I recently published my third book and I noticed something I hadn’t experienced when I published my first and second books five years ago. Readers seem more hesitant to take a chance on books from independent authors. We’ve seen a significant rise in AI-generated books, from the content itself to the covers, and I believe this has affected readers’ confidence when deciding which books are worth buying. As a result, many readers seem to be more cautious about discovering new and independent authors, making it harder for genuine indie writers to get their books noticed and earn that first chance from a reader. Or is it just me?

I was expecting it because so many people here warn you, but, wow, these scam and spam emails come through so quickly. Within hours of going live, I received an email trying to flog promotion services. I don't even have my email published anywhere, so this person had to find my website, get AI to scan my book and prepare a lengthy AI summary in his email and how wonderful my writing is.

Point of the post is more to thank everyone for sharing their scam stories on here. I'm absolutely wary of any messages I receive now. Hope I don't fall for any of them.

Hi friends! I am looking for some advice.

This morning I sent my debut novel to my editor and it has sent me into a psychosis of second guessing and back-seat editing. As in, I'm not supposed to be in this document and yet I am. I'm panicking so much so that I'm on the verge of hives, worrying that it's no good and she's going to tell me she hates it and that it sucks. (She probably wouldn't do that even if it sucked.

These are irrational thoughts, but the imposter syndrome has gotten really loud these last few days.

What do you guys do to keep yourself from spiraling after your manuscript goes to your editor?

I usually buy from Kobo and it is where I publish as well, but there is one book i need to buy that is only on KDP.

What is better for the author? KU or buying the ebook? The book sis very short.

Alright, I’ll share what seems to be working for me.

I’m building a list of people interested in the ARC for my upcoming book (launching at the end of the year), and I decided to test out a paid Instagram ad. This is the second time I’ve run this ad; I’m rolling it out gradually across different English-speaking countries to measure and compare reach and conversion rates across different nations and cultures.

The concept is simple: I created an eye-catching post featuring my book cover, the tropes, and a call for ARC readers that directs people to my profile and the sign-up form. I set the budget to 99 cents a day for five days, and so far, I’m averaging about two sign-ups per day. To put that in perspective, the cheapest service I know of—BookSirens—charges $2 per reader found. Meanwhile, I’m getting two readers for $1.

So far, I’m finding it worthwhile.

Let me know what you think in the comments, or feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Is it worth it?

Has anyone here actually run Reddit Ads for a book? I'm considering a test targeted at reader-recommendation subs, but I worry that promoted posts in those communities will draw more resentment than sales. Would love real numbers if anyone has them.

Hi folks! I’m about to send off my book blurb to my artist for the back cover of my first novel.

I’ve been a long time lurker, but would love the opinions of other authors about my blurb for my back cover before it’s set in stone. The novel is fantasy fiction, and is sitting in the first stages of editing!

Any feedback is welcomed and greatly appreciated!

“For as long as he can remember, Beryn has sought to become a Reclaimer. Becoming one means following in his father's footsteps, living up to the legacy he left behind, and pursuing his own dream of becoming a hero. It means seeking adventure and unearthing relics of the past while exploring beyond the confines of the city of Ayr. It just requires overcoming his nerves first.

For centuries, Ayr has existed above a world beset by monsters. It is the last bastion of civilization, held together by massive iron chains that bind its floating islands together, and by magic bestowed by the gods. But the city must grow, and new lands must be claimed from the world below. For Beryn, exploring these new isles is the work of a Reclaimer. The work of a hero.

Assigned to a group of fellow Reclaimers, Beryn must face new dangers, endure failure and loss, and risk both life and limb across untamed isles. With each expedition, he comes closer to uncovering secrets of a god that should not exist. The farther Beryn goes, the harder it becomes to let things stay buried, all while keeping the people he cares about safe. The world below may not be what the Priests of Ayr claim, after all.

The closer Beryn comes to achieving his dream, the less certain he becomes of what it means to be a hero, and what it means to be called a monster.”

Is it just me, or does it seem that Amazon takes a long time to send you your author copies? I ordered 6 copies of my hardcover version. It is taking nearly 3 weeks to deliver them. In the meantime, friends and family who ordered the hardcover have received theirs within a week.

There's nothing different about how these lines are spaced in the text. There's no reason I can think of why it would come out looking like this so there's nothing I can think of to do about it. If the most egregious error (with actual overlap!) wasn't landing on a very important moment in the book, I might let it slide, but this is gonna affect the reading experience. Anyone bump into this and find a fix? Pics in the comments. There's one about halfway down the page but the worst one is at the bottom. I'm gonna

It’s totally messed up my back cover design, and I wonder if there’s a way to have them address it before I go back to my designer to work around it?

My first book has been out for a few months, sales are slow, KU reads are slow, but at least not zero, I guess. I am about 2 to 3 months from releasing book two in the series. what do I need to do to get more traction on book two? I know my biggest issue with book 1 was waiting until I released it to even thing about building a base.

I’m on my final self-editing pass for my contemporary fiction/upmarket fiction novel and will be sending it off to a developmental editor soon. I have done some research on Reedsy and Fiverr and have narrowed my choices down to two editors that seem to fit my genre and what I’m looking for. Does anyone have any experience with either of these editors: Jon Roemer (Reedsy), Nicole Nueman (Fiverr)? If so, I’d love to hear your reviews for them.

I read through David Gaughran's materials on self publishing. He seems to know his stuff. He's absolutely adamant about getting a copy editor or your first reviews will be so bad you'll never sell a second copy. Funny cause others have told me readers don't care. I'm polishing a long fantasy trilogy, and a copy edit would cost somewhere between $1600 and $6300. He calls it an "investment" in my author career... but this isn't my actual career. I've got a day job and I'm a new dad so honestly there probably won't be another published book for another 5 years. I don't expect to make back this money, but if not doing so will review bomb my book and ruin the dream, then I guess I'll bite. Will be a fun conversation with the spouse.

