Tag: small business

You’re probably tired of me saying this, but yes: self-publishing is a marathon, not a sprint. I’m in the early stages of my marathon still, but I’m looking forward and gathering research that I’d like to share with you. Without further ado, let’s get into it.

Before you can become successful, you must mentally transform your passion project into a product.

In addition to being a marathon, self-publishing is also a business. You want to make money from your books, and therefore, you are running a business.

This means once the book is for sale, you don’t think about it like your baby anymore. It becomes something that you aggressively market, regardless of how that marketing lands, and stop obsessing over so that you can write more books.

I love my books and work really hard on them, but once they’re published, they are products. I am not sitting here pondering them anymore. I’m onto the next book in the series. I don’t reread them for hours or worry about reviews other than for visibility.

That is likely because I have strong intrinsic motivation, so once my favorite part (writing) is over, I’ve wrung out all the dopamine I can get from the book and I’m okay with it becoming a product.

Now, once we’ve done the baby-to-product magic trick, we can look at the rest of the equation.

Leveraging the Flywheel Effect will benefit you more than waiting for your lucky break.

In business (including self-publishing, which is a business), there is a concept called the Flywheel Effect. Essentially, this means that every small push of the wheel compounds until the machine clicks into action and starts spinning like crazy.

You can’t really say the exact motion that caused that massive increase because you were spinning it for so long; they all worked together until their collective momentum tipped the scales.

The problem is that people who aren’t product-oriented will sit around waiting for their lucky break. They want someone to jump in and give that flywheel a god-killing spin. In many cases, they try to achieve this through bombing out with advertisements, spamming boards to advertise their book, and daydreaming a lot about what their book will look like as a movie.

And they don’t succeed, because they aren’t thinking of momentum. I understand why.

Spinning the indie flywheel is fucking boring. It’s tedious. It’s exhausting. Day after day, page after page. Of course someone would want to bypass that in one fell swoop; it would be easy. They’d sit back and let someone else do everything.

But it’s not realistic.

There are no free lunches in publishing. If you want the results, you’ve got to put in the work. You’re doing this all by yourself. No movie exec is trawling Amazon pages looking for a new idea. No publisher is lying in bed praying to connect with you.

Everything comes down to you. Your talent, your passion, your dedication, your resilience. And, yes, in the later stages, your money. We’ll get back to that in a bit.

“Big break” thinking makes you more vulnerable to scams.

I’ve discussed self-publishing scams in detail before, so I will quickly review this part. Essentially, anyone offering you instant success, like tons of reviews or comprehensive self-publishing support, is likely scamming you. They are preying on your dreams of stardom to line their pockets.

Remembering that you have to do this all by yourself will keep your wallet shut and your integrity intact. You have to spin the flywheel – no one else can do it for you.

I’m constantly being bombarded with scams, particularly book club scams. These are a peculiar scam unique to self-publishing, when some random person emails you out of the blue promising to get you 20 or 50 reviews for a “small tip” to each reader. Which, of course, means like $500 bucks for 20 reviews. Insane numbers.

But because I know I have to do all the work myself, I go, “nope, not interested.” And thus I am not out thousands of wasted dollars.

Small celebrations lead to big results.

This seems contradictory, right? We’re constantly told that if you want success, you have to dream big and not let anything stand in your way.

Ah. Of course. It’s black-and-white thinking again. Doesn’t it seem to show up everywhere?

See, the problem with this all-or-nothing mindset is that it demotivates you. When you’re focused on that huge, enormous goal, all the little wins – the excited reviews, the seven-day sales streak, the ten hits on your website – don’t seem to matter. You disregard them, then go, “Why does no one like my book?”

But those little wins are exactly what spins the flywheel.

One sale is an opportunity to convert others through word-of-mouth. Your readers aren’t passive participants; they talk about things they like with other readers who share their taste. That recommendation begets more sales, and more sales, and so on.

One website hit may lead to a newsletter subscription. If you have a good newsletter or blog posts (I think I do), then that reader may suggest others sign up too, or they may reference something you said and credit you.

One glance at your socials may result in a follow, and thus more opportunities to sell. If you have a fun, relaxed social media strategy, where you talk to your followers like people, then they start to look forward to seeing you pop up on their dashboard. They share what you post. They talk about you.

It’s hard work and can often feel like you’re shouting into the void. But remember: every action is another spin. Every sale, every post, every review. The more you spin, the closer you get to your flywheel moment. It all adds up, even when it seems like nothing is happening.

To get the flywheel in motion, you must write multiple books.

“Big break” indie authors often get caught in a fatal trap. They spend years upon years writing one singular book, then publish it, assuming they’ll reach worldwide acclaim if they keep marketing. Then they get very few sales and are very sad and never try again.

One-off books by unknown authors do not often sell well, and there’s a few reasons for this.

The algorithm does not know how to categorize you. Each reader is a data point for Amazon and other platforms. If a reader likes your book and gives it five stars, then the algorithm analyzes their other reviews to determine what kind of reader will like your books. The more reviews and books you have available, the deeper understanding the algorithm can develop, and the more precise the targeting. This means your ad conversion rates will go up: you’re getting more readers for cheaper.

