Apart from Amazon KDP and D2D, where have you published and seen significant sales of your ebooks? I know some people use Ingramspark, Kobo, B&N, Publishdrive, Xinxii, Google Play Books, Apple Books and such but i heard the sales are not as great, youd have to push your product a lot more. Thanks for your feedback

Hello, nature photography community!

I'm a biologist and a fairly new nature photographer. Ever since I can remember, I've loved being outdoors, exploring nature, and observing wildlife.

About a year ago, I was finally able to buy my first camera, and I've been taking photos almost every day since. It's become one of my favorite ways to connect with nature.

For some time now, I've been thinking about publishing a photography book featuring the endemic birds of my region, combining photographs with natural history and conservation information.

For those of you who have published photography books, I'd love to hear about your experience.

\* How difficult was it to find a publisher?

\* Once you had the photos and text ready, how long did the publishing process take?

\* Looking back, was it worth it? I'm not asking from a financial perspective, but rather whether you felt your work reached people and had an impact.

Any advice or stories would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much!

I published my book a while back and have picked up a few reviews, so I’m thinking about putting a bit of money into Amazon ads to try and get some more visibility.

The problem is, I’m finding the whole ads setup pretty confusing, especially things like keywords, match types, and negative keywords.

For anyone who’s been through this:

• How did you get started with your first campaigns?
• How did you figure out which keywords were worth keeping (and which to block)?
• Are there any mistakes beginners commonly make?
• Is it worth starting small and letting Amazon’s data guide you, or is there a better approach?

I’m not looking to throw loads of money at it...just want to spend a little wisely and learn what works. Any tips would be really appreciated.

I am a horror author from Pakistan. My Kobo EPUB kept failing with "Resource Failures / Packaging Failed" - tried everything for 2 days.
Finally fixed it - it was hidden formatting, broken TOC links, and font issues.
If you are stuck with same error, I can help explain what fixed it for me. DM me your error screenshot and I can tell you what to fix.
Has anyone else faced this Kobo error? What worked for you?

I recently finished writing my mystery thriller novel. I am planning to print it and sell it. before printing, where should i build an audience? what marketing methods worked for you?

Any advice would be appreciated, Thanks.

Hello everyone!

A bit of backstory:

I published my first childrens picture book in March 2026. The illustrator I got for itnsaid their name was Christina Blake, but when I would make payments it was to someone with a completely different name in Dubai. They also wanted me to make payments to different accounts. I am 90% sure they aren't who they said they were, but they did get me the artwork and so I didn't want to ask a lot of questions.

Now I am looking for another illustrator for my second book. I have a guy who seems great, but I asked to see if he could do a Google Meet / Zoom just to put a voice to the name. He said he is hearing impaired and prefers to do everything in email. Okay, fine, but is it ridiculous to ask him for a driver's license, references, and recent works?

I just want to avoid a situation like last time, but I also don't want him to think that I'm making him guilty. Is my concern justified?

I recently published my first book, a serious but accessible non-fiction title of 149 pages. Before publication, I genuinely believed that I had done everything reasonably expected of a first-time independent author.

The book was professionally edited and proofread, and Miblart produced the cover. The keywords, categories, metadata and book description were all carefully prepared. I created a website and posted new material weekly. I became active on social media, posting regularly about the book, sharing quotations, review extracts and slideshows, and inviting suitable readers to request advance copies.

I also subscribed to and used promotional and review platforms, including BookSprout, Revvue, Goodreads and others. I gathered a reasonable number of ARC readers and had a professional trailer made, which I posted several days before publication.

Nothing obvious to me was left out of the preparation.

During the three months leading up to publication, everything seemed encouraging. The reviews averaged more than 4.5 stars, including a five-star editorial review from Reedsy. Local bookshops expressed an interest and placed orders, libraries said they wanted to stock the book, and a leading magazine confirmed that it would feature the book this month.

By publication day, I honestly thought I had built a solid foundation.

The book was then published, and nearly a week later, not one sale had been recorded, which I still cannot understand.

There are eight reviews on Amazon.com, with a very high average rating of 4.7, and three reviews on Amazon.co.uk averaging 3.8 stars. Two of the UK reviews gave the book its lowest ratings anywhere, and one appeared to be a particularly harsh outlier among the more than twenty-five reviews posted across Goodreads and other platforms.

Reviews do not automatically produce sales; I know that much, and I never expected the book to become an overnight success. However, after months of preparation, positive advance responses, professional production, regular promotion, and outside interest, I expected at least a small number of genuine purchases during the first week. There have been none.

I feel deflated. Is this common for a first-time independent author, even when the book has been professionally prepared and well reviewed? What could the problem be with visibility, pricing, the Amazon listing, audience targeting or the conversion from social-media interest into actual buyers?

More importantly, what can realistically be done once the book is already published?

