Personal milestone

I think I've just passed a personal milestone. I've just finished writing, formatting, editing, proofing, photographing, designing and printing my first 3 novels. Everything so far has been done in house with the help of my Daughter as photographer and my wife as model. Only the proof reading and printing has been carried out by professional services as those two elements MUST be right and you cannot really do it yourself. (Although an offset Litho press is on my Christmas list)  It's been a tough 3 years, but I've hit my goal of one title per year with an improved 2nd edition of my first title squeezed in also. In the new year, I'm starting my marketing strategy, aiming firstly at a small cult niche which my books should appeal to, hopefully building popularity and breaking into a broader market.
Yesterday, my wife in her newly appointed position as my 'agent' cold called a local 'indie' bookshop and they agreed to take all three titles on sale or return without hesitation. I'm hoping that this is a positive sign. It's been a very hard slog to get here, and I'm sure I've still got the hilly sections to climb, but this feels like a milestone, something small but hopefully significant. If you are happy to indulge me, I will continue to report on my progress.

Keep slogging - you have made amazing progress.

dkchristi wrote:

Keep slogging - you have made amazing progress.

Thank you!

Write short stories to give away free on Kindle. Put links to your books at the end of the short stories. Consider making one of these stories permanently free (add story to smashwords and set the price at zero and Amazon will price match). This is how Hugh Howey got traction for his books, and he's currently sailing around the Bahamas in a katamaran he bought from the sales of his self-published books!


Read this to learn how to become a successful author:

http://www.hughhowey.com/so-you-want-to-be-a-writer/

Thanks for the advice Shelagh!
A have an idea to write a prequel, perhaps that could be short and permanently FOC hopefully entice a few readers.