After sitting in a few Clubhouse rooms and talking to a few writers on X (formerly known as Twitter) I am going to put my backlist on this website — which is referred to as ‘going wide’. That means the books I have already self-published will be available here under a link called Shop or Store or whatever they allow me to call it.
I’m doing this because I need to get my books in the hands of readers. Duh. I also do not want to wait for an agent and new titles to make that happen. In 2024 I plan to make some big changes in the way I spend my time so I am preparing for it now. This is one of my strategies.
I’m excited about this move because I have not been good at marketing my titles, yet I do want people to read them 🙂 so I need to give you guys - as well as others – a place to do that without having to search for them on Amazon, Wal-Mart or Barnes & Noble (where they are currently available). So I wanted to share the process just in case you consider ‘going wide.’
Before I can sell on this site, I have to upgrade to the Creator level, which at this writing, comes out to about $22 per month. Not bad considering I am paying more than that on Shopify for my headband business slg58headbands.com. I’m going to close that shop in 2024 in order to utilize funds here, so will be looking for a local flea market to get rid of my inventory.
Next I can import plugins to sell. The main one they offer here is Woo Commerce and some authors say it works well. But I also want to offer Paypal and that is a separate plugin. Not sure how much that will cost but after I set it all up I will come back and let you know. I did check some YouTube videos to get the skinny on setting up the payment part but very few address that. Smh.
If you don’t already have one, you’ll need an ebook cover to showcase your books. I use getcovers.com to do my covers for both paperback and ebook because they do good work and are inexpensive. I did give them design direction, so if you know what you want make sure you tell them up front.
That is as far as I have gotten. I plan to sell mostly ebooks here. If I offer paperback they will be signed but for an extra fee since I cannot afford to ship out a bunch of books on my own. Those, as well as the ebooks, will still be available on book sites if you want to go that route; however, I will be offering new books I self-publish exclusively on this site. I have a YA romcom, a Middle Grade fantasy, and an Upper MG Historical novel I need to get out there. If and when I get an agent, my future books will be available in the usual way.
So I hope this helps you. Leave a comment and let me know your book marketing strategies. Cheers!
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