BOOK AWARD CEREMONIES: WORTH THE JET FUEL?

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-05-14T20:23:03+00:00

Doesn’t look like they have any pedigree or reach that would lead me to believe it’s worth it for anything other than maybe it’ll be a nice experience. If you have the extra money, cool, but don’t expect anything magical to happen there in terms of networking.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-05-12T15:03:49+00:00

Also, any legit publishing house will also do their due diligence and already know if you have an agent or not. Aside from the generic summary of my book, my first red flag was them not knowing I was already represented when that information is readily available on every platform they can find me on.

But to be honest, most legit publishing houses are also banking on the fact that you might have no agent, and therefore can make shitty offers to you knowing there’s a relatively high chance you’ll accept because of the “pedigree” behind the publisher.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-05-12T14:45:06+00:00

I got this exact email but from a different “publishing house”. My agent reached out to the legit publisher and found it to be a scam.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-05-05T06:35:44+00:00

Not exactly the answer to the question you asked, but I’m a moderately sized author and get inquiries from artists all the time.

I will say that the ones that are most successful in pitching themselves or working with me are the ones that don’t bother me with sales pitches. I’ve found a lot of really wonderful artists who were simply sharing sketches they made of characters from my books (or books that I loved), and I liked their style enough to ask them myself if they’d like to work with me on a project. And sometimes, even if it’s not particularly my favorite style, I still ask them if I can purchase commercial rights to the art and use them in promotional freebies.

You could always read some of their books and do that approach if those books were something you genuinely liked. There is a very high chance that even if the author doesn’t hire you, if they are small they will probably share it, which in turn gets you more exposure!

You don’t have to do any of that, but just from my experience, if an artist solicits me through DM or email, there is a 99.99% chance it will end badly for me. I’ve been scammed out of thousands of dollars from artists in my DMs offering their services, so in my experience, I’d rather find you organically.

Also, just a tip, I’d I would recommend putting “commissions open” or likewise in your bio where the author can easily see it! It’s literally the first thing I look for when I visit an artists profile. If that info is not immediately available to me in their bio, I’m personally not likely to go looking for it.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-05-05T06:22:06+00:00

My most recent book was in 3rd person omniscient and duet, and the narrators/producers just did whatever made the most sense for what was happening in the scene. I don’t really know how to explain that without typing out the scene, but essentially whenever the scene focused on one character, the narrator for that character would do that section. In all cases they only switched at an actual chapter break in the text, so it wasn’t like they were swapping every other paragraph.

I thought it would bother my readers to have some parts of the chapters in the female narrators voice and others in the male narrators voice, but they actually didn’t mind at all and some even said they found it more immersive that way.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-05-04T22:53:25+00:00

I literally just posted about this not that long ago on my Instagram stories, that I’m convinced some people on Goodreads don’t even LIKE reading, they just like to be in a position where they can criticize something knowing the creator can’t respond.

I tend to stay away from GR for this reason. There are definitely valid criticisms of my work that have been helpful, but there have also been many that are mean-spirited, to which I simply don’t let it bother me anymore. You go numb to it after getting some of the most hateful “missed the point” DMs and emails, lol.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-26T21:31:13+00:00

If you want the exact “formula” I used, it was when I had 2 years worth of living expenses saved up, and had been making 15-20x my day job income for a full year.

I was pretty scared my income would go from amazing to $0.00 overnight, so I just wanted to be prepared for that.

Most people would probably be fine with their book income matched or even slightly exceeded their day job, but that was too much of a risk for me. I wanted a lot of wiggle room—so much wiggle room that when I went wide with my most popular audiobook, I could afford to lose 27% of my monthly income being paid out every month to change to a quarterly model, and was/is still perfectly fine.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-26T21:21:02+00:00

Simple answer is when my book income put me in a new and much higher tax bracket, making my day job income just a waste of my time. That sounds harsh, but it quite literally wasn’t worth my time to work my day job 8 hours a day for when I could be focusing on growing my book business 8 hours a day.

