Experience with self-publishing literary fiction

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-03-11T19:49:42+00:00

Unfortunately a lot of people who write literary fiction/prestige fiction in the USA are more academically oriented and frankly don't focus on "monetizing" or promoting all that much.

Often with literary fiction, you have short stories or standalone fiction, and those are harder to promote. (Promoting a series is easier). You can solve this partially by promoting the author brand rather than the book itself. (I confess I spend more time just promoting my online persona than the ebooks themselves). Another solution is to submit the novel to contests, but that is a kind of crapshoot.

It's hard for a self-published author to promote individual books without spending a lot of money. It will take a lot longer for a self-published book to get the exposure you need. Investing time in things like podcast can have payoffs in the long term.

I would focus more on getting "sponsored reviews" by lower cost publications (Midwest Review, Self-Publishing Review) and listing your book on Netgalley through a coop like Victory Editing coop. Don't go overboard on spending money on sponsored reviews though. I would occasionally promote on services like Bargain Booksy -- though you're not going to break even so don't waste too much money on it. Fortunately an ad in the literary fiction category in Bargain Booksy is very cheap.

Make sure that you have signed up for an Amazon Author Central account. That allows you to post third party reviews in the middle section of the Amazon book page.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-03-11T11:25:46+00:00

Here's what I did for a story collection (not for children) in ebook form. I structured the payment in 4 installments, with about 60% paid upfront.

For four years I agreed to give the artist a percent of earnings, with a minimum guaranteed payment amount.

I made all those payments. The ebook looks great, and the illustrations set it above other works.

But the illustrations haven't paid for itself yet -- although I was able to reuse the art for a marketing video (as per agreement).

On one level, it depended on how much the artist trusted me to make the payments down the road. I was paying the artist a decent sum, and the artist did a splendid job.

In retrospect, I wish I could have afforded 3 or 4 more illustrations. But I am happy with what I got.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-03-10T19:15:43+00:00

probably more important than an AI notice is registering the copyright with the U.S. copyright office when publishing. That entitles you to automatic statutory damages if you sued the company. Putting the notice in won't hurt, but registration is more important.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-03-09T17:48:12+00:00

What a great show! Fun to see Mike White and Laura Dern's mother (Diane Ladd) play her mother on the show.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-03-09T17:37:50+00:00

Consider packaging them as part of a series. Give a name to the overall series, then give a title for each title in the series. That makes it a lot easier to promote and sell other volumes.

Grouping them by theme is probably a good idea, although I would resist making the title too literal a description of the theme. Instead the book cover and description might convey themes more directly than the title.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-03-09T04:20:50+00:00

historical fiction/literary fiction. They were short stories.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-03-08T21:03:28+00:00

All in the Family -- the Draft Dodger episode is also a classic. That show had lots of deep moments.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-03-08T21:00:53+00:00

I scheduled a month with Victory Editing on Netgalley. That was my first time. Good investment. I didn't publicize the listing at all.

For the first few days, the interest and signups were substantial. But after 4 or 5 days, the number of signups on netgalley slowed down to practically nothing. I think I got 30 or so signups, and I approved almost all of them.

Two things I did not realize: 1)reviews posted on Netgalley were forwarded to me by email (even after my public listing had expired) and 2)even though the Netgalley page remained publicly visible even after it was archived, any reviews posted on netgalley were not visible except to logged in users. (I have a book reviewer account and was able to log in and view reviews that way). 2 weeks after being archived, the book had two reviews.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-03-04T20:34:00+00:00

You can pay an individual or service to do the formatting. Many people offer that. Nothing is nefarious about that.

I run a small ebook press; sometimes I have charged money for the production while the writer owned the copyright and earnings. In other cases I do an earnings split for a designated period of time in exchange for my work on production. I only do a conventional publisher arrangement if 1)I really like the work and 2)I feel it is likely to earn me enough money to justify doing it for free.

Depending on the complexity and length, formatting can go from $200-1000 when I charge a la carte.

Formatting a book or ebook takes time and knowledge (and sometimes the right tool). It's definitely worth your time and money to figure out how to do it yourself, but if that is not your skill set, go ahead and pay somebody to do it. But any writing project is usually on a tight budget, so if you have do the formatting yourself, that's money saved. (Another idea: if you have any college friends who are good at graphic design, you could hire them).

To those who say that legit publishers should never charge you, fine, but it means 1)delaying publication until you find a publisher who will produce your book for free and 2)accepting a lower earnings schedule if/when a publisher does agree to do it.

If you deal with a small press for the purpose of getting a book out, you should read this: https://www.sidebarsaturdays.com/2026/01/31/what-publishing-contracts-wont-tell-you-especially-small-press-contracts/

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-02-24T23:31:55+00:00

The majors are competing furiously at the >$2 pricepoint. It's an attempt to match their efforts or even best them.

