You have a few different options when it comes to aggregate publishers, too. I'm going to go over the three that are most popular.  

Draft2Digital

Draft2Digital does a lot more than just distribute your book to multiple retailers! It also has a very convenient converter that can get your book into a decently formatted epub file from rtf, docx, or otf files. It also has a cool feature that lets you update your backmatter without re-uploading your ebook! It also lets you share royalties if you are a co-author. One of its best features, which is free to use even if you don't distribute through them, is their books2read universal book links pages.

They also do Print and Audiobooks, if that's something you're interested in. Another cool feature is they allow you to split your royalties with other contributors, so it makes it easy if you are an editor of an anthology or if you have co-authored a book or want to pay royalties to an illustrator.

But if all you want to know about them is what their cost is, it's 10% of your list price. That means if you distribute to a retailer that gives you 70% royalties, D2D will take 10% of your list price from that 70% royalties. So if your ebook is priced at 4.99, you get 70% minus $0.49.

They also let you schedule your promotions in advance. Multiple at a time, too! At the start of the year, I scheduled out all of my sales (Pride Month sale, my birthday sale, my holiday sale) on all of my books at once.

What retailers do they distribute to? If you are in the US, you will recognize a fair few of these. But there are some international sellers that you might not be aware of!

• Amazon – Does this need an explanation? I will say, that they might be one of the largest retailers in the world, but that does not make them the largest retailer in every country. There are even some countries that they have zero presence.
• Apple Books – Again, you probably know this one. Recently, they have allowed non-Mac/non-Apple users to publish easily, but for a long time, if you didn't have a Mac, using an aggregate publisher was the only other way to get on the Apple Books platform.
• Barnes & Noble – If you are US-based, you know this one. But did you know that it doesn't operate outside of the US?
• Kobo (including Kobo Plus) – A Canadian company that has a huge international base that is still expanding. They have their own line of e-readers/e-ink devices and a subscription that is $7.99/mo for ebooks and $11.99/mo for ebooks & audiobooks. They pay per minute read, not per page read. More on them later.
• Smashwords Store (this is the only way to get your book into Smashwords!) Very popular with erotica authors who get dungeoned on Amazon. They have two very large and well-advertised sales per year as well as a smaller sale during “read an ebook” week. These sales can lead to “Stuff Your Kindle” levels of sales numbers.
• Tolino – Very popular in Germany! Made by a consortium of different German booksellers and has various dedicated eReader devices.
• Overdrive – This is the backend for Libby, the largest provider of ebooks to libraries in the United States. (Psst, it's better to get to Overdrive via Kobo, more on that later!)
• cloudLibrary – A sort of expanded library system. Readers can use their local library card to borrow books that might not be available directly via Libby.
• Everand – Formerly Scribd. A Digital Subscription Service similar to KU; offers sheet music, research articles, and audiobooks, too. Currently $11.99 to subscribe.
• Baker & Taylor – An alternative to Overdrive/Libby.
• Hoopla – Similar to cloudLibrary. Readers use their local library cards and can borrow 10 items from the digital collection, regardless if the library has purchased that item from Overdrive.
• Vivlio – A French company that is building its own book ecosystem, including e-ink devices, and partnering with physical bookstores to allow them to sell digital items like books and magazines. Currently expanding to Belgium and Spain.
• BorrowBox – Same as cloudLibrary and Hoopla. If your library doesn't have a book via Libby as part of their collection, you can still get a book via that library card on BorrowBox.
• Odilo – Highly focused on education and working with schools, teachers, and non-profits with hopes of providing niche education, this is a platform that you should consider if you write non-fiction, or Middle Grade and Young Adult that you think would be well suited to be part of school curriculums.
• Palace Marketplace – This has a huge focus on indies and is available to libraries in Canada and the US. It has a unique model that allows libraries to outright own an ebook and allow patrons to check it out one at a time, or a model that has 40 total loans, and 10 concurrently. So it lets libraries take a chance on debuts to see how their readership likes it and then purchase a permanent license for their popular books.
• Gardners – Hugely popular in the UK, they are one of the largest booksellers in Europe. They sell physical books, ebooks, and audiobooks.
• Fable – Originally an app for organizing book clubs and watch clubs, you can now sell your books through the app so book clubs can all comment at once and track group reading progress. Combination of Discord and Goodreads. This is currently the only way for indie authors get on Fable.

