Lessons from My Second Year of Self-Publishing

Iris Marsh
20 dec 2024
8 minuten om te lezen

Has it really been another year?

Like last year, I’d love to share my experience with you during my self-publishing journey. While everyone’s journey is different, and what works for me might not work for you, I hope you’ll find some inspiration and ideas here.

You can also learn from my mistakes (because yes, I’ve made plenty of those).

In this post, you’ll find out whether I reached any of my goals from last year (spoiler alert: not many at all), the lessons I’ve learned in this second year of self-publishing, and what my goals are moving forward in 2025.

The Result of My Goals
My Goals for 2025
In Short: The Lessons
What Are Your Goals for 2025?

Lessons from my second year of self-publishing

The Result of My Goals

1. Write & publish the sequel

I accomplished this goal! Hoozah!

There was a lot of delay here. I didn’t publish in February/March as I’d hoped. I published it at the end of August.

Turns out having a baby eats into your time a lot more than I expected. Not to mention that there are periods where you’ll just feel too drained to write or edit.

But I did publish it, concluding my very first duology.

As for results, I sold 7 copies of the book after launch (of which 1 paperback and 1 hardcover), and it has 4 reviews with a 4.7 average.

As of writing, I sold 2 more copies of the sequel, so 9 total.

2. Write & publish a reader magnet

Almost made this goal. It's finished, but I haven't published it yet.

The cover is being made, and then I’ll just have to format, work on the blurb, and set everything up in BookFunnel (which is what I use to deliver the reader magnet).

Once that’s done, I’ll start promoting it. I’m curious to see if it’ll help with my newsletter growth (and perhaps even sales).

3. Research & write book 1 of a new series

I’m still working on this goal.

Currently, I’m still in the research phase. But it’s a very extensive research phase. Hopefully, I can improve my writing process this way, and I won’t have to write multiple first drafts before I get the story I’m after.

4. Increase the nr of subscribers on my email list

Well, I did increase it and now have more than 100 (271 as of writing, to be exact).

Most of these new subscribers came from a BookSweeps promotion. They’re going to do something a bit different now, though, so I’m not sure yet how that’s going to work for future promotions.

Either way, it did help a bit, as I did get a couple of sales. But as I didn’t use tracked links (note to self to use this next time), it’s a bit tough to say exactly.

5. Increase the nr of reviews

Well, I wanted at least 20, but I’m a bit stuck at 15.

That’s okay, though, because I didn’t do any of the actions I was going to use to increase the reviews.

Why? Well, I felt I was already spread a bit thin in terms of focus, so I let this goal slide.

6. Earn $100 a month from Illuminated

Not by a long shot.

According to Book Report, I’ve earned (as of writing) $55.63 in total last year. Of this, $31.42 was from Illuminated.

But if I look at my earnings for 2023 (which doesn’t include the launch), my earnings were $27.79 for Illuminated. Which means that the sales have remained relatively stable; they haven’t dipped or disappeared completely.

So, I still think it’s possible if I work on the book and make the necessary changes so it converts well.

Because right now, my conversion still sucks (I’m getting like 1 sale per 35 clicks, which isn’t profitable in the least).

On the plus side, I changed my cover, and I finally got it right (it’s now to market & looking good!).

I also made some changes to my first chapter, and I haven’t had any 10-page reads in KU since (meaning they didn’t like it enough to continue). It’s either been just 1 page (so they realized fairly quickly this wasn’t their thing) or the whole thing.

My Goals for 2025

1. Plot & write my new series

Writing will always be the number one goal: getting more books out there in the world and becoming better as a writer.

I’ll change my writing process as a test. So, this is how I’m going to approach the writing part:

Research books like mine & note down the commonalities. With a spreadsheet approach (awesome idea I got during a group coaching session from Best Page Forward), I can see which elements/tropes I should definitely have in there and which ones I can play around with to create something that hits the right reader expectations while still being unique.
Plot the bones of the series, meaning a large plot overview (beginning, middle, end) as well as the main characters (both protagonists and antagonists).
Create a blurb and premise for each book in the series, and send out the blurb of book 1 to gauge if it fits with what readers want.
Plot the books with a detailed plot for book 1 (down to each scene) and a more overarching plot for books 2 and 3 (major structure).
Write the first draft of book 1.
Send it to my developmental editor.
Detail the plot of book 2 & write the first draft.

