It has been half a year since I published my book, and so much has happened! Let’s go over all of it in this post.
Experience of publishing my first book
It has been relatively smooth sailing overall. Giving up some of the control was the tricky part. I am a type A person; I plan out everything, consider that things could go wrong, and research my ass off before doing something. But this isn’t necessary, and a smooth process doesn’t equate to success. Some successful authors just go with the flow, put their book out there, see how it goes, and adjust when and wherever needed. The idea of that gives me chills, but everyone has their preferences! Trial and error is indeed one of the fastest ways to learn.
Expectations vs. results
I’m absolutely not disappointed. I’ve gotten amazing reviews and compliments on my writing, my books have been bought in all major English-speaking countries (CRAZY), and people even ordered signed copies from my webshop (people I didn’t know)!!
Am I making a living from Battle Heat yet? No. But if I learned one thing from the whole process, it’s that it’s 100% possible. And my chances increase with every book I publish. So, short answer: my expectations were surpassed, and I’m super happy with my results!
Life as an indie author
Deciding my own schedule is the best thing in the world. The amount of freedom it gives me is a dream. And yes, I do work more than the average person, but if you get to decide when and what you do, work on your dreams… That’s worth everything to me!
I also love that books are passive. They don’t stop making you money after a certain date. They don’t expire. Of course, you need to create/start that momentum, but that counts for everything in life!
The difficulties
As I said before, giving up control was the most challenging part of the publishing process. For me, hiring an editor was the most nerve-wracking. It was the first time a *stranger* had read my book. And when some things don’t go according to schedule, you have to be flexible—find a way to fix things or switch them up. Deadlines get pushed. Packages are delayed. People don’t respond (when you really need them to). Lol. You get it. LIFE happens.
But the hardest part of the whole process is writing the book. I love editing, but writing words from scratch—filling that blank page… That can be so hard. From what I’ve heard, most authors have it the other way around.
Last half-year
After publishing my first book, I started with ten different plans (and income streams) that I wanted to pursue, but only one of them was writing the next book. Then it dawned on me; that what I wanted to do was write and publish books, not create courses or other digital products. I love creating stories and getting them on the page, wrapping the story in a beautiful package for people to enjoy. So, that’s what I decided to focus on. Scrap all the rest, just keep writing and publishing my stories—and do more of that.
Plans & Intentions
That’s also when I decided I wanted to publish more than one book a year, only in English. Two is manageable, three is stretching it, but four is too much. Mainly because there will be some thick books that require twice as much effort, counting for two books in one.
So, I set the goal of publishing two (maybe even three, who knows) books in 2023. It’s a goal, mind you, so we’ll see how far I’ll come because more books = more discoverability. A sentence I heard in several places that stuck with me is: “Nothing sells your last book like the next.”
Book #1: The sequel to Battle Heat, wrapping up the duology.
Book #2: The first book in an urban fantasy (romance) *series*.
Why I won’t publish in Dutch anymore
It was an optimistic choice to write my book in two languages. As you can imagine, it just takes too much time in which I could write the next story, and outsourcing translations is 💸 for now. I also want to focus on the international market, which is way bigger. Plus, I know that many of my target readers in the Netherlands and other Dutch-speaking countries (can) read English like myself. So, that’s a short explanation of why if you were wondering.
For those interested in numbers: 39% of all books sold were in Dutch, of which the majority were bought by people I knew (so that amount isn’t prone to increase)!
That’s it for now!
Lots of Love,
Britt