When you are setting up your book on Draft2Digital, you can toggle any of these on or off to pick distribution just to the places you want to distribute. Now, you might be thinking, “Why would I want to distribute to Vivlio? Tolino? My book isn't in German, French, or Spanish.” Maybe not, but is your book a retelling of a popular German folk tale? Does it take place in France? Is it in a secondary world based on Belgium? Is it a non-fiction history book that details certain events in one of those countries? Maybe you should consider it! There are plenty of readers in those countries that read in English, too.

What a lot of experienced and savvy “wide” authors do is upload their books directly to some of the “major” retailers, and then use Draft2Digital to get to some of the other markets and library services. It acts as a sort of “catch all” for what you can't get to.

I'm gonna disclose what I do here, but that doesn't mean it's the right choice for you. I upload directly to Amazon, B&N, and Kobo. Those are my three biggest sales channels from what Draft2Digital offers, and then I upload to Draft2Digital for the rest. This lets me get more royalties but still takes some of the headache and hassle off my plate. I do know authors who also go direct to Apple, but their upload system just is too much headache for me.

Please do note, however, that Draft2Digital does not distribute to Google Play.

Publish Drive

You get your first book free, now! That's right. You get to keep ALL your royalties and pay ZERO in a monthly subscription if you are only uploading one book. 3 books or less is $13.99/mo, and the price goes up from there depending on your catalog. Like I said before, if you make more than a certain amount per month, this avenue might be worth it. Do the math and find out if you lose more than $15/mo to royalty fees or not.

They also allow you to set up Amazon ads in their dashboard, can book Written Word Media promotions in their dashboard, and handle the distribution of review copies. There's a lot going on here. If you have a huge backlist, I suggest giving this a look.

But where do they distribute? I went into details about each retailer in Draft2Digital's network, and I won't repeat myself, so I will just share what I know about the ones that PublishDrive reaches that Draft2Digital doesn't.

• Amazon
• Apple
• Baker & Taylor
• Barnes and Noble
• Dreame Huge in the South Asian market and quickly gaining traction in the English-speaking world, it caters to women readers under the age of 40.
• Everand
• Gardners
• Google Play Books – I will go into this more in detail in a later section, but Google Play books comes with every android device so you got a huge market here, and it's available in more countries than Amazon.
• Kobo & Kobo Plus
• Odilo
• Overdrive

StreetLib

This one is massive and really for people who want an international presence in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese-speaking nations. They have a free plan where you keep 70% of your royalties (they take 30%) and you can have 10 total titles on their platform. This option is ebook only. Their Pro Plan is $99/year, and you keep 85% of your revenue (they take 15%). You can have 100 titles and distribute audiobooks and print books. The pro plan has some other perks, too.

• 24Symbol – Another subscription service, very popular in Spain!
• Amazon -
• Apple
• Baja Libros – A retailer that is very popular in Latin America
• Baker & Taylor
• Barnes and Noble
• Bidi – A subscription service that is very popular in Argentina.
• BookBeat – A subscription service for ebooks and audiobooks in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, and Italy.
• BookRepublic – A bookstore that is popular in Italy
• Casa Del Libro – Bookshop that has an audience in Spain
• Decalibro – A library service in Italy
• Google Play Books
• Hoepli – Retailer that is popular in Italy
• IBS (Internet Bookshop Italia) – Ebooks and Print-on-Demand paperbacks that is popular in Italy
• il Giardino dei Libri – Ebooks and Print on Demand retailer in Italy
• Narratore AudioLibro – Audiobook retailer that is popular in Italy
• Kobo (including Kobo Plus)
• LaFeltrinelli – Print on Demand and Ebook retailer in Italy
• Leamos Ebook retailer that is popular in Argentina
• Libreka – Ebook retailer that is popular in Germany
• Liberria Universitaria – Ebook and Print on Demand retailer of textbooks in Italy
• Liberias Gandhi (Libros, música, videos, café!) – Digital retailer in Mexico
• Libri.de – Ebook retailer in Germany
• Librisaulus – Ebook retailer in Italy
• mlol – Ebooks & audiobooks retailer in Italy
• Mondadori – Ebooks & print on demand retailer in Italy
• Odilo
• Overdrive
• Perlego – Subscription service for textbooks in Europe
• PeruBookstore – Ebook retailer in Peru
• Rete Indaco – Library service for digial libraries in Italy
• San Paolo – Ebook retailer for spiritual books in Italy
• Scribd/Everand
• Stary: Dreame
• StreetLib Store – Ebooks, Audiobooks, and Print on Demand store in Italy
• Tolino
• Ubook – Subscription service for audiobooks in Brasil and Latin America
• unilibro – Ebook retailer in Italy
• Webster.it – Ebook retailer in Italy

