I have been planning a short how to book on self publishing the last few months. For whatever reason, royalties on the material I published a couple (or more) years ago have risen. Sparking my newfound desire to write/publish again. As fate would have it, someone I began following not that long ago (for a different topic) began writing on self publishing. His latest post that spurred me to write this one can be found here.
I laugh as I write this, as I am responding to a question he had on my comment there, as it shed light on my misunderstanding of his post. One that shouldn't have been made, but in my defense I am tired much of the time from a physically demanding job (and working for myself around that job). His post dealt with self publishing solely as non-fiction for hard copy books, not for ebooks as I focused on (I only turned one into print, and what a waste of time that was for me). My misunderstanding was his referencing KDP several times from the beginning of his post. Back when I was still writing (just a few years ago) one used CreateSpace, it hadn't been closed down and pulled in house into KDP.
So, now that I have acknowledged that blunder, I wanted to cover the differences I see between writing fiction and non. They are such vastly different beasts, and I know this firsthand.
I initially was convinced to start writing from one of the early KDP gurus, Stefan Pylarinos. I kept seeing his ads and videos everywhere, and he made it seem so easy to make tons of money. He was of course marketing his KDP mastery course, which in all fairness ot him I can't rate as I never bought it. Instead, I watched hours of his videos on YT, and became convinced I could make my fortune writing non fiction as he was. So in total ignorance (thankful for that ignorance) I began my journey. My first how-to book was my best selling non fiction, a how to manual for selling on Amazon FBA. I had been selling there for about a year, doing a decent amount (averaged about 500 a month doing it very part time with mostly books I would otherwise have been throwing out from auctions I bought at).
Convinced by my initial success (meager as it was), I began writing on subjects where I wasn't quite as proficient. The results showed immediately. Very little in the way of sales. Not one to quit, I used another trick Stefan advocates, I hired some ghostwriters and had a few books written for me. You can imagine my dismay when they also fared very poorly (here we are almost 5 years later and I still haven't recouped what I paid the ghostwriters, let alone the ads I bought to market them).
I studied the bestseller lists on those subjects long and hard before I finally saw the forest despite the trees.
Nonfiction was a hard sell because there are a ton of books on just about every subject. Books that (if written factually) are basically regurgitating the same methods/facts. Those who were doing well in those fields primarily were doing so because they had credentials as an expert before they began writing the books. The few making it without being quite an expert were either sharing their unique travel in that area (what I did with my first one), or they were masters at creating funnels (this part is crucial regardless).
So I donned my investigation hat and in no time I came across an IamA post on Reddit by a 5 figure a month erotica author. I felt elated as I read her story and answers. Once again my ignorance saved the day, in that I was unaware of how atrocious my writing mechanics were (still are, although they improved a lot). So I studied the Kboards, and promptly began writing my first short erotica series. It flopped, but I garnered enough sales I continued writing. Enough sales that I knew I was onto something. While no story is really original at this point, the unique style of ones own personality made each story different, much like my first how to book was. And, I found I was really good at writing stories. Enough so that as months went on, I wrote a series of novellas that became the one and only novel I put into a hard copy book (which never sold one copy as paperback). But the series reviews were gold for me. Many grammar nazis begging me to hire an editor, while simultaneously urging me to continue writing as I could weave a tale.
I eventually moved to an area of erotica that are very short, as the ceiling is easier to reach. All told, from about two years of writing, I have made a little over 40k in royalties. They continue to drip in, and last month I made a little over 400.00. This month it will be around 250.00.
I'm not going to go into the intricacies of each hat a self publisher needs to wear, as that would fill a small book (the one i will be writing soon). I will say that there are many facets to it (covers, editing, marketing, how each sales platform works in how they rank books, mailing lists, etc).
I am going to toss my hat back into writing very soon, and non fiction to boot. Not because I believe U would make much from the books themselves. Self published books are an excellent way to create funnels to other endeavors one is pursuing. Most people think YouTube now, but many folks are still using books to funnel people to their product.
One last thought on self publishing via ebook or print. The royalties on ebooks are vastly higher than for print. And if you are lucky enough to be signed (I use lucky loosely here), be aware that many authors who sign contracts find their books not selling because the publisher isn't marketing it much. So whether you self publish or get signed, plan on honing your marketing skills regardless. It seems daunting at first, but I have witnessed authors whose writing made mine look stellar sell more books than one can believe, the flip being authors who write great losing money trying to self publish.
A big thank you to 
