Sarah Jules Writing

It’s been a month since my third novel, ‘YOU INVITED IT IN’ was released, and I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve learned since I started this journey six or seven years ago.

I had a bit of a weird path to becoming an author. It all started, I suppose, when I left my teaching job due to burnout and wondered what the hell I was going to do with my life. I’ll spare you the gory details, but my mental health was so poor at that that there was no way I’d be able to pull myself together enough to go and ‘work’ in the traditional sense of the word. To cut a long story short, I signed up for some freelancing websites and got to work writing and editing. I was asked to ghostwrite a memoir for a client, and from there, things seemed to fall into place. I had a job I loved, most of the time, that allowed me the time to be at home and heal – a job I’m still doing to this day. Sarah Jules Writing Services was born from panic, but absolutely is the best thing that ever happened to me.

What I’m trying to say, in a roundabout way, is that I was writing books for other people before I ever wrote one for myself – and that writing the book is only a fraction of the process of publishing the little bugger.

When I wrote ‘FOUND YOU’ (which was released in October 2022) I did what I thought I was supposed to do. I queried agents and tried to get a traditional publishing deal. What little feedback I had was pretty positive but, ultimately, I couldn’t find a home for ‘FOUND YOU’. At this time, I didn’t know about small presses and indie publishing houses, so I went ahead and self-published the book with a very basic knowledge of the process.

I got straight to work writing my second book, ‘DON’T LIE (which was released in May 2023). While writing this book, I became more active in the indie horror community. I learned a lot, and connected with a lot of very knowledgable people. My second launch was WAY more successful than my first, but nowhere near where I wanted to be.

Enter, ‘YOU INVITED IT IN’. The launch of this book is an accumulation of everything I’ve learned over the last couple of years of self-publishing. I toyed with the idea of querying it, or submitting it to indie presses but, ultimately, wanted to put everything I’d learned so far to good use.

I sent out a boatload of Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) to try and drum up some reviews prior to release – this was my first time doing this, and boy did it work. The percentage of ARC readers who actually leave a review is hard to pin down, but I sent out to 100(ish) readers with the aim of getting about 50 reviews prior to release, which I achieved.

I also did a paperback pre-order merch packet in order to get my book ranking in the Amazon categories prior to release. As an incentive for pre-ordering the book, I sent out a little packet containing a bookmark, a leaflet and business card for Lilith Lavelle’s Psychic Cleansing Services (a character from the book) and a signed bookplate. I was absolutely amazed to have over 110 paperback pre-orders.

Essentially, the thing that I think set this book launch apart from the previous two was the ‘publicity’ and ‘marketing’ aspect of it. I got people talking about my book prior to release, rather than afterwards.

INDIE & SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHORS… HERE’S WHAT I LEARNED…

1. There is no perfect launch. I did everything I knew to do and it still ended up chaotic as hell.
2. With each book you publish, there’s a snowball effect. If you put out books that are of good quality (not to blow my own trumpet, but I think mine are) readers who loved your last book will buy your next book, and so on. That doesn’t mean it’s a quantity game; quality over quantity every time.
3. With each launch, readers will likely go back and find your previous books too (if you’re a new author to them). Prior to ‘YOU INVITED IT IN’ being released, my Kindle Page Reads (which is how authors get paid for books read through Kindle Unlimited) for both ‘FOUND YOU’ and ‘DON’T LIE’ weren’t fabulous – I had a good few days when nobody read either book on KU. With the release of ‘YOU INVITED IT IN’, my previous books’ page reads have improved substantially – which is awesome, because I’m obviously very proud of these books.
4. You’re going to get bad (even mean) reviews, it is part of the game. As an example, in the first couple of weeks of ‘YOU INVITED IT IN’ I had somebody on Amazon telling me that I knew nothing about children because one of my main characters, Asher (a child) behaved like a child much younger. Never mind the fact that I have a MA in Childhood Education, but there is no standardised way for a human to behave. When a reviewer says ‘a character wouldn’t behave that way’, don’t worry about that. Your character behaved in the way your character behaved… This leads me to my next point…
5. All reviews help. Good, bad, mean, ugly. The more traction your book gets, the more bad reviews you’ll get. But, also, bad reviews also help you to build traction (and they make the other reviews look more legit – there’s nothing more suspicious than a book with only good reviews). Take the feedback if it is constructive, and ignore it if it isn’t.
6. It is exceedingly unlikely that your first book will go viral. In reality, you’re more likely to see a steady incline in readership with each book you publish. There’s nothing wrong with this, and it doesn’t mean your books aren’t worthy of going viral (let’s face it, some of the ones that do go viral aren’t necessarily worthy of going viral). Just keep chipping away at it, keep doing what you do best, and keep learning. I swear, I learn something new about writing/publishing every single day – which is how it should be. Nobody knows everything, and if you think you do, that’s a huge red flag.

I’m going to show you some of my Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) statistics below. I’m certainly not a big indie author by any stretch of the imagination, but in the last month, I made more money than I did in the first year since FOUND YOU. If you’re feeling disheartened by the way your first book launched, keep going, keep learning, and believe in your books.

Above is my Kindle Page Reads data – see the HUGE jump in June 2024 (I released YIIT on May 25th).

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Above is my royalty data, not including the paperback pre-orders (which went through Ingram Spark).

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These are two consecutive reviews of FOUND YOU. Just because one person doesn’t like your book, doesn’t mean others won’t love it.

I’d love to hear from you if you have any comments or questions about this blog post. We’re all in this together, and there’s room for all of us to be successful.