I do not currently use Streetlib, but it might be great for you! I would suggest hitting Amazon, Google Play, Kobo, Barnes & Noble directly so you can keep the largest percentage of your royalties, using Draft2Digital to hit Tolino, Odilo, Overdrive, to keep more royalties, and then using StreetLib for the rest if you are interested in hitting a larger international audience.

My Thoughts

There is a lot of overlap among the three here, it's up to you to choose if you want to “go direct” (publish directly to that retailer using their own website) or use an aggregator, and if the latter, which aggregator to use.

My advice is always “go direct” on Amazon. If you are based in the US, I also suggest always going direct with Barnes & Noble. But as I said in part I, I don't know your situation. Maybe you just want to not worry about any hassle at all and just use Draft2Digital and be done with it. Weigh your options and pick what works for you and the vision you have for your author career. Maybe you write books you know will sell more internationally and in the Italian-speaking market and decide Streetlib all the way, the royalties you will get from that market will outweigh what they take from your Amazon sales because you aren't focused on Amazon. If it works for you, I'm all for it!

While writing this, I did learn about another one called Xinxii, but I have never used it and I asked my author friends and can't find anyone else who has used it, so I feel uncomfortable giving my thoughts on it. It looks like it supports many major retailers and several international retailers not covered by any of the three above!

Major Retailers

I'm assuming you already know how Amazon works and the process for uploading directly to KDP. But I'm also assuming that since you are in KU, you might not know how other platforms work. I'm not gonna walk you through step by step for these retailers, but I do want to highlight some of their benefits and why you might want to upload directly, rather than using an aggregator, aside from just “you keep all of your royalties.”

One of the things I do want to compare here is what countries each store operates in. Amazon operates in a total of 13 countries. United States, United Kingdom, Australia, China, Canada, France, India, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Spain, Mexico and Italy. There are 193 nations that are currently members of the United Nations. Just putting that out there.

Kobo and Kobo Plus

Quickly gaining traction not just in Canada, but in other markets, too, thanks to them having the first color e-reader with their Kobo Libra Colour and their Kobo Plus subscription. As I mentioned before, $7.99 USD for ebooks, and $11.99 for ebooks & audiobooks, which is way less expensive than having a KU & Audible subscription. In addition to their Kobo Plus subscription plan, they also have “VIP Membership,” which is $10/year (and they frequently ahve 50% off sales). VIPs can save up points to get books for free and they also get 10% off full price indie books (you still get your full royalties, don't worry!)

Their subscription service pays per minute read. I am going to do some quick math for you. Please keep in mind that I firmly believe that I am too pretty to have to do math, but I'll try my best.

Stars and Soil is 439 Kindle Pages. The October 2024 KENP payout was 0.0043775 per page. Someone who read all of Stars and Soil would result in me getting $1.92 USD.

The Kobo Calculations are based on total minutes read that month and total subscriber revenue that month, so their rate does fluctuate. I'm going to give last month's numbers, though, which I calculated to be around 0.004 per minute.

Using an average reading speed, it would take around 900 minutes to read all of Stars and Soil, and that would be $3.75 USD in royalties. A quick read (7hrs and 19 minutes according to the calculator I found) would result in $1.75 in royalties.

A speedy reader would get me less royalties in Kobo than in KU, yes. But an average reader? A slow reader? A reader that lingers on the smutty scenes and reads them over and over for half an hour?

True, there are not currently as many readers in Kobo Plus as there are in KU. But you're here because you've seen enough of your readers say they are considering switching to Kobo Plus.

I've also seen several BookFunnel group promos specifically for books in Kobo Plus, and readers on Threads and BlueSky asking for Kobo Plus recommendations. I mentioned in my last post that I shared a promo graphic calling attention to the fact that my books are in Kobo Plus, and Kobo Writing Life re-shared it.

And they don't have an exclusivity clause. You can be in Kobo Plus and sell your books anywhere else you want.

