Self-Publishing Journey: Part 4

I bet you’re wondering where the rest of 2021 has gone, right? I certainly am!

The Kickstarter was a whirlwind of activity. I thought I’d planned well…I have learned that I need to plan more, ha! This is especially true for the graphic designing and having posts lined up even further. I had about a week’s worth of graphics and social media posts planned, thinking I’d make the rest as I went…I did not have the amount of free time I thought I would. But, despite this, the Kickstarter was a roaring success. We made our goal and our stretch goal to get an audiobook started with the great and ever-fabulous Buddy with the Sideburns, Tom Craig. But let’s break down the last few steps of self-publishing.

Running the Kickstarter

This was an eye-opening experience. I knew the marketing aspect of self-publishing my first book was going to give me a fierce run for my sanity.

I’ve supported books on Kickstarter and based some strategies from what I enjoyed seeing as a backer. The first thing was messaging every backer as soon as I could, just as a thank you. Just before I started my project, I supported Allison Theus’s newest art book, Mostly Monsters. She did the same—sending out a thank you—but also tuned me into “Projects We Love,” which involves asking backers to email Kickstarter’s stories department to get the badge and a leg up in their algorithm. It worked, I was thrilled to get the little badge that boosted Phantasmias’s discovery.

So, I knew the first few days and last few days of a Kickstarter campaign are where you see the biggest jumps—people who want to support the project immediately and those who want to make sure it’ll make it over the goal. My advertising strategy was heavily weighted for early adopters and the last push. I learned while doing that there are more things I could do for the middle. I missed out on using Reddit more effectively (because I only lurk) and being part of more book groups. I’m hoping the amount of worldbuilding and recurring characters in the novel will help in that department.

What I found incredibly successful was posting one or two lines from each story as a graphic on Instagram then using those posts for short bursts of advertising. I could have used Kickstarter’s tools a little better to alter each URL and have a better understanding of where people were finding Phantasmias, but that’ll be a trick for next time.

Ultimately, Kickstarter was a good experience. I was blown away by the support from people who just seemed to browse Kickstarter to make dreams come true. The community there was absolutely amazing. I received wonderful feedback both on the project and sneak peeks I put up. I had a few great conversations via the messaging system. Anyway, it was just really heartening when I was so nervous at the start!

Heading to the Printer

My day job as an editor has given me some experience with book design. I understand the fundamentals and layouts for front and back matter. Despite this, I did hire a designer to check both the eBook files and the print layout. Just from my experience there, I’m not sure I’d hire a designer again—at least not that one. It was nice to have someone set up the text for me (headers, footers, etc.)…but I ended up fixing a lot, too. It didn’t help that the printer kept going back and forth about the best margins…and, well, it wasn't the kind of delay I was expecting. Likewise when my proofreader (both of them!) bailed last minute and I had to find a replacement. (Thank you again to Tim Marquitz for the clutch proofread!)

It was important to me in designing the book that it be a little outside the industry standards I’m used to. This involved making the font a little bit bigger and the margins wider (I feel like I could have pushed even a bit further with those margins). The resting space—or white/blank space, it’s often called—between paragraphs and in the margins helps keep your eyes from crossing while you read.

Another delay I didn’t expect was the supply shortages seen all over different industries thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the publishing industry, we saw a shortage of paper…and then a rise in paper price. I had chosen both the silk matte cover option and the antique white interior paper from the first day. That’s just my preferred look and feel for my books, but I was determined not to waver from those materials. My printer had two locations—one was evidently more supplied than the one nearest to me. It took some back and forth to sort out Marquis Printing, but we got there in the end.

As an aside, driving to the warehouse to pick up eight boxes of your books is surreal. I didn’t expect to be so enthralled by that peek behind the curtain, but it’s one little memory that I cherish.

Shipping and Distribution

When I opened that first box of books, I could hardly believe it was real. The silk matter cover is everything I wanted. When I flip through the pages, it still blows my mind that I wrote them.

…and then I had to wrap them. I think it was a little over 120 books. Even though I tried to space them out, wow, did my fingers ever cramp. I used Chit Chats for shipping and they made it a smooth process…but it was a process. I started with printing the shipping labels with their app, cutting them to size, taping them on the boxes—I quickly switched to using precut, sticker labels. It seems like a mundane detail, but it shaved a lot of time (and tape) from my packaging process.

I was very conscious of wanting as recyclable a package as possible—avoiding plastics as much as I could—but I also wanted to wrap the books to avoid any scuff marks on the covers. This involved Uline’s bogus paper (recycled newsprint) and recyclable cardboard mailers…and a donation to a couple of forestry/tree planting charities because I could.

With Chit Chats, I had to group my shipments by shipping method (Canada, US, or international), which was relatively easy. I think the hardest part was separating which shipments only needed a book, which ones needed signatures, and which ones needed signatures and other rewards. The latter changed the dimensions of some shipments, so I ended up batching those ones separately.

Once I had the books wrapped and packaged, they were sealed in a box per batch and brought to Chit Chats. Books are heavy, I know this from the amount of times I’ve moved with my collection, so I kept the batches at about 15-20 books per box…still really heavy to carry.

And then…I waited. Due to delays in production, I ended up shipping most of the books around the holiday season, so the delays in shipping were doubled. To me, shipping is a bit like Christmas, but you don’t know if the present will end up under the tree or under the sea. I’ve been watching the last few “in transit” deliveries just waiting for some nonsense. I can only cross my fingers and hope the books make it—and set some copies aside in case I have to resend any!

Overall, wearing the hat of project manager, distributor, and sales representative has been an incredible learning experience. In my head, I thought I’d be able to schedule when I would tackle each step, but they honestly blended together as soon as the Kickstarter went live. I’m very much looking forward to publishing my next book!