Launch day and tumble weeds

I always knew that getting my book published was only half time in the battle to become a successful author. Sure it took years of my life and meant I had to spend a lot of time on my own in a dark room pounding on the keyboard, but at least it was in my control.

Now the book is out in the world and I am now at the mercy of the whims and mysteries of the "algorithms" of Amazon and Meta. Getting people to buy my book was always going to be a struggle without a publisher but even getting people to see it is proving difficult. It has only been a week, I need to remember that and retain a bit of perspective.

To date, as I write, I have sold 10 copied, three paperback and seven ebooks. Most (if not all) of those will be from my friends and family. I have been working on ad campaigns on Facebook, Instagram and Amazon to try to get eyeballs on my book, its hard! There are other paths I can go down, I can pay people on Insta to give me reviews, but that feels wrong to me. I want genuine readers, who feel some kind of connection to the subject matter, to read and review my work.

For good or for bad. Perhaps I am being naive and all new authors pay for reviews but I am not prepared to do it. At least not yet! So for now I will keep on watching my ad spend go up, watch the impressions rise and the clicks slowly coming in.

At least I was able to get my work out there without a publisher but the hard work has only just begun...