Self publishing, worth the effort?

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who self publishes middle school novels but only digital books. I believe she makes a little bit of money. Her books have good reviews on Amazon and she has several titles out.

[Anonymous]

Op here: I'm deciding between Ingram Spark and KDP

[Anonymous]

You will likely lose money. Children's books don't sell well. This is why most publishers don't buy them in huge numbers. This is not an area to self-publish in.

Signed,
An author whose published book (not self-published) has been in print almost 20 years (extraordinarily rare)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You will likely lose money. Children's books don't sell well. This is why most publishers don't buy them in huge numbers. This is not an area to self-publish in.

Signed,
An author whose published book (not self-published) has been in print almost 20 years (extraordinarily rare)

Thank you for responding.

[Anonymous]

I self-published and haven't made my money back yet but I sell about $400 a month in books so I expect to get there someday. I do a fair amount of marketing, though, and will continue to do so. Do NOT self-publish a book and expect it to sell without marketing. And, remember you will be competing with authors who have publicists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you shipped it to agents who could get you in with an actual publisher?

Self-publishers are literal, actual publishers.

[Anonymous]

I'd look at Amazon. I know a person who has published two books through there. Then, you can market of get reviews however you see fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here: I'm deciding between Ingram Spark and KDP

You need to do both: KDP for Amazon distribution and IS for everywhere else. Yes, IS will distribute to Amazon, but they ship very slowly for those sales and routinely show books out of stock.

Has the book gone through multiple rounds of editing? Can you afford a professional illustrator? Do you have library and school contacts for marketing? I am a huge proponent of self-publishing, but children's books are a different breed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd look at Amazon. I know a person who has published two books through there. Then, you can market of get reviews however you see fit.

I am finding Ingram Spark to be easier for formatting than Amazon. I have done all the work myself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here: I'm deciding between Ingram Spark and KDP

You need to do both: KDP for Amazon distribution and IS for everywhere else. Yes, IS will distribute to Amazon, but they ship very slowly for those sales and routinely show books out of stock.

Has the book gone through multiple rounds of editing? Can you afford a professional illustrator? Do you have library and school contacts for marketing? I am a huge proponent of self-publishing, but children's books are a different breed.

I can't answer these questions without outing myself, but it's a very niche type of work. My friend like it. I don't even know where to start shipping to editors honestly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd look at Amazon. I know a person who has published two books through there. Then, you can market of get reviews however you see fit.

I am finding Ingram Spark to be easier for formatting than Amazon. I have done all the work myself.

Please don't format via a distributer. It immediately marks you as self-published.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here: I'm deciding between Ingram Spark and KDP

You need to do both: KDP for Amazon distribution and IS for everywhere else. Yes, IS will distribute to Amazon, but they ship very slowly for those sales and routinely show books out of stock.

Has the book gone through multiple rounds of editing? Can you afford a professional illustrator? Do you have library and school contacts for marketing? I am a huge proponent of self-publishing, but children's books are a different breed.

I can't answer these questions without outing myself, but it's a very niche type of work. My friend like it. I don't even know where to start shipping to editors honestly.

Trust me, you won't out yourself, but ok.

Point is, if you're going to do it on your own, you need to make sure the book resembles the traditional alternative as much as possible. That means editing, professional artwork, your own ISBN, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here: I'm deciding between Ingram Spark and KDP

You need to do both: KDP for Amazon distribution and IS for everywhere else. Yes, IS will distribute to Amazon, but they ship very slowly for those sales and routinely show books out of stock.

Has the book gone through multiple rounds of editing? Can you afford a professional illustrator? Do you have library and school contacts for marketing? I am a huge proponent of self-publishing, but children's books are a different breed.

I can't answer these questions without outing myself, but it's a very niche type of work. My friend like it. I don't even know where to start shipping to editors honestly.

Trust me, you won't out yourself, but ok.

Point is, if you're going to do it on your own, you need to make sure the book resembles the traditional alternative as much as possible. That means editing, professional artwork, your own ISBN, etc.

Op here. I guess if I'm planning to publish it, I shouldn't be trying to keep it a secret online.

I wrote a children's book against idolatry. A very early draft was originally posted as "Smash, Burn, Crash, Idols in the Trash" on my Substack.

It is the first religious children's book for all monotheist Jews, Muslims, Christians. Strongly against idolatry, with no religious references whatsoever, I have redone the artwork and made new artwork so that every page is now illustrated.

Ideally, I'd like to publish it as a board book.

I have PDF and docx versions of the completed book. I purchased ISBN numbers for a print and e book through Ingram Spark. My understanding is that I now own those numbers and can use them on Amazon DKP.

Things that are holding me back:

1. Lack of professional eyes to look at it and ensure that I formatted it correctly. Given that I've never done this before, I must have made some mistakes, despite my best efforts.

2. Sensitivity checker. I think I have done a good job of writing a funny, seriously opposed to idolatry book that won't insult anyone and will amuse people of many monotheistic faiths. And obviously I'm not into being super politically correct to the point of being boring. But if there was ever a situation where a sensitivity checker was needed, this would be it.

3. Neither IS nor KDP will print a board book, and i think my book needs to be a board book. I continue to research this. One option I'm considering is KDP for a general release and privately printing like 100 copies for myself, and making those available from myself directly.

[Anonymous]

"Bunny makes the idol burn, burn, burn." Ok

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Bunny makes the idol burn, burn, burn." Ok

I suppose I shouldn't have trusted pp about not outing myself.

That was the very first version. But I do intend to keep the title.