3 Chord Wonder
Self-publishing a book is no easy thing these days, beyond the actual psychical thing of setting the book up and getting it printed, it’s the endless thought of promoting it and thinking people must be sick of hearing me bang on about it.
99.99% of people have been brilliant, posting images on social media with positive comments, it really helps so if you’ve bought one please do it, I think that kind of thing really does help sales and I’m grateful for the effort.
Unlike the music I do, I don’t have a distributor or publishing company to help with the book, everything is basically run from one website and a 12 by 8 room, the DiY vibe is strong here. I pack the books, print the labels and stand in the queue at the Post Office.
I mean, who release a book when all the shops are shut? Me, that’s who!
Brutal Sheffield, to be fair, has gone really well, so well we had to ship stuff early and put another print run in, I really expected it to be a slow burn throughout the year but it started with a bang and has been burning steady ever since, great news and thank you for the support.
Looking at what is coming next makes me think about if I should stay DiY, as great as it is being listed on the big sites is and I admit it’s a buzz but the downside is 90 days to pay and 60% off doesn’t really spell a great future if that’s the route I want to take, maybe a mix of both will be idea but we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
At the minute I’m loving doing the DiY and dealing with people directly, I think it’s something myself and The Black Dog are good at, we’ve always done it and for the better part it always pays off.
But let’s talk about the .01%, you’ll never please everyone, we all know that but don’t one of these people and knock peoples ducks off. Some people think I’m Amazon but the reality is, I wait until there are enough orders and then I pack them to send off. No-one thinks the price of postage is a rip off than me but I don’t make any profit from the postage, that’s what it costs to send something First Class, it’s not like I have any influence over it.
I’ve already seen Brutal Sheffield advertising with 20% off and free postage and I’m sat here thinking fuckers how do I compete with that! The answer is I can’t I’m not a massive box/book shifter but it has made a shift in my consciousness to order the books I want directly from the author or publisher because I’d rather they make the most profit they can so they can carry on doing what they do.
Looks to me like the DiY spirit is back with a bang. Here are three words: Write A Book now go out and do it.