But what if you're just trying to get sales? What are the royalty splits? Like Amazon, you will have to consider what your price point is. If you are $2.99 or above, you will get 70%. If you are below $2.99, you will get 45%, a whole 10% more than you get with Amazon! More countries, more royalties for your series starters! They also have a 6% affiliate program for ebooks, 5% commission for Kobo devices, and $1 per Kobo Plus subscription!

They also have their own promotions you can apply to be a part of. If you sign up and don't see a “Promotions” tab on your dashboard, email them, and they will enable it for you!

Here is an email from the most recent promotion I was approved for:

They have two kinds of promotions: flat fee or royalty percentage. As you can see from the image, the “Great Reads Under $5/£5” promotion is a royalty percentage promotion. I'll get 60% royalties for the duration of the promotion rather than 70%. You can think of it like an ad you only have to pay for if you make the actual sale.

Their “Flat Fee” promotions range from $40 – $80. You keep your full royalties and are given a link to pay for the promotion.

As I've mentioned, Kobo is a Canadian company. But they are available in 17 countries (four more than Amazon!) and have plans to continue expanding to other regions and nations.

• Canada
• United States
• Belgium
• Czech Republic
• France
• Ireland
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Spain
• Sweden
• United Kingdom
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Singapore

Some of the things that I really like about Kobo: I can schedule sales in advance, their dashboard for reporting sales and reading time in Kobo Plus is clean and easy to understand, they allow for “pretty pricing” and easy conversation of currency for prices in other markets, and their support team is on point. I've only had the pleasure of emailing them a support ticket once, but they were prompt, kept me up to date while they figured things out, and appreciated my “Anakin in a pod racer screaming 'it's working'” gif as my token of gratitude when the issue was resolved.

Honestly, I see no downsides to being on Kobo or Kobo Plus. It currently does not have the readership of KU, but it's growing, and it's growing it regions that don't have KU.

Small note to hold onto and will be addressed further late: Kobo is the best way to reach Overdrive. Kobo and Overdrive used to be owned by the same parent company, and while they no longer are, they still have a good relationship.

Barnes and Noble

If you grew up in a mid-sized city or decently sized town, you probably had a local Barnes and Noble store that you either spent too much time at or spent too much time begging your caregivers to take you to. It was a mix of both for me, with many weekends of high school spent browsing the shelves with my best friends.

You've probably had dreams of being an author signing books at the front of the store while sipping on their coffee surreptitiously.

If you upload your book directly to B&N you have the option of also making paperback and hardcover copies (including with dust jackets!). If you want any hope of signing one of those dust jackets in their stores, you're gonna wanna be a “wide” author and have the ebook available on B&N, too. Not saying the KU exclusive authors haven't had book signings at B&N, but from my experience and the experience of my friends, being not-exclusive-to-KU gives you a huge leg up on your local store wanting to host you for a Q & A and signing.

B&N has a 70% royalty rate. And there is no funny business if you price your book lower than $2.99 or higher than $9.99. You get 70% no matter what. They also have an affiliate program like Amazon has. If you can join their affiliate program, when you link to your own book, you can get up to 2% of that in affiliate sales.

I'm gonna mention this here because it's something you should consider before going direct with Barnes and Noble. You need to make a “Vendor Account,” and you have to have either an SSN, meaning you need to be a US permanent resident or citizen or have an EIN, meaning you need to have an LLC registered in the US. Once you choose to make your vendor account either with an SSN (which would make you a Sole Proprietor) or an LLC, you can't change that. If you write erotica or smut or stuff you don't want your real name attached to, you'll want to register as an LLC, which can cost a pretty penny in some states to set up or can just be a quick internet quiz in other states. If you aren't a US resident or a US citizen or don't have a registered business in the US, you can still reach B&N; you will just need to do it through an aggregator.

Barnes and Noble only operates in the US. If you are going wide, I do suggest having your book on here if you believe you have a US market. They have their “nook” line of e-reader devices that are very popular with their readers, and they frequently put out promotional lists that feature indie authors. They rarely stock indie books in-store, but their ebook ecosystem is fairly considerate of indie books.

Google Play Books (Partner Center)

I am shocked that you can't get to Google Play Books via Draft2Digital, but such is life. I, personally, publish directly to Google Play Books. It seems a little confusing and daunting at first, and getting set up to be able to accept payment can be arduous, but actually uploading the books and getting your metadata up is easy.