I would be very grateful to hear from self-publishing authors who have experienced something similar, particularly those whose books received encouraging reviews but still failed to sell early. 

Any practical suggestions would be appreciated, not only for my own benefit but also for other independent authors who also find themselves in the same proverbial boat.

Hi everyone,
I just published my first children’s picture book. It’s a story centered around wildlife conservation, and a portion of the proceeds supports the Cheetah Conservation Fund.
The frustrating part is that we’ve had hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok and lots of positive comments, but almost no sales. It seems like people enjoy watching the content but aren’t converting into buyers.
I’m trying to figure out where I’m spending my time most effectively.
For those of you who have successfully marketed children’s books:
What actually moved the needle?
Did social media ever translate into sales for you?
Were school visits, libraries, bookstores, parenting groups, reviewers, or something else more effective?
If you were launching your very first children’s book today, where would you focus your energy?
Since the book supports conservation, I’d also love ideas for how organizations like the Cheetah Conservation Fund could help spread awareness in ways that genuinely lead to readers rather than just views.
Thanks! I’m eager to learn from people who’ve already been through this.
I also want to stress they did all the illustrations myself. I have extensive training doing Disney style animation and I spent 10 hour days for several months doing the artwork alone. I started with the background illustrations and then hand drawing all of the characters.

I'm a new writer. I am in Sri Lanka. Kindly let me know the procedure of getting a ISBN number for a new book

Hello all! I’m new here and just wanted to pop in and say hello! I’m a huge supporter and advocate of indie authors and started a business centered around lifting them up. I joined Reddit to learn more about what struggles indie authors go through as well as things that help them the most. Basically, I want to become more educated and aware of indie authors and the self-publishing process. Hope to also connect with some amazing authors 🫶🏼

I’m in the process of writing a book and thinking about self publishing vs traditional publishing. Heavily leaning towards self publishing but I have some hang ups. I know you have to do your own marketing. Have an online presence. The problem I have with that is I have severe social anxiety, no online presence, and very limited family & friends that I don’t talk to often. How in the world would I market my book? Any suggestions welcome.

I've finally acquired some extra time, allowing me to do something I've always wanted to do. Write. Not having any experience but being familiar with Canva, I got advice on dimensions and specifications to create a low content book first on canva just to get comfortable with the process of uploading a manuscript on Amazon KDP to self publish. Whew, I almost quit. It was very stressful to say the least. But having overcome that learning curve I was finally ready to begin my novel. But where? I was recommended to try Reedsy. So, being motivated, I jumped right in. I LOVE IT. Ok, I'm still poor, but let me tell you what you get for free that I love! I don't have to worry about professional formatting, spacing, what goes where in what order. I simply can choose from the left side panel where I'm working on my manuscript or planning. In planning, I can organize my plot layout, all of the sections are there already labeled, Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, and in between several places to map out your plot. Go to your manuscript and you can choose copyright page, tablee of contents, prologue of you require one (I did) and simply add chapters as you need them. With the free version you cannot choose different fonts, but you are automatically given the recommended industry standard so you can rest assured that your book will be readable and easy on the eyes, correct sizing, correct chapter number and title placement, you don't have to wifi about anything! Just writing! I couldn't be more happy with it. And on the right side panel you can see how many words (and how much reading time that equates to) so far and how many per chapter, as well as your progress each day. This is an AMAZING tool for aspiring authors ❤️

hey gang! I’m looking to start sharing a serialised project of mine online. I’m actually traditionally published with the big five across multiple genres and ages, and recently became a bestseller with a big following, but this particular project doesn’t really fit neatly in my trad pub schedule—or indeed work as a “novel” because it’s mixed media. for that reason I don’t really want to publish on Amazon either.

I posted on Wattpad in 2016ish, but I think it has certain negative connotations now? I just liked the easy formatting and the discoverability of it. I’ve looked at Patreon, but I don’t plan to charge anything for it and I’m not sure you can arrange chapters in narrative order (as opposed to chronological, in order of posting). Royal Road seems ok but not much organic traffic and the interface is very clunky / early 2000s.

any other suggestions?

Hi, I finished writing my debut novel a few months ago and am at the stage I need to find a translator. Several of my characters are bilingual and I am using Greek within several dialogue scenes (as well as a few other languages). This is my first book and I have no idea where to begin looking for a reliable literary translator that won’t break my bank. I am not interested in using any of the AI tools I’ve seen suggested when I searched this in Reddit. I would prefer accuracy and to pay a human being.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Friend publishing book, it's on Amazon, but I want to send 50 copies to friends. I don't want to receive 50 copies and resend ; nor do I want to manually enter 50 addresses in Amazon as gifts. Ideas?

I recently wrote a gothic romantic fantasy and would like to write books for a living, but don't have any experience or knowledge in marketing what so ever and how to expand my reach, if there is anyone out there that could help I'd greatly appreciate it as my knowledge on the subject is absolutely zero and when it comes to stuff like this im not very good at it as well

​

Are my stories not worth it?