I’m guessing that’ll take me to the end of the year, although I’m hoping I can also write the first draft of book 3. Or rework book 1 (I haven’t quite decided yet whether I want to do a first draft of the entire series first or not).

Either way, I’m not expecting to be ready to publish a book next year, but hopefully, this approach will allow me to publish the trilogy in quicker succession.

2. Improve my website

Not a writing-related goal. But I’ve done essentially nothing with my website for the last year or two. And I’d like to improve it again to use it to attract potential readers. With my reader magnet finished, I’ll hopefully get some organic newsletter subscribers that way.

So, here’s the plan:

Improve the layout so it's clearer and easier to navigate.
Clean up my blog with a content audit & again improve navigation to different posts.
Actually use the blog to add some more personal posts with my writing progress.
And create more book lists to add to the blog (I’m aiming for once a quarter).

3. Grow my email list to 1000 subscribers

Considering I’m only about a quarter to that goal, it’s perhaps a bit much. But I’d really like to hit that number. And with my reader magnet done, I do have more options to get more subscribers. Here are some things I’ll do:

Put the magnet on my website, where they can read it in exchange for their email.
Use BookFunnel group promos and newsletter swaps to promote the reader magnet.
The Written Word Media Subscriber Surge Giveaway. I missed this one last year as I didn’t realize they could be full. So I’ll keep an eye on it this year.

4. Earn $100 a month from Illuminated

Yep, it’s a repeat goal. Like I said, I think it’s doable if I can get my conversion to improve.

And you may wonder: how are you going to do that?

I had a sales page analysis done by the lovely coaches at Best Page Forward. They determined my blurb is most likely the issue. So, I purchased a blurb from them, which I’ll get in January. I’ll put the new blurb into action, and I’ll reevaluate my conversion (using Amazon ads).

In addition, I’ve had a 1:1 coaching session to check some additional things like metadata and the setup of my Amazon ads. It was very enlightening! (If you’re looking for some coaching, I can highly recommend the Best Page Forward coaches.)

This has resulted in the following plan:

Use the blurb I bought, gather data, and reevaluate (meaning gather 100 clicks on Amazon ads, and then calculate conversion with actual sales data).
Hopefully, that’ll improve the conversion. Then I can adjust the metadata, meaning the 7 KDP keywords, to something a little more optimized. You can check this with your Amazon auto ads after gathering data again. (I can’t divulge all the info here, I don’t think that’d be fair to BPF.)
Once that’s done, and the conversion is still not where I’d want it, I can work on gathering more reviews. I’m still not 100% certain what the best way will be for this, so I’ll likely ask for another coaching session at that point.
After that, I can check the pricing for the genre, which may be higher than I've currently priced my books, and see if that changes things.
All the while, I’ll create more ads using the method from my Ad School course. Important note: SPENDING MORE MONEY ON ADS WHEN YOUR CONVERSION ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH ISN’T GOING TO SOLVE ANYTHING. That's a reminder for me too. In this case, I’ll create the ads when I have time, and then schedule them to start after I’ve changed my blurb.

In addition, I’ll have at least one free promo in January after I change the blurb to kick-start the ads. If the conversion improves, I’ll probably do quarterly promos, alternating free and discounted.

We’ll see how it goes!

In Short: The Lessons

I think the most important thing I learned is that if you don’t seem to get the result you want, ask for help. Yes, coaching costs money. Yes, buying a blurb costs money. (Trust me, I don’t like throwing away money either.)

But what if that’s the thing that’ll get your book to sell?

Don’t just throw money at a wall and see if it’ll stick, though. Ask professional advice first and then create a plan based on their recommendations.

And always keep improving your writing and search for ways to optimize your process. After all, it’s hard to create a career as an author if you don’t get your books out there.

And finally, don’t set too many goals for yourself (like I did for 2024). If you find out you won’t accomplish all the goals you set, be kind to yourself. It’s okay.

Remember that some progress is still progress. Don’t get discouraged. Evaluate what happened this year and what you can do next year to improve. Be kind to yourself if life happened and you didn’t get as much done as you’d hoped.

What Are Your Goals for 2025?

Well, now you know the results of my second year of self-publishing, along with some of the mistakes I made and things I’ve learned.

What have your results been for 2024? Perhaps you nailed it and feel like you’ve finally made the progress you’re hoping for.

Or perhaps it looked more like my year, with some hits and misses.

What are your goals for 2025? And how are you planning to accomplish them?

If you need any help or support, feel free to shoot me an email!