It's the pricing that can be a pain! You can set prices by territories or countries, or regions. Or you can set a “WORLD” price and just have it all be the same price. But I am an advocate for “pretty pricing” (where you set the price to be $X.99 or $X.49), so going through the entire list of territories and all the regional currencies can take a long time.

One thing I like about Google Play Books, however, is how easy it is to set up promotions and discounts. One of the easiest systems because you can select multiple books at once! When I had my birthday sale, I created a promotion, and then selected which books would be part of that promotion, rather than having to set up the promotion on each book individually. You can also set up Promo Codes for some territories!

Supported Countries:

• Argentina
• Australia
• Austria
• Bahrain
• Belarus
• Belgium
• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Canada
• Chile
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• Egypt
• El Salvador
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Hong Kong
• Hungary
• India
• Indonesia
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Jordan
• Kazakhstan
• Kuwait
• Kyrgyzstan
• Latvia
• Lebanon
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Nicaragua
• Norway
• Oman
• Panama
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Philippines
• Poland
• Portugal
• Qatar
• Romania
• Russia
• Saudi Arabia
• Singapore
• Slovakia
• South Africa
• South Korea
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Taiwan
• Thailand
• Turkey
• Ukraine
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Uruguay
• Uzbekistan
• Venezuela
• Vietnam

That's 75 nations. And Google Play Books is part of Google Play, which is pre-installed on all Android phones out of the box. And how many people own Android phones?

You might be asking, but how many people read on their phones? Real e-book readers use ebook devices! There are several brands of e-ink e-readers that come with Android out of the box. I know readers who will get a new Boox e-reader and install GPlay Books, Kobo, Kindle, Nook, Libby, Hoopla, Campfire, and BookFunnel apps within seconds. They don't have a preference for stores, they just get the book wherever they can, and the Boox lets them read from every retailer they have. And that includes Google Play Books.

They also have a really cool way of organizing series. You can organize it by main series entries, and also auxiliary books. So, if you have a novella that is a side story, you can class it as an auxiliary book rather than trying to worry about numbering it 2.5 or something like that.

If I am only ranking major ebook retailers, Google Play and Kobo tie for “most amount of royalties outside of Amazon.” It's a shame that you cannot reach them through Draft2Digital, though.

Most of the countries in which they are available give 70% royalties. Those countries are Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela. Every other country has a 52% royalty rate. These revenue rates are in effect regardless of the price of your book. You can list the book for $0.99 and still get 70% royalties in most countries and 52% in the rest—either way, better than what you get on Amazon if you price at $0.99.

They also do not have “delivery fees” either. So, more countries than Amazon, a better royalty share, and your very lengthy door-stopping fantasy books won't have $0.10-$0.50 deducted for “delivery fees.” I think it's worth it to upload directly to Google Play Books, even if it's gonna be time consuming if you want to Pretty Price for all the territories.

They also have a 7% affiliate program. Get that double dip!

Apple Books

Half the world has an Android, and therefore Google Play Books. The other half? Probably Apple, and therefore, Apple Books!

It used to be that you had to use special Apple software only available on Mac/Macbooks if you wanted to publish directly to Apple. That is no longer the case, you can publish on them directly even if you are a PC user using Microsoft Edge. Personally, I still find their interface to be a hassle. For my own peace of mind, I have elected to publish to Apple Books using Draft2Digital and accept the slightly lower portion of royalties. But that's just me, if you are an avid Apple user, it might be worth it to publish directly. From what I hear, they have frequent promotions that authors can apply to be part of right from their dashboard.

But what about their reach? What countries can you sell your books in?

• Argentina,
• Australia,
• Austria,
• Belgium,
• Bolivia,
• Brazil,
• Bulgaria,
• Canada,
• Chile,
• Colombia,
• Costa Rica,
• Cyprus,
• Czech Republic,
• Denmark,
• Dominican Republic,
• Ecuador,
• El Salvador,
• Estonia,
• Finland,
• France,
• Germany,
• Greece,
• Guatemala,
• Hungary,
• Honduras,
• Ireland,
• Italy,
• Japan,
• Latvia,
• Lithuania,
• Luxembourg,
• Malta,
• Mexico,
• Netherlands,
• New Zealand,
• Nicaragua,
• Norway,
• Panama,
• Paraguay,
• Peru,
• Poland,
• Portugal,
• Romania,
• Slovakia,
• Slovenia,
• Spain,
• Sweden,
• Switzerland,
• United Kingdom,
• United States,
• Venezuela

Not quite as extensive as Google Play with only 51 countries, but it does have a few that Google doesn't have, like Cyprus and Malta!