Your readthrough rates drop your advertising costs. In general, indie authors get about a 30-50% readthrough rate from the first book to the second. If the reader likes your second book, they are likely to stick with you through the rest of the series. This means that for every ten people who buy your first book, you’ll get three to five more sales of your second book. The more books you have available, the more likely that you’ll get additional sales by simply advertising your first one.

More available content improves your SEO. This is why having a website is so important. Every keyword you use trains Google and other search engines to associate certain words with your brand. The more content, the more keywords, the more hits, and the more potential sales. You simply can’t build enough content around one book to start ranking.

You build name recognition. If a reader only gets one chance to engage with you, they’re not going to remember your name. This means they may recommend you once, right after reading your book, and then forget about you. More books means you’ll be stickier in a reader’s mind, and they will bring you up more often.

You’ll develop brand loyalty. You need to give readers as many chances to engage with you as possible (which is why having a website is key). A reader who really likes you will subscribe to your website, follow you on other platforms, and share posts. When they’re alerted to a new product, they’ll hop on it – and hopefully, tell other people too. Then you start making faster sales on each new book, which boosts its rank and begets more sales.

So really, the best thing you can do to make sales on your first book is to make a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth book. Or eleven books. Or a billion books. I dunno, as many as you can, at the highest level of quality you can.

I have heard that the flywheel starts to really kick in around the 6-8 book mark, though I can’t confirm that personally. I’ve noticed a lot more activity now that I have five books available; hopefully, Absent All Light (coming June 23, 2026) will build even more momentum.

But it could also be because now that I have multiple books available, I’ve started advertising more aggressively. I know I’ll get multiple sales per ad click, even if it’s only one additional sale per five sales.

As I have said before, I am significantly in the red due to expensive marketing endeavors. This is normal for any business within the first five years. It doesn’t mean I’m a failure. You’ve got to spend money before you can make money, but you have to do it strategically.

I focus on the platforms I like, and, most importantly – I price really low. Reducing the barrier to entry means more sales, even if it means I’m not recouping my losses as quickly as I’d like. I don’t have the name recognition to command tradpub pricing yet, and I understand that. Once I’m more established, I can price higher because readers can trust I know what I’m doing, and they’ll be more willing to pay that premium.

If you want one-off books, connect them with themes and keywords.

Sometimes, your book doesn’t need a sequel. That’s fine. Don’t write one just because you think you have to; write one if you feel you have more of a story to tell.

But here’s a highly underutilized tactic, one that launched Terry Pratchett to international stardom: interconnected standalone novels.

The entire Discworld series is composed of self-contained stories, all set in the same world. I love Discworld partly because you can read the books in any order and still enjoy each one, even if you have no context.

This is a tactic I intend to embrace after the Eirenic Verses is complete; I already have some great ideas for stories set in the other countries of Eirenen. I don’t know what the series name will be, but it’ll be exciting.

If you complete your first self-contained novel, consider where else you could explore in your world, then group them together in a non-sequential series (Amazon lets you not display reading order). Ensure you use similar keywords for each book so that they build upon each other.

Envision your priorities and ignore the rest.

Now, let’s return to the actual writing. I’m ending here because, well, I want you to get back to work! You can’t spin the flywheel if you’re not making something to spin with.

Overall, the best advice I can give you for self-publishing is this: build a vision. Focus on that vision rather than the day-to-day disappointments. Get excited about your small victories while using the setbacks as data points.

Your vision could be a sprawling multi-part series, as mine is, or it could be creating interesting worlds. You could have short stories, character sketches, novellas, all with similar themes.

Maybe you develop a hyperspecific niche that draws attention due to its novelty. Chuck Tingle is famous for his “tinglers,” all of which have similar themes but focus on different characters. Say what you want about his writing, but he’s developed a vision and stuck to it regardless of ridicule.

Each writer has certain priorities, whether they realize it or not. Mine is technically precise, poetic prose and deep character development. Others focus on wordplay, satire, or philosophical themes.

Some people want to write popcorn thrillers, freaky smut, shocking horror, cozy romances, absurdist literature. All of these bring great contentment to the right writer – and exceptional enjoyment to the right readers.

Sticking to what brought you to writing in the first place will bring results. They may not be exactly what you wanted, and it might not recoup your losses, but it will produce even modest returns.

In self-publishing, we have immense freedom to choose our themes, find our audience, and create work we love, without looming interference from marketing teams and ruthless editors. Why would we squander that by ignoring what makes our heart sing?

Readers feel passion. They sense your enthusiasm and authenticity. In a market choked by AI, that energy is invaluable.

Keep your nose to the grindstone; or, rather, the flywheel. Know that the only way to succeed at anything – but especially self-publishing – is to keep going.

It doesn’t matter if your first book bombs; there’s no expiration date on literature. Spinning that wheel is far more productive than wringing your hands.