Lessons I Learned Publishing My First Book
- Sara Lilienfeld
- Oct 8
- 3 min read
My debut novel, Magic & Murder in the Holler, was published a little over two weeks ago. As the emotional high of accomplishing the huge goal of writing a book has started to wear off, I thought now would be a good time to look back on some of the lessons I learned throughout this process. Overall, I think the launch went well, but there are definitely some mistakes I made along the way, things I wished I'd handled differently, or lessons I didn't expect to learn.
Don't Rush to Be Print-Ready
I gave myself over four months to have everything ready before my book's release. I finished the proofread edit and did a cover reveal in May, announced a release date in June and the novel came out in September.
Naturally, I was excited when my manuscript was done and uploaded my files into Amazon KDP and Ingram Spark as soon as I could so that I could get author proofs and start advertising pre-orders. I received my proofs and found more than a few typos or errors I'd missed during the first proofread. I wound up needing to upload multiple revised versions of the manuscript over the next few weeks as I found and fixed errors that slipped past me initially. Having to do so didn't delay or cost me anything, but it caused me a lot of stress that I could've spared myself if I'd taken more time and done additional rounds of proofreading, rather than rush to have everything print-ready as soon as possible.
The Checklist Never Ends
Write a book. Complete some revisions. Get a cover. Market the book a bit. Make it available to buy. That's all it takes to publish a book, right? Sounds easy.
Unfortunately, a lot more goes into self-publishing a book, and most of it happens behind the scenes, from formatting to acquiring ISBNs to filing documents to figuring out the monetary side of things. I sat down, months ahead of release, and made a list of everything I knew I needed to get done before publication day and there were still random to-dos I was working on the day my book came out. They were relatively minor tasks, like updating links on my social media/website, but they still needed to be completed. Now that I'm aware of some of those "straggler tasks" I overlooked this time, I know to put them on the checklist for my next release.
Packaging and Shipping
This one is relatively minor, but I wished I'd been a little more organized when it came to packing up and shipping out the orders that were placed directly with me through Ko-Fi. All of the orders shipped on time, but I underestimated how long it would take me to pack things up or how long it would take books to reach certain destinations. I could've very easily come up with a smoother process to handle them, if I'd spent the time to do so.
The Story Won't Be for Everyone, and That's Okay
It was hard the first few times that I told someone about my book and they responded with a polite "I don't think its a good fit for me" or "that's not the kind of thing I usually read". I thanked them for hearing me out and moved on, but it hurt a little bit. It took some time for me to accept that the rejection wasn't personal, but a matter of that person's individual tastes in books. Not everyone I come across fits my audience, yet it took me a little bit of time to accept that.
Author Friends are Lifesavers
Making connections and forming friendships with other authors has been invaluable. Some of my author friends beta read for me; others provided me with some useful resources when I wasn't sure how to handle an issue that arose or just listened when I needed to talk (re: vent) about a struggle I was having. I've lost count of questions I had during my publishing journey that other authors were kind enough to answer for me. Some of my earliest supporters were fellow authors, and I can't thank them enough for all their help.
Until next time!
Magic & Murder in the Holler is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop and most other retailers. I'm also selling signed copies directly on my Ko-Fi shop.
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