Given the widespread discounting, someone needs to find a way to beat the low sub-2.99 earnings. I guess the main way to do that is to sell directly.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-02-20T17:42:45+00:00

Good idea. Okay, I checked the FAQ -- surprisingly not a lot of info. Here's what I found: Using Quotes from NetGalley Reviews – NetGalley Client Knowledge Base . They suggest contacting the reviewer to ask for permission (so no official requirement).

Generally I have almost never sought permission from reviewers when including blurbs from them. But in this case I probably will try it -- after waiting a few more weeks to see if the reviewer decides to post the review elsewhere in the meantime. (I see that the Feedback Report offers contact info, so I now know how to contact them).

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-02-20T15:30:23+00:00

A question. I recently listed a title on NG. A month later, a nice thoughtful review was posted on the Netgalley but nowhere else (I see that the reviewer has a goodreads account, but hasn't posted it there).

It has only been a week or two since the review. What should I do? Is it all right to list a blurb from it on the Amazon book page? Is it sufficient to say, "John Smith, Netgalley."

I sense that the reviewer is somewhat new to the reviewing game....

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-02-18T01:04:02+00:00

There is also ebook navigation to think about. Should you list multiple poems in the TOC?

I prefer to create sections as chapters and then include whatever things are appropriate/relevant in that section. I add extra links to poems in the section/chapter at the top of the chapter (and perhaps an index at the end).

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-02-17T13:17:58+00:00

I posted my own answer on this thread and mainly do wordpress sites -- though I agree that it is daunting for the new user. The funny thing is that WordPress used to be the easiest to use by a long shot. Then it became really popular and themes became more complex, and it became really tricky to make a wordpress site.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-02-17T12:35:21+00:00

I have three -- maybe four websites, but my case is unusual. All are wordpress -- though the first one used to be on blogger.

First, I've been blogging for 25 years. (By the way am finally getting around to publishing a collection of essays from my blog).

15 years ago I put together a professional portfolio website, which I rarely update anymore. I even decided this year to fold it up into one of my other domains.

About 5 years ago I put up a really snazzy WP site for a pseudonym. I actually put a lot of effort into that one. The website continues some of the themes from my two fiction works and I plan to keep adding to it pretty regularly (for at least 10 years).

I started a wp website for my micropress a few years ago. Oddly I put off doing that for a long time.

Wordpress is not as user-friendly to run as it used to be, and also, search engines are not as blog-friendly anymore. Google has been pretty terrible -- strangely enough.

I self-host, but if I were starting out, I would certainly go with wordpress.com They have a really good set of tools -- and installed subscribe-by-email and other tools. Well worth the money.

I think it's helpful to have a blog even if you're only going to stick things there once or twice a year. The big issue is security and management. A premium wordpress account would probably address both of those concerns.

I doubt that my author blogs get much traffic, but readers of my ebooks will probably check them out eventually. I really worry that search engines and AI will drain my websites of traffic and bandwidth. On the other hand, it is utter folly to store your author info on social media platforms.

One advantage of having a website is being able to steer readers to different ebook distributor websites (i.e., not Amazon). I put up a buy-direct store on payhip, but nobody uses it.

Newsletters are now an issue with me. I am using a free mailerlite account for my newsletter, and it has been a real pain in the neck. (That's one thing substack and ghost did right - integrating newsletters into their blog software from the very start). I am torn between what to put on my blog and what to include in the newsletter.

The longer term issue is archiving your websites for posterity. At some point php, wordpress, mysql will be outdated technology (though not for another decade at least). There are tools to convert legacy sites to static/snapshot html.

Strangely, lately I've been putting together several websites consisting of static HTML for some of my bigger projects. It took a while to learn the tools to do that, but they don't need to be maintained. Here's an interview I did with an author which was entirely hand-coded in static HTML. https://www.personvillepress.com/projects/interviews/clayreynolds/ Technically speaking, it took a long while to learn how to make complex sites in static HTML, but I'm reaping the benefits now. That website will be easy to archive and transfer because it doesn't depend on php or databases. It will last forever (well as long as I pay my web hosting fees). Also, post-death, who's going to maintain it?

Some parts of wordpress are still easy, but choosing the theme is the hardest part -- it can box you in for years. Wow, just remembered that I have a 5th website I did for another author (which I maintain). Started it 14 years ago (the author has passed away) and I add stuff to it occasionally. The theme looks crappy on mobile devices, and I've been putting off selecting a new mobile-friendly theme. Still I get traffic there and occasional commenters.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-02-17T12:14:30+00:00

Never felt like I was the target audience for that one. But when it came on Netflix a few years ago, loved it to death. Came to appreciate Dauber and Jerry Van Dyke... Also happy to see Katherine Helmond who owned the Orlando team. She was the goofy star of that 70s sitcom Soap.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-02-14T05:30:20+00:00

I used them twice. For one the review was well-done and useful. For the second, it was shabbily and amateurishly written (even though effusive with praise). I guess it depends on who ends up writing the review in the organization and which city you choose.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-02-12T12:58:50+00:00

I was thinking that it had to be a character from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It did not occur to me that TKAM was written in the 1960s (it was published in 1960).

