The frustrations of self-publishing

As some of my readers here know, I recently self-published my autobiography, “Getting Down to Brass Tacks,” which is now for sale on Amazon and numerous other online stores.

Getting the job done has been a bumpy road. You can’t do it on your own unless you’re at least somewhat computer savvy and have some knowledge of formatting in Word. I did my e-book first, through BookBaby, and was able (with their excellent customer service) to get the job done on my own, but when it came to doing the print-on-demand paperback through CreateSpace, I found the process so complicated that I finally hired someone to do it for me.

After you’ve self-published your book, the inevitable question arises: Now what? Well, I’d been promoting my book here and in the social media, which aroused some interest initially. But after awhile, things cool down and you start to wonder what to do to spread the word about your book.

I started doing some research online, and found quite a number of offers to promote e-books, most of which involve paying a sizable fee, and many of them deal only with free books. As I rooted around some more, I discovered that there are authors who actually pay people to review their books. My response to all these deals was “ick.”

So where does that leave me? I’m not sure yet. I’ve always felt that self-promotion is kind of tacky, but I can see that it’s essential in the self-publishing world. I’m just going to keep on doing what I’m doing, spreading the word on social media and by word of mouth, and maybe hit up a couple of magazines for a possible review. I believe my book is a good read, so other than that, I’m just going to follow my intuition about what I should do (or not do).