And as for royalties? 70% regardless of price and no delivery fees. If you are going wide, I do not think you would be mistaken to publish to Apple. Apple also has a large user base that likes to listen to audiobooks, so if you have audiobooks available on iTunes/Apple, it's a good idea to also have the ebooks there, too. They also have an affiliate program that is 7%. If you can get into it, do so! Earn more for referring people to buy your own books.

I know that they have promotions you can apply to similar to Kobo, but I don't upload directly to them, so I've never applied or seen them.

I wish I could tell you more about them, but as I do not upload there directly, I can't.

Smashwords

Smashwords was originally an ebook aggregate publisher and also its own storefront. It got purchased by Draft2Digital, and now Draft2Digitial is the only way to publish to Smashwords.

It has a vibrant community of erotica and erotic romance readers, as it was once a safe haven for writers who had books that were too hot for Amazon. Many literotica authors have eschewed Amazon entirely and have chosen to monetize their longer works or story anthologies on Smashwords.

There is a bit of uncertainty about how welcome erotica and erotic romance will be once the Draft2Digital/Smashwords merger is complete. But I don't think that the D2D staff will forget what made Smashwords worth buying in the first place: all the money it makes from smut. Per their own announcement, they will keep the Smashwords Erotic Fiction Certification System, which allows erotica authors to self-certify the presence or absence of various “taboo” aspects. This system ensures that customers who want to see those various aspects will see it and those who don't want to see it, won't.

As mentioned earlier, Smashwords hosts a July “Summer/Winter” sale and a December “Winter/Summer Sale” (it is international, and many Aussies shop on it! So they are considerate of their southern hemisphere reader base). Draft2Digital makes it SUPER easy to enroll your books in this sale. Seriously, it's just 2 clicks. You pick which books you want and which percentage you want the discount to be. They provide promotional graphics for you to share if you want to tell your readers/newsletter subscribers/etc about the sale.

When I've put my books in the sale, I usually get 500- 1000 downloads of the books I discount to “FREE” and several hundred of the books I discount by 50-75%. And I write trans-inclusive sapphic fantasy, the readership for that is very niche. If you write M/M romance? If you write shifter romance? This might very well be your largest sales channel during July/December.

Smashwords does not have a line for e-reading devices. They have an app, but they do not have any sort of DRM on their books so that readers can use the devices that they want.

Via the Draft2Digital dashboard, you can create one-off coupons (perfect for gifting reviewers copies of your books), coupons that expire after a certain amount of time, or permanent coupons that can be given to newsletter subscribers when they first on-board to your mailing list. I've had reviewers request their free copies via Smashwords coupons several times.

Now, their royalty rate is currently confusing. They are still migrating books from Smashwords to the Draft2Digital model. Books that are still via direct upload to Smashwords are getting an 85% royalty, and royalties are paid out via PayPal, which takes a transaction fee. After that PayPal fee, it comes out to about 79%. Books that are uploaded to Smashwords via Draft2Digitial are paid out via whatever method you choose in Draft2Digital, including direct deposit. But it shakes out to, no matter what, your royalties being around 77% now. It will soon be impossible to upload directly to Smashwords if it isn't already.

Draft2Digital purchased Smashwords in 2022, and the migration and merger are ongoing more than two years later. There's a lot still up in the air, but I still suggest using it if you want to publish widely, especially if you write erotica. As potential bans on LGBTQ+ content loom in the US, it might also turn out to be a safe haven for those stories, whether they contain NSFW scenes or not.

My Thoughts

I, personally, think you should pick and choose which sales channels you want to go direct with, and which ones you are okay with leaving in an aggregate publisher. That's gonna depend on your genre, your niche, and the kinds of readers you are targeting. If you purchase your own ISBNs, it's easy to start with a book in Draft2Digital, and then take it out and publish it direct on other retailers if you want later once you see how sales are. If you use the free ISBN from retailers, this will be a lot harder to do, as it won't automatically link up old reviews if you have any. I have heard of some authors having success with mailing Barnes and Noble to get their reviews back after taking their books out of Draft2Digital and publishing direct. But that's not a guarantee.

