okie ✧˖° i came across a handful of anthology open calls, all due this weekend, and an wondering if anyone has experience with successful publication alongside a multi-author project as such ?

did you enjoy fulfilling the prompt(s) ?
is it easier having a word cont. limit ?
was there any financial gain ?
new readers supporting your journey ?

let’s discuss ! (please)

Hola

Publique un libro en Amazon hace algún tiempo. He conseguido 100 descargas gratuitas, una venta, dos libros leídos por completo en Kindle unlimited y 0 reseñas.

Las lecturas por unlimited se realizaron en tres días es decir cada una de las personas que ingresó leyó el libro en tres días, llegué a esa conclusión porque en tres días se leyeron 151 páginas que es el total del libro. Sé que el libro engancha porque un par de lectores me lo dijo.

La única venta se dió por Amazon Ads me encontraron por que buscaron un libro muy popular, vieron el mío y decidieron comprarlo.

No sé qué hacer. Podrían darme sus opiniones? 🥹

Adjunto sinopsis (portada en mi perfil) .

SINOPSIS

No la estaba buscando. Solo deslizaba el dedo por la pantalla, como cualquier otro día… cuando ella apareció. Sara Cliville. Cantante pop. Sonrisa perfecta. Una imagen bastó para que mi mundo orbitara únicamente alrededor de ella.

Primero fue su música, luego sus entrevistas, y después... Karen. La amiga, la colega, la sombra constante a su lado. Cada gesto, cada mirada entre ellas me decía que había algo más.

Las redes empezaron a hablar. Las fans las adoraban juntas. Yo solo observaba cada mirada, cada roce, cada rumor. Mientras más investigaba, más quería. ¿Era amor lo que veía? ¿Era real?

Todos lo veían. Pero yo fui la única que decidió seguir cada pista… hasta el final.

151 páginas

Thriller psicológico

Posdata: Mi objetivo es aumentar ventas y lecturas en KDP select.

A lot of people told me to slow down. To take breaks. To stop trying to do everything at once.

But somehow, I never really managed to stop. For months, it was always the same: writing, marketing, cover design, legal stuff, taxes, social media. You name it.

I published the first book in my sci-fi romance series, translated the entire thing into English, and kept writing book two at the same time. All while trying to stay active on social media, of course.

And now? Things are finally starting to move. I have readings coming up. The English translation is with my ARC readers. Opportunities are opening up. The ball is slowly starting to roll.

And what happened to me?

I burned myself out. Exactly what everyone warned me about.

I should be promoting my upcoming English release right now. We all know how important it is to build momentum before a book launch.

But I can't. Not because I don't want to. Not even because I don't have the time.

I just have nothing left in my creative tank. It feels like my brain has completely run out of ideas. Like I've used up every last bit of creativity I had.

Now book two has stalled. I'm not promoting book one. I'm barely creating anything at all.

And the frustrating part is that things are finally happening. All those months of hard work are starting to pay off, and here I am, unable to keep up with them.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love being an author. The people I've met, the opportunities that have come my way, the feeling of creating something that's entirely my own. I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything.

And this isn't a pity post. I'm pretty sure the creative block will eventually lift once I've had enough time to recover.

But maybe someone out there needs to hear this, especially if you're currently trying to do everything at once:

Don't work yourself into the ground. Nobody is going to thank you for it. Least of all yourself.

I know Amazon KDP has its advantages, but I don't know whether I can bring myself to support Amazon. Authors who've chosen to "go wide": which ebook platforms would you recommend (or not recommend) and why? I'm particularly interested in platforms suited to the US market.

So its gonna be around 35 pages.13-15 poems. Most of which are lyric poems (rhyminv, stanzas, meters) and 4-5 of them are in free form. All are about experiences and perceptions of a child persona (in his home, town, and growing up).

My concern is although I try my best to fit them into order ( Ive written the lyric poems long before; then the free verses are like almost different depth/syntaxes and such which Ive written for a week last last month so theyre like rly linked), is it gonna be not a good idea to join all of them in this chapbook?

What could be a strategy in like being intentional here. What particular questions should I ask myself in like making all of them coherent, if all of them haveing at least a unifying theme (above) would not be enough?

PS. I hope that Im in the right subreddit

For those of you who do custom bookmarks, stickers, etc., would you mind posting photos of your goodies? I'm curious what companies you guys are using and what your thoughts are on the price and quality. Plus it's fun to see everyone's stuff :)

I have an existing book on KDP in paperback and Kindle versions, and the hardcover is printed by Ingram Spark and dropped shipped for Amazon when someone orders it.

When I published this book in 2019, I don't think KDP offered the hardcover option, but around that time frame KDP had a bad rep for hardcover quality, so I went with IS and am still with them.

I've been pleased with the hardcovers that IS produces.

I am writing the 2nd Edition of this book.

I'd like to hear opinions on the current quality of KDP printed hardcovers. Are they of high quality or are there known, consistent problems with them.

Thanks in advance for your help!

I recently self-published my first book, and one thing I genuinely wasn’t prepared for was feeling like I have to constantly prove that the artwork and creative work surrounding my book wasn’t AI-generated.

I hired actual artists to help bring the project to life. I hired an illustrator through Etsy to create character art, a separate artist for my cover, and someone to design my website. I even commissioned an illustrated version of myself for my About Me page so that I would match the art style of the characters throughout the site.
Someone saw that illustration and immediately assumed it was AI.

I responded and explained that no, it wasn’t AI. I specifically hired an artist and had myself illustrated in the same style as my characters because I wanted everything on the website to feel cohesive. I almost didn’t want to delete the comment either, because I’d rather publicly explain where the artwork came from than make it look like I’m trying to hide something.

I’ve actually started linking my artists in my Linktree alongside my Amazon/Barnes & Noble links. Partly because I WANT to credit and support the people who worked on my book, but also because I feel this weird pressure to have receipts showing that real people made this stuff.

TikTok has made it even more frustrating. I’ve uploaded artwork I commissioned only for TikTok to automatically label the post as potentially containing AI-generated content. So now I’m explaining, “No, these are my characters and I hired an illustrator to draw them.”
It’s just such a strange time to be a self-published author.
There absolutely is a ton of AI-generated art and content out there, so I understand why people are skeptical. But it sucks for authors and artists who are actually paying and supporting other creatives to then be accused of using AI anyway.

And now that I’m marketing my book more heavily, there’s this little fear in the back of my mind that the more people my work reaches, the more often I’m going to have to defend it.

I’m curious if other self-published authors are running into this too. Have you ever had your cover, character art, website, writing, etc. accused of being AI when it wasn’t? And do you respond to those comments, ignore them, or delete them?

EDIT: I ended up just blocking them. 😅 I explained that I hired actual artists for my cover/character artwork, but they seemed determined to keep trolling no matter what I said.
Thank you to everyone who gave genuine feedback! I’m just starting to advertise my book, so I guess part of that is learning not to feed the trolls. Going forward, I think blocking and moving on is a lot better than wasting my energy responding to hate. ✨

I published on Ingram Spark and have my settings set to non-returnable. I contacted my first couple of book stores. One said they're stoked to stock my book. Another said they are also keen but want me to change to returnable rather than non-returnable. How common is that requirement for smaller (or even larger) book stores? Do most expect your book settings to be set to "returnable?" I understand the inherent risk involved. So I'm looking for advice from people who have experienced this before. For better or worse.

If so has any benefit come from it?

Do you see a purpose?

Heard you can join for cheaper in October