I'm not an English major, but I've self edited to the point my critiquers and betas made no mention of conventional errors. I'm sure I'm doing some obscure grammar things wrong and there are errors for sure, but I believe my non-grammar-nazi readers won't bat an eye. Given all this context, would you recommend a copy edit?

So for context, I'm a high schooler who compiled an anthology as a part of my passion project. I did everything from scratch; reaching out to 10+ related organizations to identify participants, creating IG posts and flyers, creating application form, putting together 9-week writing period with weekly email and individual async check-in, leaving editorial feedback and more.

During my outreach, someone from one organization has offered me to act as editor. I agreed, and she had worked on alongside me to leave editorial feedback on participant pieces, giving me occasional feedback if I asked her opinion on matters like book cover.

Now we're in the formatting stage, and to my understanding, it is kind of standard to recognize one "lead editor" on the front cover. So I asked her if she'd be okay with me putting my name there AND recognize her as the co-editor in the back cover with me, and there will be preface written by her as well as About the Editor section in the back of the book.

Now she's telling me that anthologies should recognize all co-editors up on the front cover, but honestly I'm not sure, especially Im the one who's doing formatting all by myself and am funding the project with my money as well...

Honestly it is my fault for not establishing the scope of her work & how she would be recognized from the beginning. But does anyone have any advice? Is it normal to have two co-editors on the front cover?

TL;DR) I founded & coordinated practically everything of this anthology (outreach, recruitment, management, funding with my money, formatting etc) and shared only editing feedback responsibility with my co-editor, and she's asking me to put her name with mine on the front cover while I was hoping to do only mine + recognize her throughout the book & back cover. What do I do?

I'm a first time self-published author and want to create an author website so I can easily share my info, links to the selling the book, my bio, etc. What's the best website to do this? Preferably budget-friendly. Thanks!

On good reads someone left a bad review because of a scene where there was a time continuity issue. (It takes them a few hours to get there but less than an hour to get back) it's minuscule I know but I fixed it. I'm just worried people will see it and it will deter them.

Apparently we aren't allowed on Kindle and it breaks my heart if I'm not able to publish it ever.

The genre is dark romance so I can't publish it in Persian.

Help

Hi: Are you using Draft2Digital? If so, what are the pros and cons? Thank you.

I've read a few mixed things about feature deals, but I haven't seen much specifically around the new in Kindle Unlimited Deal.

Looking into sites where I can possibly run a deal for my post-apocalyptic journey thriller. 321 pages, almost 70k words. The 0.99 deal would run for seven days via KDP.

Are they any good? I don't want to drop $40 (~£30) for an ineffective promo.

I'm having no end of trouble with Books2Read at the moment.

Any suggestions for alternatives that support geolocation, Amazon, iBooks, Kobo etc?

Thanks

Curious to know if anyone ever did that.

How did you do that? Was it accepted? Did they mostly look at how much money you made or how "talented" the writing was?

So about halfway through my 1st draft, I heard about Daggermouth being accused of ai. The Atlantic i believe released an article right about the re-release day. It pisses me off and I promptly went out and bought the book.

I also started recording myself every time I work on my book. I have hours of work recorded. Plus I make jokes and talk about what I was thinking. And I also complain about regular life things. It's kind of therapeutic honestly..

I thought i would upload them all to YouTube and then if I get an accusation I can just direct them to my channel and say "Happy sleuthing."

The problem - every time I have hovered over a document in file explorer or have my file explorer open - it shows my full name. It would take me forever to blank out my personal information.

But maybe that doesn't matter. Ive been thinking about publishing under my real name anyway. This is the first book I've completed in over two year because I came to the realization that my brain simply won't comply when I try to push it to write to make money... so I wrote something where I said to myself "I dont care if it makes a dime." (Please keep in mind, I whole heartedly support authors who write to market to make a living, my brain - for two whole years was arguing about this - until I finally came to the conclusion that I just have to write whats in my heart. Unfortunately for me, cozy mystery and reverse harem are not in my heart as much as I wish they were because the 9-5 life is, well, it feels like a trap). Anyway, it's a passion project so I am very proud of it and myself.

Also, I cant help but think this would be impulsive- to post all of that. Also im a mom so my kids and my husband are heard interrupting me quite a lot - which i dont mind at all... but I do not necessarily want their voices and our conversations on the internet. There isn't anything bad. Questions about dinner, im pretty sure my mic picked up some farts (husband). Stuff like that.

Also a part of me thinks, if you think this is ai then dont read it... why should I bother? If my book resonates with you, great. If not, fine. I will use em dashes and I really dont intend to stop...

So, what unforseen consequences might there be if I were to post these videos? Is it even a good idea? Should I go through them and edit out my personal information and the conversations it picked up... or is it wasted energy?

PS over those 2 years where brain couldn't decide what to do, i discovered that gothic fantasy and dark folklore lives in my heart. The prose are ornate and there is plant horror and body horror. I love it so much. It is a story about something going on right now - about powerful people hurting the powerless... How even if these monsters seem unstoppable- nature always wins.

Edit: Thank you for your advice and I will follow it. I think the no ai used stamp is a great idea! Ultimately, I will not post any of the videos. The comments here have all said that it is basically a waste of time. But I think I will keep recording because it's almost like having someone to talk to. I really do not want to risk sharing that personal information or posting our conversations and it would really take a long time to edit out. I think if some one takes the time to read it, they will know that it is real and heartfelt... and if not, oh well I guess. Its just so frustrating how people call out normal things as ai. The Oxford comma and em dashes?! But what can you do in the end...