Before I published Royal Beginnings in 2016, I had a decision to make: publish my book, or pay for school. Seriously. It was going to cost a semester's tuition to have one of those self-publishers publish my book. It could have been nice. If the book had done well, the self-publisher's parent company (a big well known publisher) would have picked me up to publish my other books. They would have done my marketing.
As a Pre-Biology major trying to publish a Young Adult spy novel, and looking at where I am now, the decision may seem obvious, but for me at the time it was an impossible decision. My dream in 7th grade was to get the book I was working on published (that book later became Royal Beginnings). But my dream in 5th grade was to be a college student. I had worked really hard to realize both dreams, and now, on the precipice of reaching both of them, I was being asked to choose.
For those of you who know me, you know how stubborn I am. If you present me with an ultimatum, and I don't like either outcome, I will find a third way to get out of choosing. This has led to accusations of cheating when I play games with siblings, but I will have everyone know, it wasn't expressly forbidden to use decoys in the rules, so my decoy light in that game of glow in the dark Capture the Flag was entirely legal, and my team won that round fair and square. It's not my fault you didn't think of the idea first.
I digress. As I tend to do when faced with a decision between two things I don't really like, I researched to find a third option. What my research showed me, was that if I did all of the work myself (editing, proofreading, formatting, cover design, and marketing), I could publish my book for free. So I got to work.
On March 8th, 2016, I published my first of many novels (at the time of writing this, the count is 4...I think that counts as many). Now that the book was out, it was time to begin working on my zero budget marketing plan. I spammed my social media accounts, and I took every opportunity for free promotion I could.
Instagram post promoting the book signing I did December 2016.
While I may have cursed myself for choosing to do things on my own my Junior year of college (no one working and going to school full time wants to add more work to their plate), I wouldn't change it for the world. For one, I have full control over my books. I own the copyrights, I set the deadlines and release dates, I design the covers, and I decide the titles. I might sometimes wish I wasn't in charge of marketing, because I am horrible at social media, or maintaining this blog, but I try.
When I announced Hades, I knew I needed to actually post on Social Media to promote the book. So I did. I started making these super fun videos where I argued with my book characters, and posted them on Instagram Reels and TikTok. From what I can tell, I have sold at least two books (in Australia) from those videos, so I am going to count that as a win. But even if I hadn't sold a single book, it would still be worth it, because making them was mostly fun and it led to me getting another awesome opportunity.
Monday, a book list I created called "The best young adult books for spy lovers" went live on shepherd.com (you can read my book list at the link here). Not only was I presented an opportunity to get my book in front of new people, but I was able to create content for a new website whose aim is to help authors and readers.
When I am asked what my biggest goal in life is, I usually tell people I want to help the young adults of today the same way books helped me when I was in high school. The invitation to create a book list for this site was an awesome opportunity for me to do just that; it let me share my own book, which I hope will inspire todays teenagers, and it let me share some other awesome books that left me feeling like I can do anything.
As a 26-year-old who has published 4 books, plans to publish 2 more books before I turn 27, and as someone who has already realized more of little me's dreams than I ever thought possible, I know that if I put my mind to it (just like the books on my list taught me), I can do anything.
If you would like to help out this awesome new site, trying to invent new ways for readers to find new books, go check out my book list, and explore Shepherd while you are at it. If you would like to help me out, buy one of my 4 books. If you really want to help me out, read all of them.
See you next week (I promise)!
Aly
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