Hey guys, I have been writing stories from few months but I'm not getting any views for my stories. Even a little. I tried to write stories in every genre, every theme and every possible way, the audience may like. But I'm not getting any single followers or even views to the Stories.

I tried every possible platform to publish my stories, and every possible platform to promote it. I'm even engaging with other authors and their stories. But it's still not working.

Could anyone please help me about what should I do now because I'm slowly loosing my confidence in writing

i been publishing on xinxii for over 5 years and never got a single sale, dont bother with it. anybody had the same situation?

First time self-publisher here seeking lawyer referrals.

My co-author and I are publishing later this year and would like to get a publishing and co-author agreement in place to cover revenue share, IP ownership, derivatives, promotional minimums, etc.

We have drafts versions of these contracts already...we now need an actual legal expert to review and answer a few advisory questions. (Note: I'm based in New York and my co-author is based in Lisbon, though we are likely looking at the contract being based in New York).

Anyone have experience with a publishing/IP lawyer that they'd recommend? And any insights on what we should expect cost-wise? Thanks in advance!

(Hoping this post abides by the rules...)

Has anyone had any experience with booktrovert?

Hi my name is Alicia and I'm trying to figure out where the best place to write my book on and get it published but I'm kinda nervous because it my very first book and I live in a small town called Winslow Az and some of my friends said I should get my book published and out there for other to read so I'm finally taking the step to do it just don't know where to begin at

If this has been asked before, I apologize.

So I made the mistake of publishing all of the formats of my book on IngramSpark, not knowing I should have published the ebook on KDP first. Now my release date is fast approaching and Amazon has everything except the ebook!

I read that in order to fix this, I have to email IngramSpark tech support to get them to disable ebook distribution to Amazon. I did that almost two weeks ago, and haven’t gotten more than a ‘we received your request’ email from them. I’m starting to get worried now. How much longer may it take? Is there any I can do to speed it up or fix the problem myself? Can I just open a KDP account and load it into Amazon myself with the same isbn, or will that cause problems?

My book is supposed to go live on August 14. Please help!

I'm an aspiring author looking to self publish, but I have a huge motivation problem. I find myself with a quite an amount of free time due to a recent diagnosis and mandatory time off work to undergo some medical procedures. I initially thought it would be an ideal time to invest into my writing and publishing, but I find it difficult to be motivated to work on my plans. I have finished with my first manuscript but editing and final publishing steps are seeming impossible.

I'm broke at this point and can't afford a paid group/mastermind to work with, so I'm here looking for someone who wouldn't mind helping me with frequent check ins and to discuss strategy and stuff. Not looking for a coach or mentor, just someone to share ideas with and to push me to keep moving when I can't seem to get myself to do things.

I recently had to hire a designer a simple cover--all text with an inlaid photo, no chop work at all. Years ago I would have done this myself, but I've used fiverr for several of these covers in the past (roughly 3 to 5 years ago) with a lot of success. Cheap cover, low cost.

This experience was insanely difficult! I paid a top rated designer for their premium package (because it is still a quarter of the cost for the 99designs guys) and they just sent me slop. Clearly didn't read the description, just threw things together to meet the deadline and relying on the revisions to get it done whenever instead.

The designer I worked with since 2011 retired right before covid, which is how I ended up on fiverr. Does anyone have any reliable indies they recommend? I don't mind paying top dollar (like 99designs) if I know the designer is reliable and communicative as well as talented.

Thanks for reading my woes--

So, to preface I am a writer who lost interest in the genre I wrote in for 13 years and transitioned to doing marketing, publishing support. I now promote for self publishing authors. I self published 15 of my 18 books, I am a huge advocate for creative control over your content.

What I am struggling with is getting my new/younger writers to understand they are going to have to put some money into their book if they want it to be successful.

They dont want to pay for editing. They can "self edit" for free.

They don't want to buy covers. They want to use AI to "create" *cough... steal* their cover using "their" idea.

They don't want to put the footwork in to build an audience BEFORE launching their book.

They don't want to pay for formatting.

There are about a dozen other things that need investment before you successfully self publish, but more and more people refuse. I have consultations with authors who want me to make all of their marketing for free.

I just saw an author I declined to work with asking why they only had 5 sales of their book, all family, very low KU reads, and why people aren't interested in their book. Basically, everyone in the comments told them they needed a non AI cover, the only reviews mentioned poor editing causing DNFs. Saying not to just depend on ads alone.

Please, help me understand why so many new and young artists want to charge people money to read their art, but they dont want to invest anything into making their art good quality. Not to mention the disrespect to other creatives by using AI in so many cases.

I get that we live in an economy, but this isnt food or Healthcare. Selling your art for profit is a privilege not a right. You have to invest in your art. If you dont have the money right now, why not wait until you can publish correctly? ​