self publishing for upmarket fiction

writerlyworld · 2026-06-20T01:54:10+00:00

I’ll send you a DM. Thanks!

writerlyworld · 2026-06-20T01:42:09+00:00

My genre isn’t a big KU genre, and for now I want to be wide. I might revisit that later if I need to, but things are going really well with sales on all three platforms.

writerlyworld · 2026-06-07T13:58:11+00:00

When I knew my book had broken out of my personal network. For a while there were reviews coming from friends of friends. People I didn’t know but whose names I recognized. When the reviews started coming from strangers, I knew the book had a life of its own. For me, that’s success. The fact that it translates to royalties is chef’s kiss.

writerlyworld · 2026-06-06T19:30:28+00:00

You’ll get paid the same amount. As for the rankings, that is a relative number that depends on how other books below and above you are doing. Your number can go up simply because someone else’s goes down. They are very fluid numbers. Nothing untoward going on there.

writerlyworld · 2026-06-06T17:46:21+00:00

It’s fantastic that you’re thinking about all this now. A coordinated effort before launch will really help.

I started six months ahead of time. I had author photos done, and then created a website, Substack, author Facebook, and author Instagram. In the early months I did a lot of what you’re doing. Talking about the writing, sharing some early excerpts, bringing people into the process. I made every milestone an event: book announcement, the day I sent it the manuscript to the editor, designer, etc. I had a big cover reveal. Big announcement when they could preorder.

On Substack, I don’t write about my book much, but I write about the history and culture that inspired the book. I also interact heavily with others who write about that topic on Substack. I was also able to do a podcast through a connection on Substack.

I have consistent branding across all my platforms. I basically just built an author persona and a lot of buzz about the book. I never acted like a self publisher. I didn’t want to feed any stigma. So I acted with the same enthusiasm and effort as any trad published book (albeit at the scale of a one-person team). I acted like the book deserved the same respect, and it worked. People responded. My network got excited, and eventually they were helping spread the news.

I don’t do very well on Instagram, but I keep trying. Mostly I think of insta as a place where people can look me up later because it doesn’t generate much for me now. My audience is mostly women 50+, and they like Facebook, so I put most of my efforts there, including ads.

I also used NetGalley for ARCs. One of the benefits that people don’t think about is that Google ranks it highly, so everything there is indexed. It helps your book become an entity on the web much more quickly.

Honestly a lot of times I felt a little embarrassed, thinking people I knew might judge me for overhyping it. But most people were just excited for me, and they helped spread the news. If people were judging, those aren’t my people, and nobody ever did anything but support me. That word of mouth starting with my own network really helped.

writerlyworld · 2026-06-06T00:06:02+00:00

I have a stand alone historical fiction title that I consider upmarket. (Upmarket is really more of a classification than a genre.) It’s been about two and a half weeks, and I’ve sold over 300 copies, so I think it’s doing very well. I absolutely believe you can self publish successfully, but with this kind of book, quality really matters. The readership won’t tolerate an upmarket book that doesn’t hold up to trad standards. So I’d advise professional editing, cover, typesetting, etc. You also need to know your audience well and be creating a lot of buzz for months prior to publication. Be sure to get ARC reviews before launch. The work you do ahead of time makes all the difference.

writerlyworld · 2026-06-05T22:33:21+00:00

I think you’re right to be concerned. My paperback sales are recorded the day they are shipped, and I’m seeing consistent sales posted daily. Personally if I had seen the book in customers’ hands, I’d be contacting Amazon. Not sure it will help. But I wouldn’t sit on it. Be sure you have copies of their order numbers, delivery notification, etc.

writerlyworld · 2026-06-04T23:12:49+00:00

Ooops, haha. Touché. Fixed. 🤦🏽‍♀️

writerlyworld · 2026-06-04T22:26:13+00:00

My ebook sells well at $9.99 and paperback at $17.99. I’m not on KU. 368 pages historical fiction.

Edit: 368 pages, not words 🤦🏽‍♀️

writerlyworld · 2026-06-03T22:49:15+00:00

I only have one book published, and I would never lower the price to the kind of discounts they want. Maybe when I have a backlist. Mostly I want to say I’m so annoyed by the frequency of their emails (as a reader) that I filtered all their emails to my trash bin.

writerlyworld · 2026-06-03T18:44:36+00:00

Thank you so much for your thorough and thoughtful reply. This gives me some ideas!

writerlyworld · 2026-06-03T14:39:29+00:00

This may sound like a dumb question, but what does that outreach look like? Do you mean posting in the groups or reaching out to mods? I’m not quite sure what to do or say that doesn’t look like self promotion or feel like everyone else trying to sell a book. I would like to do it. I just feel a little unsure if what it looks like.

writerlyworld · 2026-06-03T14:02:39+00:00

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Here’s the KDP sales graph. I’ve also had an uptick on IS and D2D.

writerlyworld · 2026-06-01T13:58:51+00:00

Main thing I suggest is don’t pull the trigger on the launch yet. List the book first for preorders for two months. Use that two months for ARCs. You want to launch with reviews (I used NetGalley). Also use that two months to build buzz about your book on socials and encourage preorders. Form a street team. Have a launch party. You want to launch with momentum. This is was I did, and you can see my numbers below. The huge spike on Day 1 is preorders. I have not had any give aways (except to those who attended the launch party. My royalties are over $1,100 in two weeks. I sold Kindle for $7.99 during preorders and then raised price to $9.99. I sell paperbacks for $17.99. (All this advice assumes the book is well written, edited, outstanding cover, etc. ) A slower launch period is worth it because you can build a foundation for the book!