I started with my first two books on Draft2Digital for everything except Amazon/KDP. Those two books are still on Draft2Digital for all major retailers except for Amazon. But going forward, all the books I have published and will be published directly to Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and Google Play. I'm letting Draft2Digital handle the rest, and yes, that includes Apple. I know they have a good royalty rate and a 7% affiliate, but my peace of mind is worth more when it comes to how much I'm gonna give up to have to interface directly with an Apple product.

Subscription Services and Libraries

I've already gone into the intricacies of

Everand

Formerly Scribd, is $11.99/mo and you get ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, podcasts, and sheet music. A heckuva lot more than you get for KU. They have an app on the Apple App Store and on Google Play. They even have an Apple Watch app so you can control your audiobooks on the go. The only way that I know of to get your books on Everand is via an aggregate publisher. After Kobo Plus, this is where I see a lot of readers of KU thinking about moving to. They have a nice preview function for people who are not subscribed to Everand. You get paid as if a reader has purchased your book via a retailer after that reader reads a certain percentage of the book—Scribd says 10%, but I do not know if that applies to all Scribd services (Scribd is the name of Everand's parent company). They do have restrictions on some explicit content.

Dreame

Dreame caters to English-Speaking Southeast Asian women under 40. Extrapolate what that means from there. They pay on an episodic model. Users do not buy books, they buy virtual coins that allow them to unlock each “episode.” A book is divided into 1000-word segments, $1.00 USD pays for 100 coins, 1 coin unlocks 100 words. Doing the math, which I shouldn't be doing since I'm too pretty, a reader will pay $1.00 per 10,000 words. The author royalty for that is 25%. You would get $0.25 per 10,000 words a reader reads. An average fantasy novel is around 100,000 words, you'd get around $2.50. If you are listing directly, that is. If you're using Publishdrive, they will either take their cut or it will come out of your monthly subscription.

Hoopla

Hoopla operates on a cost-per-checkout model based on a tiered system, with newer titles getting about 7% of their list price, and backlist titles getting around 5%. Any time someone checks out a new release, you will probably get around $1.50, and older releases around $0.99. Users can access Hoopla by using their local library card. There are no waiting lists for items in the library. Patrons on Hoopla can check out X many items per month, with X being determined by their local library. The library that the patron is visiting hoopla via will determine the length of a checkout. I, personally, love Hoopla and use it all the time.

cloudLibrary

Very similar to Hoopla in that the local library determines the number of checkouts and the length of checkouts. Unlike Hoopla, there are no instant checkouts. Patrons must place a hold if someone else has checked out the book. cloudLibrary is available in 17 countries right now. I can't tell you any more about it from a patron's perspective, as my local library does not use it. This used to be called Bibliotheca and still is in some places; Bibliotheca is just the company and cloudLibrary is the brand. The best resource I can share for determining how much you will make here comes from PublishDrive. I am assuming that it will be similar if you reach cloudLibrary via Draft2Digital, minus their cut.

BorrowBox

A library app in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. It's like Overdrive but international in other English-speaking nations. I cannot find any information on royalties for this.

Baker & Taylor They actually provide both ebooks and print books to libraries globally and are the largest distributor of physical books to libraries. I cannot find any information about their royalties or if they operate on a cost-per-checkout model. But there's a good chance your local library has purchased from them in the past or will in the future.

OverDrive & Libby

Overdrive distributes to over 38,000 libraries in 70+ countries. It's the heavy hitter when it comes to library ebook distribution. OverDrive is the librarian-facing software, and Libby is the reader-facing software/app. Overdrive used to be both, but it recently split.

Readers can sign up to be “notified” when a book is made available to the library. Librarians can see how many of their users have requested to be notified for a title and make their purchasing decisions based on that. I have Libby and used Overdrive when it was also the reader interface. It's really easy to have Libby send books directly to your e-reader devices. The wait time can be pretty long for popular books, but I'm a low-income reader, and if Libby doesn't have something in a wait time, I am fine with, I check Hoopla. Otherwise, I read when Libby tells me a book I placed on hold is available. The Libby app itself is also a good e-reading app and can be used on Boox e-readers and other android-OS e-ink devices.

You can get to Overdrive (and, therefore, Libby) via most aggregators, but the way to keep the most royalties is to use Kobo. When you are uploading your book to Kobo, on the very last step, it will ask if you want to publish to Overdrive. If yes, it will ask you to set a price. Those aggregate publishers will take a percentage. However, when you publish to Overdrive via Kobo, you keep everything. Kobo does not take a cut.

