What makes a self published a book a failure?
To any average browser looking for something to read, a self publishing failure is one of those books that has zero reviews, is around 6,000,000 on the sales rank, has a cringe-worthy cover, and/or, if you pop open the sample, seven typos in the first sentence greet you. For those with experience in the (self) publishing business, failure is defined in basically the same way, only with words like "profit" and "margin" and "visibility" thrown in. But have you truly failed?
It's common knowledge that self published authors don't make much (or any) money off of their efforts. In fact, one article claims that self published authors make less than $500 from their efforts. But many authors believe that they will be the exception, the one that will rise to the top and be made into a movie while millions rave about how amazing their book is. So when they fall short of these astronomical goals, they feel that their book has failed, and by connection, they have failed. And according to their own standards, they have.
But failure is relative, as is success. For some, writing a book is success enough. I applaud those people who don't need money to measure how well they've done. But many hope to make enough money from their books to live off of (or, heck, just make a profit from all the expenses they put into producing their book). For these people, money, sales ranks, and popularity is inevitably going to come into the picture.
For example, imagine that Author #1 and Author #2 are tied for #208,664 in the Amazon Kindle Paid store. (I'm not sure if a tie is possible, but for the purposes of this explanation, roll with it.) As I speak/write, Author #1 is jumping for joy in his apartment. His book has only been in the millions for sales rank, and after some new marketing methods he's tried, his book has been boosted up thousands of rankings over time. His popularity has been slowly rising, and recently it's exploded for no apparent reason. When he looked at his rank today, it was over a thousand places higher-his personal record.
But Author #2 is angry. She's done the same marketing push for her second novel as she has for her first novel, if not a better one-she even set up a preorder!- and yet, her second book hasn't even touched the rank of her first, which is hovering around #9978. It's been about a month now, and while her sales aren't bad, they're languishing compared to that of her first book. She's thought her strategies through again and again, yet she can't figure out where she went wrong.
I write this to say that success is relative to each person's experiences, hopes and dreams. You are free to set your own goals, because no one will share the exact same experience in self publishing. For example, you and a friend could do the exact same marketing techniques, but end up thousands of sales ranks away from each other. Some things won't work for you like it did for others, and vice versa-and the great thing about self publishing is that you have time to figure it out. But just remember that getting swept up in the idea of achieving perfect success doesn't do you and your work any favors. Start from the beginning and work your way up, and then you'll end up much happier with your results.
I hope this was helpful. :)
To any average browser looking for something to read, a self publishing failure is one of those books that has zero reviews, is around 6,000,000 on the sales rank, has a cringe-worthy cover, and/or, if you pop open the sample, seven typos in the first sentence greet you. For those with experience in the (self) publishing business, failure is defined in basically the same way, only with words like "profit" and "margin" and "visibility" thrown in. But have you truly failed?
It's common knowledge that self published authors don't make much (or any) money off of their efforts. In fact, one article claims that self published authors make less than $500 from their efforts. But many authors believe that they will be the exception, the one that will rise to the top and be made into a movie while millions rave about how amazing their book is. So when they fall short of these astronomical goals, they feel that their book has failed, and by connection, they have failed. And according to their own standards, they have.
But failure is relative, as is success. For some, writing a book is success enough. I applaud those people who don't need money to measure how well they've done. But many hope to make enough money from their books to live off of (or, heck, just make a profit from all the expenses they put into producing their book). For these people, money, sales ranks, and popularity is inevitably going to come into the picture.
For example, imagine that Author #1 and Author #2 are tied for #208,664 in the Amazon Kindle Paid store. (I'm not sure if a tie is possible, but for the purposes of this explanation, roll with it.) As I speak/write, Author #1 is jumping for joy in his apartment. His book has only been in the millions for sales rank, and after some new marketing methods he's tried, his book has been boosted up thousands of rankings over time. His popularity has been slowly rising, and recently it's exploded for no apparent reason. When he looked at his rank today, it was over a thousand places higher-his personal record.
But Author #2 is angry. She's done the same marketing push for her second novel as she has for her first novel, if not a better one-she even set up a preorder!- and yet, her second book hasn't even touched the rank of her first, which is hovering around #9978. It's been about a month now, and while her sales aren't bad, they're languishing compared to that of her first book. She's thought her strategies through again and again, yet she can't figure out where she went wrong.
I write this to say that success is relative to each person's experiences, hopes and dreams. You are free to set your own goals, because no one will share the exact same experience in self publishing. For example, you and a friend could do the exact same marketing techniques, but end up thousands of sales ranks away from each other. Some things won't work for you like it did for others, and vice versa-and the great thing about self publishing is that you have time to figure it out. But just remember that getting swept up in the idea of achieving perfect success doesn't do you and your work any favors. Start from the beginning and work your way up, and then you'll end up much happier with your results.
I hope this was helpful. :)