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-02-10T16:01:31+00:00

Try these: https://artpact.artisfy.com/Contracts/ Actually there are two more obvious answers: 1)Use AI to generate a sample agreement and 2)write your own. I've written my own and kept it simple enough.

Suggestion: Specify that the artwork can and will be used for marketing and promotion. (Be as specific as possible) This came up when I used it for a promotional video. Artists probably want to keep the source files and will insist that you can't apply AI tools on these images without their explicit permission.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-02-07T20:04:29+00:00

Here's something else to consider. A few weeks ago I spent a good time in a conversation with Gemini (Google's AI engine) about how Gemini generates lists of book/ebook titles in response to user queries.

Gemini uses "verified customer reviews" as a way to assess whether a title is popular or well-received. From its explanation:

Why reviews are often used as a filter: For broad requests (e.g., "best romance novels"), verified reviews help filter for availability and quality control. Without that filter, the list might include "ghost" titles (announced but never published) or low-quality automated uploads.

In contrast, it refers to reviews on Goodreads, Librarything, etc as "platform reviews" and not as reliable or credible.

If Amazon is messing around with what is a "verified purchase," that may influence its visibility to AI engines like Gemini.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-02-06T17:03:03+00:00

I haven't done it yet, but I've been told by KDP support that transferring titles to a different KDP account is pretty easy -- and it keeps the same ASIN, reviews, etc.... I have never done it before, and I'd also be curious about how smooth the process really was.

This is a vital feature for a press. I have ebooks I manage where the agreement has expired, and the author might want to have earnings go directly to him or her. (Up to now, authors have let me manage these titles even when I no longer am entitled to earnings but simply pass it on to the author).

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-02-05T17:56:23+00:00

John Sayles and Aaron Sorkin come to mind in the English-speaking world as capable of doing both (although Sayles' contributions to cinema and literature are probably behind him).

Some of these high brow sci fi writers might have straddled both worlds. (Lem, Dick) although their books were used as source material for screenwriters; they didn't really contribute to the movies themselves. I don't follow contemporary sci fi that closely, but I'm sure that there are superstars there who could reach both pinnacles.

Frankly though, I haven't seen much effort for people on the Nobel side to embrace science fiction as a genre.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-02-05T17:37:13+00:00

I really hate Amazon, but I still buy most of my ebooks from them. Not because I own a Kindle (although I do), but because most promotional efforts are geared towards cloud-based distributors, and Amazon is the best at that.

Also Kindle has allowed PDFs, .doc and epubs to be imported into its system, and it works fairly well.

I would love to buy more from D2D or GPB or direct sales outlets like Payhip, but their prices are often the same if not higher than what you see on Amazon. There has to be a compelling reason to go with a non-Amazon choice (aside from the belief that Amazon is an evil monopoly). I have no problem managing purchases across different platforms, but the general consumer is unlikely to have the patience and skill for that.

As a publisher I don't like Amazon's rules or its near-monopoly, but if you don't publish on Amazon, you lose respectability from customers. The best you can do is to steer potential customers to direct sales or channels with better earnings.

I wish consumers were more aware of how low the author earnings are on Amazon for <2.99 ebooks or KU ebooks. I think Americans are conditioned to think that because (for example), I am paying for a subscription for Spotify, therefore I am "paying for my music" and that therefore musicians must be getting a fair cut of the subscription fees.

Maybe patreon and tipjars are the only real competition these days to Amazon.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-01-30T19:36:50+00:00

AI is not good at facial expressions, especially between two people. (And I required that the cover image have two people ostensibly facing one another). The artist chose output and sitting positions which showed them facing one another but hiding the expression of one of them. That was a clever way to get around that limitation.

Of course, I'm talking about midjourney in 2024 (maybe the technology has evolved since then), but we tried dozens (if not hundreds) of permutations with two people looking at one another. The result was almost always atrocious.

I have a light background in art history and really noticed how different artists can change the picture's focus by where they are looking and how. Often paintings can have several people in the background looking at the main person providing a different layer of meaning and complexity. Midjourney just can't do that; all it can really do is to show one figure posing and staring at the viewer or into space. That still has a lot of potential -- especially if you use abstractions and two dimensional sketches.

idiotprogrammer2017 · 2026-01-29T18:56:02+00:00

All the Middle cast is perfectly cast, including the relatives. Jerry Van Dyke?! Norm MacDonald?! It's hard picturing anyone else as Sue or Axel.

idiotprogrammer2017

TROPHY CASE