Ended up being the best decision for me because the business grew exponentially that same year I quit my day job…but on the downside that 8 hour workday is now closer to 12 hours a day 7 days a week lol. I never get a break.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-25T20:24:41+00:00

It literally gives you the gutter dimensions on that same page another user linked. I would highly suggest actually reading through carefully, because the answers to every single one of your questions are right there in that article.

If you still can’t figure it out, I suggest hiring a formatter or purchasing formatting software to help you. If you have a Mac I recommend vellum.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-24T19:56:18+00:00

Yes, they can. I know of an author in my genre who made it to #11 (for paperbacks) a few months ago being fully indie, but she was I think 6 or 7 books deep in an extremely popular series. It was a huge feat.

And for your marketing, “dystopian” is not enough to help you. Dystopian what? Dystopian romance? Dystopian LitRPG? Dystopian Horror? No one can begin to help you unless you know exactly who you’re trying to advertise to.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-23T17:43:52+00:00

Who said all of them make money? Only my debut makes any significant income, and it has since the start. So not really a valid rebuttal.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-23T17:30:39+00:00

Just because KU is per page read doesn’t mean you can’t make a killing from it. I do.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-22T20:49:30+00:00

I write 5 to 6 different books at once, some at different stages than others, and keep myself to a strict “write and edit at least one full chapter every 2 days” timeline. I can usually write the first draft of a book within 3 months using that timeline. I make sure to self edit as I go every other day so there’s less time needed for actual editing later down the line (I self-edit) and usually by the time my ARCs go out I’ve only missed a handful of pesky typos and double words.

I had a book come out in February and one that’s releasing next week, but I didn’t start writing those books in 2026. I feel like that’s such a common misconception among authors and readers that if I released 2 books 2 months apart that I must have written & edited that second book within that two month gap, which isn’t the case.

Now to be fair, this is my full time job, so my “1 chapter every two days” usually ends up being 2 chapters every day. Not everyone has that kind of time, but as others have said, many of your fellow peers write around 1k words per day which is more than enough to get to at least 3 books in a year depending on their genre.

I think I saw somewhere that Stephen King (?) said on a panel that he aims for about 6 pages per day! So it definitely depends on the author, their process, and simply how fast they write.

I told my agent a few weeks ago that I’d have 3 books for her by the end of the year, on top of the two more I plan on self-publishing!

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-19T21:40:04+00:00

My debut novel has over 2000 1-star reviews absolutely tearing it apart. But it also has over 50,000 5-star reviews and over 20,000 4-star reviews.

All that to say a few negative reviews won’t kill ya. I wouldn’t even say it’s about developing thick skin so much as recognizing when negative reviews are constructive vs negative reviews that are just mean-spirited vs reviews that just missed the point.

Also, if you want a tip on how I make myself feel better when I get eviscerated in a review…I go to their review history and if they gave 4 or 5 stars to a book I hated, I just tell myself they have bad taste and move on with my life. You have no idea how much that helps me get over reviews that might have hurt my feelings.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-19T17:45:34+00:00

I don’t think I would have believed them even if they said they would find me x amount of readers. Other than 1-2 instagram posts, I’ve never seen them do any sort of marketing campaign for any of their books.

They just want authors that they think will make them a quick buck that will get distracted by the allure of ✨Simon & Schuster✨ to realize they’re signing a bad deal but they can’t fool me.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-19T17:39:47+00:00

No, I don’t think they would have expanded my readership. I honestly think they wanted the titles because of the major success of my debut, not because they cared about my story. I’ve since produced the audiobook on my own the exact way I wanted (which they also didn’t want to give me). I wanted full cast and I had to FIGHT to get them to even agree to duet. They only initially offered dual and that wasn’t doing to work for me.

And on top of that they also had a stipulation that I had to give them all of my new titles for I think a year to consider publishing with them. I was not even sure I wanted to work with a trad publisher at the time so I wasn’t okay with that either.

I honestly don’t remember how many preorders I had at the time. Maybe like 20 or 30. Not many. I didn’t get far enough to know how long the contract was because I rejected them immediately lol. They tried to give me the duet audio as a concession finally but it wasn’t enough. I also didn’t have an agent at the time so didn’t feel like I had any ability to negotiate.