When you set your Overdrive price, that is the price that a library will pay to be able to have your book in their circulation / catelog. There are restrictions on how many times a book can be lent out and how many concurrent checkout there are. After that library has used up their alloted number of checkouts, they must purchase the book on Overdrive again. It is suggested that you set your Overdrive price to be 3 times your regular retail price.

Other Avenues -

There are a number of serialized platforms, like Ream, Tapas, Royal Road, and, well, I would say Vella, but that's gone, Amazon decided it wasn't profitable enough. For some of these, you are paying a monthly subscription to the author directly (Ream, or memberships via Ko-Fi, for example), some, you are paying a subscription to the platform in exchange for tokens (Tapas) and Royal Road, I believe integrates with Patreon? I could be wrong on that, I haven't really set up on Royal Road. But there are other ways to make your book available via subscription services. I might get into that in a Part IV if I decide to write it. But I thought I should put it here just to call it out.

My Thoughts on Library and Subscription Services

I love libraries. I am low-income myself and rely heavily on Libby and Hoopla to do most of my reading. I cannot afford a KU subscription right now, but I have been hinting to my partner that a Kobo Plus subscription would be a great Christmas present. Since 2012, I have lived within easy walking distance of a library and when it's not too hot or too cold, I do go there (my service dog Shadow in tow). I think they are vital. I want my books available in them for many reasons, most of them what I would call “principles.” But also because not everyone can afford a KU subscription. $11.99/mo is a lot for some people. Are you going to be making large amounts of money from them? Probably not. You aren't selling directly to readers; you're selling to librarians. What you can do is ask your readers to request your books at their local libraries. The more requests they get, the more likely they are to stock your books.

When it comes to subscription services, Everand and Dreame are the big ones right now, but Dreame is only somewhat kinda a subscription service. A lot of authors are using Patreon, Ream, and Ko-Fi to create their own “mini subscriptions” where their back catalog is part of the subscription. If your book is in KU, you cannot make your backlist available for free to your Patrons/Ream Subscribers/Ko-Fi supporters.

Killing the “Amazon Mindset”

At the start, I briefly mentioned this as it relates to how you view and interact with the other store fronts and what you can expect from them. Something I want to expand upon further, however, is how you view the sales you make on those platforms.

After being in KU for so long, some authors can get very, very invested in the Amazon Best Seller Rank. With each new Countdown Deal and promotional event, trying to break a previous record. Each sale can be seen as a means of further training the Amazon algorithm to like and promote and prioritize your book over others. Those sales might get you into the “Also Boughts” of other books, might get you onto the front page and top 100 in a category.

But when you sell wide, you will have sales in other stores. You might be tempted to curse that someone bought your book on B&N, where that sale does NOTHING to promote you on Amazon! If all those sales you had gotten on other retailers had just happened on Amazon, maybe this promotion would have been when you ranked in the top 3 digits overall!

But I promise that is not the case. That is not a productive way to view your sales on other retailers. Those are sales you would not have gotten otherwise. There are some readers who will purchase books from any retailers, and there are some readers who will roll their eyes in annoyance and buy the book on Amazon even if they have a Kobo and then do the whole song and dance of trying to get that Amazon book to work on their Kobo Clara. It happens, I can say, as one of those readers myself. Most of my reads are library reads, and when I do make a purchase, I prefer to buy my books (biased, I admit it) either on Campfire or Kobo. I will reluctantly purchase ebooks from Amazon if I have to. But there are a lot of readers who do not want the headache of getting your Amazon-only book onto their Tolino or Boox devices. They'll just skip your book.

Those sales on Kobo, Tolino, Google Play, etc, are most likely not sales you would have made otherwise. Do not think of them as sales that “should” or even “could” have happened on Amazon.

Expanding on this further, I have seen a lot of wide authors in this Amazon mindset still prioritize promoting Amazon during sales. This can look like making posts that look like this:

That avatar is my cat, Didi. She is no longer with us, but I try to memorialize her as the demon that she was. Do you see the issue with this post, however? This really awesome author prioritized Amazon over all other retailers. Yes, that's where many people will go, and it does seem simplest to not make them click TWICE to get to the site.

But what this post tells all the other retailers is that you won't drive traffic to them. And this will make them less likely to promote you. That Kobo promotion my book was chosen for? If Kobo had seen me posting like this, do you think they would want to include my books? If Barnes and Noble was deciding whether or not to host you for a signin