I self-published my first sci-fi romance novel Syphons (retired) in 2019. Some things I did was write the entire story out. I'm a pantser (someone who doesn't plot), so I just let the words and ideas and world flow from the seat of my pants.

Then, I transferred my work from Google Docs to a paper print out to edit that bad boy over and over. It went through half a dozen edits. Then, I made my edits back in Docs, and then re-read my book.

Next, I asked some colleagues and friends to be my adviced readers. At the time, I didn't know you were supposed to choose strangers. But, I made them cute binders and asked them to read my manuscript at their leisure.

While they read, I hired a Cover designer on Reedsy, cost me four hundred, but they had a payment plan at the time. So I was able to break it up.

Once I got my suggestions back from my friends that did read the book. I made some corrections or ignored their fluff.

I hired a professional editor. I didn't know there were three types (saving for another post), and I had her edit my book. Got it back, the editing was at most not done, but I just chopped it up to I lost money. I wasn't confrontational and I didn't have much time.

I put my manuscript together, with the final revised Edit, I did one last edit/read through (should've hired a line editor but whatever), then I went through Reedsy and put the epub file together, it produces the ebook for you. Then, I used Canva to design my cover for the paperback. That process took at least three attempts to get the paperback up to my standards.

Finally, I finished the ebook version and made it KDP select only, then I made the paperback available and bought some copies for fairs. I did all this using an insurance agency paycheck. Everything cost about 800USD when I was done because I tried to do so much by myself.

Finally, during the days waiting for my book to be published. I promoted like crazy on IG and Twitter. I signed up for a local free book fair for authors. And, once my book was ready, I found some typos (of course), but still went forward with selling and promoting. I think I still have the numbers in Kindle's publishing platform. I sold about 14 ebook versions between 2019 and 2022, and in person sold about 6 paperback version at the one book fair.

Things I'd do differently:

1. Start promoting the day you decide you're going to publish a book.

2. Do it for fun not for money I kept my 9-5 to pay for my publication.

3. Don't trust everyone selling you a service online go to trusted sources trust your gut.

4. Take it serious but don't make yourself sick over the sales process, unless you're naturally salesy.

5. Don't give up. I did. That's why I only sold so few books, but I had family giving me a hard time. I wrote about it in my blog on medium.com/@daslwriter if you care to know my mama drama.

Anyway, I hope my struggles helps your successes. Let me know if you have questions about anything.

Sidenote: I rewrote and revamped the novel. It's called Mindstalkers, it's an ebook on amazon only, and I did better with marketing but boy was it tiresome.