I’m a Self Published Author, Now What?

I couldn’t be happier that I’ve crossed the finish line and actually finished my book and saw it all the way through to publication. It’s mind blowing for me, since this is my debut novel and I’ve only dreamed I’d ever do something like this. But truly, getting the book published doesn’t mean I’m done with the book. Actually, you are never really done.

After the Fire, took me almost four years to the exact date from the infancy of the novel, until I pushed publish on the website for Kindle Direct Publishing, when I created both my eBook and paperback versions. You can find my Author Central Page here, on Amazon. If you’ve followed along with me on this blog from the beginning, you understand I had to learn a lot to get to this point. I imagine my next book will take less than half that time since I now understand the industry much better, but the thing with self publishing is you are everyone! I’m the publicist, marketing director, and secretary. Still, it’s very exciting work.

I’ve heard, “Now you can make money! Remember us little people when you are rich and famous!” But in reality, there are so many people on the planet every day publishing books, the rich and famous part are few and far between. I’d just like to pay the bills with my writing. That would make me very happy. But currently, my reality is that just publishing the book set me back quite a bit of dough! So marketing is the next very important thing. By sharing my book info, all of you are helping me with that.

I consider myself successful because I accomplished my goal of getting published. If I am to be financially successful, I will need to be in the black and as of now, I most definitely am not. But my husband always says, “If it were easy, everyone would do it.” He’s right. It’s not and I still did it! After the Fire, is doing pretty darn good for just being released, (averaging 5 stars in the reviews), and it’s because I’ve worked hard and I DO have a good product. I’m very grateful you wonderful people have believed in me.

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The above shots are shared photos from people who have purchased my book and sent their new arrival pics to Facebook for everyone to see. I have several more and will be sharing more each blog post. I cannot tell you how much it warms my heart to see these, so please, KEEP SHARING. These are from Coree, Anthony, and Becky in the above three. Thank you guys.

I am going to have an AP announcement locally soon, as well as start the process of getting my books carried in northern California indie bookstores. These things take time and since I’m still at my full time day job as public school librarian, I get delayed periodically. But if you’d like to help, share my content with your friends. Share this blog, comment on this blog, share to social media my status when you see it, and it ALWAYS HELPS!

Follow me on Instagram @pattidiener, on Facebook at Patti Diener, and on Twitter @pattidiener. If you want to comment on this post, please share something about the book if you’ve read it already. If you haven’t, that’s ok. I welcome your feedback.

Remember, After the Fire, makes a great Christmas gift. You can order on Amazon here. There is a holiday element in the book so the timing is perfect for curling up in front of a fire and having a cup of coffee, tea, or glass of wine. This romance novel is the first of many to come from me, and if you continue to follow along, I will post my first chapter of a new novel in early 2020.

Thank you all for reading. Thank you all for your support.