What Self-Publishing Looks Like in 2023

I sometimes can’t believe I’ve been on this grind for at least six years. Six years ever since I started taking my self-publishing journey seriously. Six years ever since I burned all the ships, so to speak, and said goodbye to my engineering career so I could focus on writing full-time, with no guarantees that it’ll work out in the end.

I haven’t been what you would call overly successful with this whole endeavour, if you’re looking at it from a purely financial perspective (though it has been a net positive overall). I know people who sell well into the six figures, and others at least who experience consistent sales. Nothing in this journey has ever been what you would call “easy.” Every book release feels like I’m pushing a wheelbarrow in the mud. Sometimes the wheelbarrow moves. Sometimes the wheels just spin and spin and I’m just left standing there with sore arms and mud on my face.

Ever since I took my debut fantasy novel back from the indie press that published it a year ago, and started self-publishing my own works, I’ve written and published nine books. Three of those were picked up Hachette. The rest are still under my self-publishing imprint, Liam’s Vigil. On top of that, I have one upcoming book under a coop publishing imprint, Snowy Wings. In short, I’ve done a lot of work, and I wanted to look back to see what my resounding conclusion is from all this effort.

The conclusion: publishing is really, really fucking hard.

This is not the road to riches people think it is, though I know, looking at outliers, it may feel that way. (And if you’re an outlier, understand that it is very, very difficult to mimic your journeys–people try, and fail, all the damn time). We all know the odds of getting a book traditionally published; the odds of a pain-free self-publishing journey are just as terrible. There are forces at work that make it difficult to move the needle. Some products really do just market themselves. They fall into these neat boxes rife with all these systemic issues, and just keep going.

My books never fall neatly into these boxes. They fall on the edge, crack their spines, and spill out their guts before I can even blink. And yet…

The books. They kinda sell. A regular month for me these days looks like a launch month for me six years ago. And it’s not a lot, but it’s money that goes into my kids’ college fund and buys them cereal and stuff, so…it’s not nothing.

This is what’s amazing to me. Sales are not so terrible that I feel like I should give up. Over the years, they’ve slowly gone up–really fucking slowly, I might add. It’s worse than watching paint dry. And yet they’re there. And that’s in spite of the self-publishing landscape these days (which really resembles a desert, more than anything). Advertising rates are terrible (especially on Amazon). Facebook charges you for traffic that disappears into thin air. The CPC rate of most advertising platforms are atrocious, and you’re never really going to make any money with them unless you have a big, big backlist, with plenty of books in a series, and multiple products (like audiobooks) on the side. It’s just a little harder to get people to click on ads, especially promotions and discounts (they’re everywhere, and people are overwhelmed and maybe a little bit exhausted). Amazon hardly gives out a good algorithm push anymore–it’s becoming more difficult to predict, and what used to work a year ago might not work this year anymore. A lot of these companies, especially Amazon (and Audible) remain predatory, grabbing a good percentage of the profits even though they do absolutely nothing to produce or promote the books. (As an aside, I can’t wait for the day that we wean people off buying from the big retailers. Yes, you can get stuff direct from authors, too! And all the profit goes to them!)

The only thing that remains true is that people still love a good story, and, well…a good book should be able to give them that. How to reach people remains the ever-burning question, whether you’re trad or self or hybrid.

I still don’t have a lot of answers. I’m hoping maybe another 9 books in and I might be closer to actually saying something insightful here. If you’re on the same journey as I am, and I know many who read this website are, keep trying. Your stories have value outside of commercial success, and there are people out there hungry for them. Never give up.