I Get So Confused

Maybe I just do things the hard way. And maybe I fall for too much "expert" advice. As I slashed my way through the marketing jungle, I would come across recommendations I hadn't yet tried or thought of and think, "Oh! Okay! That might work!"

SPOILER ALERT: They don't work.

The first advice that tripped me up was to make my book available on bookshop.org. Okay, all a KDP author needs to do for their physical book is edit their book details on KDP and choose expanded distribution. Easy enough. Then bookshop began including ebooks. Since I'm enrolled in Kindle Select, that was a no-go. The only way to get an ebook included is to publish it through D2D so Ingram can distribute it. Since I like getting Kindle Unlimited page reads, one or the other would need to be sacrificed, so I left my ebook alone.

The other "fun" part of bookshop is that an author can choose affiliate stores. I picked some in my area and I even contacted one of them, telling them I'm a local author and asked them to offer my book. Nope; no response.  

However, I could get an ebook published through D2D available to libraries (another bit of advice that proved worthless), so I went through all the steps to upload and complete the metadata for my ebook, then chose library distribution only.

Next: making a paperback available to online retailers. Well, the only way I could do that was to publish my paperback with D2D. Yes, that created a separate ISBN from Amazon's, but so? I don't think that would trip up my accountant (me), especially when there's nothing to account for. Not one stinkin' sale.

I should add that I briefly tried bookvault as well. A nightmare. I had my Miblart cover with the ISBN on the back, but bookvault assigns its own ISBN's, so my book was rejected. I tried deleting the book and starting over, unchecking "assign ISBN", which I'd foolishly chosen the first time, but even though bookvault's support team recommended I do that, the site kept telling me that I was trying to add a book that already existed on the site. Too much hassle, so I gave up. I'd only tried them because another expert offered a free membership coupon and told me I could get global distribution. 

Now, my AI advisor has instructed me to go to D2D and change not only my blurb, but my BISAC codes in order to generate more interest (primarily from libraries). Have fun with that, kids! I started with my ebook, but there was no visible way to make those changes. AI kept telling me over and over how to do it, but no dice. Finally, out of desperation I chose the paperback version instead, but no place to edit my metadata, so back to AI I went. Oh, that option is cleverly hidden, but with AI's help I found it. 

To be honest, I have no idea if that also changed my ebook's metadata, and at this point I don't care. (Also, two of the BISAC codes AI gave me do not exist, at least not on the D2D site.) I also don't know anymore if my paperback is still available to online retailers or if I somehow botched that when making my changes.

I kept telling myself, be careful! Don't do anything that'll cause KDP to close my account! I sure hope I didn't.

So now, where do I stand?

1. I changed my blurb (everywhere) to AI's version, with important revisions. It had some of the story's details wrong, but the "human" blurb I asked it for is fine. I quibble a bit with Leah "feeling safe" when she moves to Chance---she hadn't felt unsafe before---but I couldn't come up with a more accurate adjective, so I kept it.

2. I changed my longtail keywords on KDP. 

3. I did "something" with D2D; not sure what. I did change the blurb and the short description---oops, forgot to change the keywords. Damn. Now I'll need to go back in. I used one of the BISAC codes I was instructed to use, but as I noted, the other two don't exist.

4. Also, the categories AI told me to use on KDP don't exist, so that was a wasted effort. I think I managed to find one of them; can't remember.

Now, AI wants me to contact libraries directly, specifically libraries in Wyoming and Nashville. Apparently, libraries have a mandate to include books of "regional interest", which would give mine a leg up. I hate (hate!) cold contacting, because I'm consistently ignored. I'm supposed to create a PDF one-sheet to accompany my email, and AI provided me with a template, but...sigh. Really? Is that going to get me anywhere? Seems like a lot of wasted effort. (Note: Chance, Wyoming isn't exactly regional, since the town doesn't exist. Would that even count?)

So, here I sit with a new and improved blurb, at least one new category, new longtail keywords and nothing has happened. Granted, it's only been a day for KDP, but how do I know I didn't just waste a huge chunk of time? 

I haven't even thought about new paid marketing. I can't think about that right now anyway, since I have no money. My first goal was improved visibility, but if that doesn't happen, AI is gonna have some 'splainin' to do. 

I choose to look at it this way: This is my last big push. After that, I surrender. After that, my novel goes in the:

I'm aware that 99.9% of indie authors don't put themselves through the wringer like this. But those 99.9% actually sell books. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I'm the .1% that requires the hard way.