I’ve shared with you the trials and tribulations of my path to indie publication — getting the agent, losing the agent, and reinventing myself by owning my “authorship.” Now, I’m thrilled to share a few of the accomplishments and setbacks of my first three years in print as Starr Creek Press, which I founded in August of 2020 with the publication of my first novel, Believe. First, the accomplishments!
- Published four books: Believe, my MG tear-jerker; Vasilisa and Elena the Brave, Books One and Two of my YA Old Rus series based on Russian folklore; and The Starlet Letter, Book One of my five-part cozy, historical mystery series.
- Won the following awards: the Eric Hoffer Book Award for Best Middle Reader, the Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award for Debut Books, The American Book Fest Award for Best Children’s Fiction, The Writer’s Digest Self-Pub Ebook Award for Best YA novel, two BookLife Prize Semi-finalist and one Wishing Shelf Award Finalist accolades, and a starred review from Kirkus coupled with a feature in Kirkus Magazine.
- Sold 3,500 books, and in addition to the print and ebook sales, there have been 55,000 pages read on Kindle. This may not sound like a lot, but considering exposure has been 100% my job, I’m thrilled with this outcome. Over half of those come from my 2023 year-to-date sales, so sales are accelerating, thanks mostly to advertising on Amazon. I also got an order for 100 copies of Believe out of the blue from a non-profit based in Houston that supports disadvantaged youth. That sort of thing really makes my day!
- Set up all the infrastructure of my business including accounts, a website, distribution systems, and reader outreach through a variety of online venues. I freelance with a cover designer and copy editor, but everything else I’ve learned to do myself, from interior book formatting and type-setting, to running ad campaigns, marketing, and more.
- Maintained two blogs, my Positively Flummoxed Blog, a celebration of analog values in the digital age, and Why Books Matter on my author website.
- Written six articles for the Oregon chapter of the Society for Children’s book Writers and Illustrators, and two articles for Publisher’s Weekly’s BookLife magazine with a third in the works.
- Been featured as a panelist on BookLife’s Indie Author Forum, talking about how to leverage awards as an Indie author. I also did a 1 hour zoom talk with students in Oregon State University’s College of Liberal Arts about paths to publication as part of their Social Action Works series.
- Done a handful of guest blogs and interviews, both in print and podcast format.
- Connected meaningfully with scores of readers, fellow authors and industry professionals while following my vision and encouraging others to do the same.
Now, for the setbacks:
- I am nowhere near profitable. The costs associated with running your own imprint, even when done on a shoestring, are impressive. I incur additional expense by hiring a cover designer and copy editor for each book, but I feel it’s worth it to have a quality product.
- Increasing my margin on advertised books is a constant struggle. Advertising on Amazon has been a game changer, but it takes some time to crack the code. I’m starting to realize a profit there that I hope I can scale up. It’s easy as an indie author to realize you’re giving books away for free, or even “paying” people to read your book. In the long term, I’m committed to financial stability as well as artistic freedom.
- I’ve abandoned, for the moment, my efforts to be placed in brick-and-mortar bookstores. It can be done as an indie author, but the process requires so much work that I’ve decided to focus first on online sales. And an indie author will never be able to replicate the kind of access to bookstores that traditionally published authors enjoy. As a lover of bookstores, this is a bummer, but the truth is that for the most part, bookstores still belong to the big guys. There are a number of pricing and distribution problems that are difficult to crack.
That’s a pretty short list of setbacks! Granted, financial profitability and access to bookstores are big-ticket items. But I have found that the compensations of being indie are well worth the sacrifice. I get to own all of it — the vision, the business, the timeline, and ultimately the whole process of connecting with readers. If you’re one of those, thanks for coming along for the ride. I’ll be focusing for a while on the next few books in my Canary House Mysteries before returning to finish out the Old Rus series, while I try to increase exposure for those books. In 2024, I’ll be releasing my first audio book of Believe. And I have a sequel in mind for Believe as well. I hope you’ll continue to be a reader, and if you have any thoughts on what you’d like to see from Starr Creek Press, don’t hesitate to contact me through my website or at starrcreekpress@gmail.com. Happy reading!