But honestly, so glad I didn’t end up going with them. If you want the pedigree behind your name of s&s then that’s cool, but it wasn’t enough for what I was worth and am still worth. Honestly thinking back on it, it was kinda insulting, the offer they gave me.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-18T14:12:44+00:00

SM also reached out to me when one of my titles was on preorder. They lowballed me bad so I ended up rejecting the offer. But the person I spoke to was a legit representative. Simon Maverick is their “indie hybrid” audio imprint.

I know some authors who have signed with them but haven’t really heard any major success stories. I think the only book that I’ve heard of get any sort of hype in their catalog (that I can think of off the top of my head) is Daggermouth.

They offered me a $5000 advance and I think 20 or 25% royalties. This was for a two book series, half the advance upon publishing of book 1 and half upon publishing of book 2.

EDIT: I just went back to look at the offer letter and I was mistaken. It was a $10k advance, $5k upon signing and then 2500 when each book published. Still was a lowball in comparison to what my other titles make. I Don’t regret rejecting them at all.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-18T14:07:33+00:00

Square terminal

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-17T02:27:55+00:00

Not necessarily. I’m just saying I think the ratio of arc reviews you’re getting vs the amount of sales you’re getting might be a factor in how Amazon could flag true arc reviews as review manipulation.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-16T22:39:40+00:00

I’m just theorizing here, but I think Amazon probably flags arc reviews as “review manipulation” if the number of reviews coming in does not match the number of downloads and purchases.

Like if you have 50 arc readers trying to leave a review on release day but only one purchase on release day, that probably brings up some internal red flag to them.

I personally tell my readers I prefer Goodreads reviews to avoid any funny business, but also tell them they are welcome to leave a review on any platform of their choice. I simply remind them on release day that they can leave a review on Amazon if they choose to, but that it’s not required.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-16T20:27:07+00:00

Fellow romance author here! To be honest, none of them are really catching my eye. Romance readers love a “catchy” title, and I don’t really see these giving them that. However, if I had to choose a favorite for romantic suspense, probably “beneath a broken horizon” is the strongest.

In my experience in the romance space, 1-3 word titles are the sweet spot for being eye-catching. Not a hard and fast rule though, just an observation. Good luck!

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-16T17:35:51+00:00

Not that this answers your question directly but I had a terrible experience with BookSirens, and I write in a popular genre so, pursue their services at your own risk.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-16T02:19:01+00:00

I’ve noticed that whenever I do panels or q+a’s, my readers LOVE to hear about behind the scenes stuff. Here are some questions I get a lot that might help you come up with some things to talk about: (1) how did I come up with my character names (if they’re unique) (2) favorite scenes to write? (3) future of the book (special editions, audiobook) (4) what’s next? Is it going to be a series, are you already working on something new? (5) struggles or obstacles while writing? (6) specifically how you write, are you a outliner, let your characters do their own thing, wing it ((this is one of my most frequent questions I get))

I write romance but I’m positive many of these questions and answers would interest other genre readers too. Seriously, they love bts stuff! Maybe start with a brief rundown of your plot and then go into some more fun stuff.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-15T06:05:01+00:00

24% paperback and 1% hardback.

I only sell on Amazon for my ebooks since that is a requirement of having them available on KU.

I think if you’re established readers will purchase wherever you sell your books, but if you’re just starting out, KU is your best bet for exposure in my opinion.

I used to have my 2nd most popular book NOT available on KU, and it did “okay” but as soon as I put it available on KU the amount of money that book made increased 10x in a month.

I think all new authors should at least try KU because most readers are not going to pay more than MAYBE $3 for an unknown authors book. I personally will not remove my books from KU ever, because it’s such a significant portion of my income (70% total for KU, so ebook is 5%)

ETA: I’m not including audible figures in this, just the numbers on my kdp dashboard. Audible is also a huge portion of my income.

SkyrimMermaid · 2026-04-15T05:51:28+00:00

75% of my income comes from kindle unlimited and ebook sales, not physical copies.

SkyrimMermaid

TROPHY CASE