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Five Mistakes KILLING Self-Published Authors | Kristen Lambs Blog

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I’m sharing another great article from the talented Kristen Lamb’s blog. In this article Kristen writes about some of the pitfalls self-published authors can tend to fall into. She expresses the caveats of publishing too soon, understanding the business and over-shopping your books.

Five Mistakes KILLING Self-Published Authors | Kristen Lambs Blog.

25 thoughts on “Five Mistakes KILLING Self-Published Authors | Kristen Lambs Blog”

    1. Thanks Marian. I occasionally post good reblogs from Kristen’s site. She is a wealth of knowledge and I’m always happy to share. 🙂

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  3. Thank you so much for always sharing the best and most helpful content…I always learn so much! I was looking at her book (Rise of The Machines) and was wondering if you’d read it? 🙂 ~ ❤ ~

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    1. Thanks Christina :). It is on my TBR. Hoping to get to it eventually but there are a few well ahead that I’m reading to aid in the book I’m writing now. 🙂 I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her and if you are interested in the self publishing world I would highly recommend David Gaughran’s books, ‘Let’s Get Digital’ and his follow up book to that which the name is escaping me at the moment (CRS) lol. xo

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      1. LOL! You always make me smile 🙂 ! I will definitely add her book as well as David Gaughran’s to my TBR. Doing tons of research, have a few ideas. Priority one is figuring out how to create a quite place and time every day in what I lovingly refer to as “Christina’s Casa of (barely) Controlled Chaos” haha! In the interim, I am keeping the dream alive with tons of reading and learning…both of which you help unceasingly! xo ❤ ~

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      2. Yay! I am so happy to know you are at least taking forward steps! You know I’m here to cheer you on and help where I can. Proud of you girlfriend! xo ❤ 🙂

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      3. Thank you!! 😀 ! Little steps are way better than standing still ha! Your encouragement has truly helped me so much and reminded me to stay more focused than ever… despite life’s intrusions. You really are a such an inspiration to me!! ❤ xo ~

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      4. I am touched and flattered that you consider me an inspiration dear Christina. I really sense your wings beginning to emerge and you know I am keeping tabs on you! ❤ xo

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    1. Absolutely Christy! Nobody is chasing us, we need to take the time to make our work our best before putting it out into the world. Glad you enjoyed it. 🙂

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  5. In her post Kristen Lamb talks about knowing when to give your book away for free. I understand the business reasoning behind this: give your book for free and
    get loads of reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.
    Maybe.
    Last night I was browsing my Kindle and noticed the price of some Kindle downloads. Example: Emily Giffin’s The One and Only ($13.99), Jennifer Weiner’s All Fall Down ($16.99), Jodi Picoult’s Leaving Time ($14.99). And there are many more.
    There seems to be something wrong with this picture. I’m not sure what it is except that giving your book for free doesn’t guarantee future sales. Heck, it doesn’t even guarantee reviews. So why do it?
    Kristen Lamb is right. Self publishing is a LOT of work. The authors I mentioned above are traditionally published – they have people working for them (editors,copywriters, proof-readers, cover designers, publicist and so forth). Maybe that’s why they have to charge more for their Kindle books to pay for their staff. Maybe in the end they only make .75 cents a Kindle downloaded.
    One thing for certain is that you don’t see these authors giving their books away for free so that you’ll buy their other books. So why should Self-Published authors do it? Why shouldn’t Self-Published authors also be decently paid so as to cover their overhead of editing, book design and so forth and leave a bit of cash left for their hard work?
    Just asking. 🙂

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    1. I have been learning the ins and outs of this business for almost two years now Carol. When the Indie author revolution busted out huge a few years ago, because of not being well known, there became a new kind of precedent indicated by the pioneers which drew readers to give new authors a chance by paying lower prices than traditionally published books. The lower pricing is what helped put Indie books in readers hands. Trad authors are at the mercy of their publishers, lots more overhead and yes, the royalties are a pittance compared to what us Indies get for our sales, thus we are paid more for our work. We are not yet Jodi Picoult or Stephen King to entice readers to want to spend the extra money on newer authors, hence we have to stay in the competition. But if you follow the publishing world, particularly following David Gaughran’s blog, you will learn much valuable info on the ongoings and changes in the publishing industry. Since last fall, the trad publishers are getting angry that Indies are outselling many trad author’s books because of our lower pricing and have began to slowly bring back some of their author’s older backlists and put them out at cheaper prices in order to start competing with Indies. Indie authors have their own choice to change their prices around, it really is good marketing. We certainly can sell our books for whatever price we choose, but how many people will buy a $16.00 book from an unknown author? Lots of smaller sales are better than one or two sales every two months? By putting our books on sale or free once in awhile and promoting with an ad when it’s on sale, or using KDP to help promote free days or .99 cent sales, it generates more people to give the books a chance and promotes many more downloads. The benefits are twofold: It puts our books in front of many more eyes and if they like what they read they help promote us by spreading word of mouth plus they may be inclined to buy more of our books. Also, the more downloads of our books, the higher our sales rank goes and the more visibility Amazon gives our books in their algorhythms which again, put more eyes on our books. So that’s the reason we do those kinds of sales. I was taught by some the leading pioneers in this business that we have to swallow our author pride and think like a business person when we have to promote our own work. It is all part of the marketing strategy, we put something out in the hopes to gain more. Does this make more sense to you? I hope I have explained it well. 🙂

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      1. Thanks for taking the time to explain this to me, Debby.
        Yes, it does make sense. I understand the marketing strategy behind freebies and the algorithms game.
        Swallow our author’s pride? You bet!
        On another related point, I find it odd that the big name authors I mentioned are selling their Kindle editions above the $9.99 threshold which Kindle sets for authors to have maximum return. That’s another marketing mystery.
        Thanks for the info on the David Gaughran blog. I am now following. 🙂

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      2. Hi Carol. I’m always happy to pass on info I’ve been keeping up with on the publishing aspect. And yes, like I said, trad author’s book prices are set by the publishers and they always used to sell ebooks at just a fraction lower than paperback but with the indie revolution they are realizing that they have to start lowering now to stay competitive with us. David is one of the most informative leaders in keeping writers abreast of the ongoing changes in the publishing world. Also, you may want to J.A. Konrath’s blog who is absolutely one of our pioneers and has since become an uber successful indie author. 🙂

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      4. I am always happy to share what I know for others to be informed. And if you think you got something out of this. . . . just wait for about a half an hour and you will be able to read the ‘beauty’ article I am posting about Amazon.

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    1. That’s the name of the game. No point working hard to gain reader attention, only for them to love your book and have nothing else to read! 🙂

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