Original Novel Available to Read

[kriadydragon]

Sometimes I really, really hate success story articles on self-published authors and how to self publish articles because it always comes down to the same dang thing - namely that author spent thousands on an editor, cover designer and promotion team in order to get their book out there. The problem is, a lot of us don't have thousands. I barely even have hundreds. And, yes, while I know you need to spend money in order to make money, it's rather impossible when you don't have said money to begin with.

So my quest to self-publish without spending money I don't have continues.

Thanks to a writing blog on Tumblr I was pointed in the direction of this one site that allows you to post your novel and get feed-back (real feed back, not FF.net feedback). It's called Authonomy and it's a really nifty little site. Authors can post part or all of a work, people can read it, leave feedback, authors can make corrections and repost to get more feedback, and there's even an opportunity for a story to rise in the ranks and become noticed by HarperCollins (who run the site). But even if you don't get noticed, at least you're still getting feedback.

 For readers it's also a place to read free stories and help an author out in the process. I've checked out a few stories already and while they're not perfect, they are definitely very well written (and by well written I mean nothing that's even remotely FF.net level content. These are people who know how to write, and even those stories that are rough around the edges are still easy reads that pull you in).

The only thing is that even if your intention is just to read and not publish you still need an account in order to access the books. The books are formatted so that you can either read them right away or download them to an e-reader.

My book can be found here if anyone wants to check it out. This is the bok, by the way, that I kept having doubts about despite the fact that I liked how it turned out. By putting it on this site my hope is at least to determine if it's something people would want to read. The only setback is that you still need to advertise yourself. Which means *sigh* having to be social. Thankfully, I like talking about writing :D

I almost forgot to mention that it also has some excellent writing resources such as forums and a blog page.

Comments

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

I want to check it out, just getting organised.
Oh and I wrote something today. Stories from my family. In dot point and heaps more to do but it counts so we should be excited :)

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

It's a fun little site. I just really hope something comes of it because I could really use the feedback.

Oh and I wrote something today. Stories from my family.

Awesome :D One of these days I would like to gather up all the stories my grandpa told about his life (because they are hilarious), and put them all together into a book for the whole family.

[imbecamiel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it does seem like an awful lot of those "independent success stories" are actually stories where... people could afford to become, essentially, their own miniature publishing house and pay for all these different roles, rather than actually doing it all on their own. On your own, all these different roles, particularly in promotion, take a lot of energy and know-how, which in turn tends to edge out writing energy and time, which means you don't have as much product to promote, which means... It's hard. :P

That site sounds great, though! I hope it gets you some good attention and feedback!

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, plus there's only so much you can do without it all leading to spamming everyone with ads and links :/ Thankfully I'm stubborn so I know I'll keep at it. At this point, I think it's become more about getting myself out there as a writer than actually making any sales.

Self-Publish Without Spending Money

[spazenport.livejournal.com]

I've been using Wattpad (sounds like it works much like Authonomy) and Writer's Cafe (Another Authonomy) to cultivate my audience, but I also just put out a book that might help: Self-Publish Without Spending Money. It sounds exactly like what you're looking for, because you're not looking to self-publish without spending, you're looking to be discovered without spending, and a lot of the second half of the book is on marketing and sales without spending money. http://amzn.to/1EeBOuG

One trick that I and several other authors I know have been using is that we've created author pages on Goodreads. When people add our book to their to-read shelves, we can see who they are. Then we send them messages saying that if they can give us an honest review, we'll email them an epub or mobi version of the book. It's really helped boost all of our number of reviews.

As a side-note/related- I'm a consultant for authors in Iowa. If you want to brainstorm on marketing ideas, I'd love to start a conversation. I'm never on Livejournal and only found your post by accident, so please feel free to send me an email if you'd like to open a discussion. (matt (at) davenportwrites.com).

Re: Self-Publish Without Spending Money

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D When I have some money I'm going to need to buy your book. It's hard trying to find self-publishing advice that doesn't involve spending thousands you don't have.

I've got and author's page on Goodreads already, so definitely on the right track, there :D I'm also trying to be more social online, participating in forums and such. My hope is that by the time I publish my second novel I'll have more of a presence.