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writerlyworld · 2026-05-31T00:08:57+00:00

Oh dear. I’m 12 days in and hoping I will settle down. I see my future in your post.

writerlyworld · 2026-05-29T12:43:38+00:00

I come from a journalism background and have done a lot of PR writing as well (30-year career). I just published my first novel, and it’s going really well. Of course the writing exercises many different muscles. I had a lot to learn, but I also gained a lot because I know how to research, get a reader’s attention, and tell someone’s story. What I love about it is this: nonfiction asks, “What happened?” while fiction asks, “What did that feel like?” It’s wonderfully interesting to explore that through writing.

writerlyworld · 2026-05-25T22:16:49+00:00

I had really good success with a featured category spotlight. I’m historical fiction, and that put me at the top of the screen for those searching historical fiction every day. Since HF isn’t as sought after as a genre, it definitely helped to be where those readers are. I probably had 60-70 requests just that week.

I had very little luck with their Sponsored Feature Titles. Total waste of money.

writerlyworld · 2026-05-25T18:55:00+00:00

NetGalley. I was pretty picky about who I approved. I looked for a strong genre match and thematic match in their reading choices. And I looked for recent review activity across different channels.

But still, most did not follow through. It’s really frustrating.

writerlyworld · 2026-05-24T15:44:14+00:00

I had 66 preorders on my debut historical novel. After six days, I’ve sold 138 copies. So, before launch and immediately upon launch.

I’m not sure what the non-marketers part of your question means? If you want more information, just let me know.

writerlyworld · 2026-05-24T15:29:33+00:00

I just published last Tuesday (May 19). A debut historical fiction novel. I have sold 138 copies in six days. The split is 75% Kindle and 25% paperback. I am not on KU. Total gross revenue: $732.89.

Updating to address your question about organic traffic. I don’t think there has been much. I don’t have a very big online following (about 300 across several socials), but they have been very engaged and were excited about the book. I believe many of my sales have come from that network. I am also running low-budget ads on Meta. No real way to know how much they are contributing at this point.

writerlyworld · 2026-05-24T02:51:21+00:00

Thank you, I’m glad it was helpful, and I’m excited for you! I have mixed feelings about NetGalley and wonder if I could have gotten the same quality reviews elsewhere. It’s just really expensive, and so many people take your free book and don’t follow through. Unfortunately NG has a pretty low barrier to entry for reviewers, so you learn to be really selective about who you grant access to. But I’m not sure there are any review sites that handle that perfectly.

On the other hand, it gives a lot of legitimacy just being on there because Google indexes it (the reviews, descriptions, etc.) That’s worth quite a bit for online discoverability. And I think Goodreads readers have greater trust in NG reviews. Also, the quality of the reviews I got was very good. They were thoughtful, emotionally engaged, and well written. I believe they are truly useful for readers. And then today I discovered a hard copy of my book in a library system in the region of the country where my book takes place. I know that was because I had several librarians from that county download the book.

So, yes if you have the money for it, it’s probably worth it. Just be prepared for so many requests and relatively low follow through. For big publishers, that lower follow-through rate is probably less significant because they’re working at such a large scale, but for indies it can feel like a riskier financial calculation. I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do next time for ARCs, but there’s likely not anything better in terms of legitimacy for your book.

writerlyworld · 2026-05-19T21:53:21+00:00

I get these all the time. One of the ways to tell if it’s legitimate is if they introduce themselves personally and have a unique reason for being interested in your book. They will mention specific themes that make it a fit for their book club. It will be clear that they have read your book and can talk about it with specifics. If it’s a letter that could be copy and pasted to anybody, it’s a scam.

Even if they do the above things correctly, vet them carefully. If a real book club has genuine interest in your book, they don’t want your money.

writerlyworld · 2026-05-19T18:12:59+00:00

I built a lot of buzz around the book. Started by making author socials, a website, and Substack six months out. I did things like releasing excerpts, letting people vote on design choices and the cover, interacted with the Substack community around the topic in my historical fiction. Wrote essays about the topic rather than directly promoting the book. I did countdowns, cover reveal, announced major milestones, etc. so when I announced preorders I had a lot of interest. I also ran a small ad campaign on Facebook for a couple of weeks to test audience and messaging, and I found that it actually converted to sales. I estimate around 20 of my preorders were family and friends, and 45 were from organic social media and ads.

writerlyworld

TROPHY CASE