I can't seem to find anything on this, but do bookstores have a window of time that they can return books to ingramspark? I published my book in August 2023 and it got 130 sales before it was released. I am confident they went to amazon, because I never get print royalties but my print ranking goes up. I want to turn off returns but I don't know how many of those books amazon has left. I am afraid if I switch it to "no returns" then amazon will return everything they have right before their 180 day window is up. So does anyone know if bookstores have a window of time they need to return books ..read more

I hold true to the belief that any story idea can be done if you give it good characters. This last week a new idea sprung in my head (I write horror novels, some are grounded, some are more out there with the concepts in the books.) This idea is probably one of my most unique but out there yet. I’m a big lover of dinosaur horror because of how unique it is. (JP is my favorite novel of all time) I’ve wanted to do a Dino horror novel but wanted to do something different than JP or other stories like Dino Crisis. So I came up with the idea of advanced animatronic dinosaurs. I’m not sure where I ..read more

This is my first post on this sub. I just wanted to share that any authors out there looking to grow your reader base with a modest budget should check out the site "freebooksy" or their sister site "bargain booksy". I just ran a three day stack free promo for the second book in my trilogy. It cost me $180 out of pocket and gained me access to about 600,000 potential readers. I wrote a paragraph summary of the book (not the blurb) and plugged in the URL, then made sure to set the free promo days on Kindle and I was good to go. The book hit #1 on Contemporary Fantasy and Conspiracy Thriller Ki ..read more

Add Bookside Press to your list of vanity presses and scammers who are out to milk uninformed authors. Just got an email from them claiming to be in search of their next big author. submitted by /u/Prepper_wif_hat [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

I guess I should have thought about this a while ago. I'm second guessing it all right now. My novel isn't published yet. I haven't uploaded the manuscript to Amazon yet, but I was planning on sending my email subs an email with the cover reveal and a link to download the first 3 chapters from the direct downloads in StoryOrigin. So, they'd get the preview in their choice of 3 formats (.pdf, .epub .mobi), which would include the cover, the title page with the ISBN, chapters 1-3, and a little blurb at the end asking them to pre-order the book. My book is enrolled in KDP, but I'm not selling th ..read more

I did read the rules, so I won’t share the book that I am releasing soon, but something happened today that put me in my place. I’ve been through a hard time in my life and I used my writing to share that. I had a copy of a rough draft version of my book, something after editing will be a self-publisher. Decided to share it with someone. They read the first page and started to cry. At first I was worried that my writing didn’t really come off as well. But he later told me that he was having a hard time in life and my words spoke to him. Writing is a form of art, and you never know how your wo ..read more

Hi, all, My book has been out for almost a month, just a few days and it’ll be official. And I’m 8 copies away from 100 sold and I’m ecstatic. I previously published under a pen name that’s not attached to my main brand and it did okay, and so I wasn’t sure how this release would go, but it exceeded expectations and TikTok has oddly been really helpful. It’s a YA contemporary romance and being trad published under my main/real name has probably helped some (I’m a hybrid). Either way, this last month has motivated me to keep going. My next release is fall and I’m even more excited it. Sink or ..read more

Just curious if anyone has tried selling physical books at local events or fairs, or had any luck with book signings. I published my first 2 books in 2024, and have had some success with marketing, but wondered if this is a good or bad avenue to explore? submitted by /u/w113jdf [visit reddit] [comments ..read more

I have a novel I'm ready to publish, and I need to decide where to publish it. I've already done self-publishing once, and it didn't go very well. There are probably multiple reasons that book didn't do as well as I think it could have, and maybe still can. That book was 800 pages, started a bit slow. And most importantly, I'm terrible with the marketing side of it all. I'm barely on social media, and I have no idea how to sell a book. This new book is 228 pages, fast paced, exciting, well written, and I'm very confident it can do well. What I really need is help marketing my book and getting ..read more

Have not had this problem for my first four books. Book #5 both the title and pen name are all lowercase. It was approved for global distro when I first published last year but when I fixed a typo for a new edition, it got rejected for global distro. I’m a poet so the all lowercase is part of the aesthetic. I am really not inclined to change those things just so I can get global distro (from a publisher that didn’t have a problem with it for 10+ years) The policy is… "The first letter of all words in the title, subtitle, and author name should be capitalized, except for the following words: a ..read more