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Thank you. Very helpful video😊

You did great! We start at the bottom and work our way up, just like we did with our 9-5 jobs.😊😊😊

I downloaded your book, thank you for writing it! I'm just starting, great so far! Im a newbie author, I haven't published anything yet but am getting close with my first book. I love the cover!

They were meant for each other I swear!! They both had there mothers taken away by the fire nation and they have so much chemistry throughout the whole show❤❤

You might be deep throating the ghost peppers. 😆😅

Thank you! Im just binge watching all of your videos, they are all so informative

Thanks for this, I'm looking at dipping mh toes in this stuff and wanted an honest pov

Don't let it get you down. There are a million decisions to be made when it comes to designing a book cover and until someone has gone through the process they'll never appreciate the work involved.

Some people don't mind spice but only in certain context. Like a slow burn where people get to know each other and the book is plot and character driven. Other people think that's not for them

Your book covers do have that uncanny AI look to them! They also don't look like other popular books in the genre. I'm sure you would sell more with covers that communicate: "This book was written by a human, and it's similar to these other books you already love!"

I love hearing about your authors journey!

Thanks for sharing this video, Lindsey! As a graphic designer who just launched a business providing cover design and manuscript reviews for indie authors while working on my own series, I appreciate your candidness about your experience and sales. And I have to say, your covers are stunning! I'm off to watch more of your videos!

Thank you for the video. I spend most of my time writing and getting the book ready. Orherwise, I do sporadic marketing, including a newsletter that doesn't serve me. I'll try to be consistent.

Thanks for sharing your results. It's always interesting to hear about other people's marketing experiences. However, you mentioned something that caused me to be a little concerned for you: that you had a sales spike in your first month of publication because your friends and family all bought your book then. I know it sounds weird, but it might be a mistake to allow friends/family to buy your book--especially when it first comes out. That's because every time someone buys your book, the Amazon algorithm looks at that person's past buying patterns, then it starts pushing your book to people with similar buying patterns. That's great if the first buyers buy a lot of books in your genre. If not, your book is getting pushed to people who are just not interested. If this happens a lot in the first month or two of release, it can reportedly squelch your momentum. I don't have any direct experience of this, but it sounds plausible. Maybe someone out there knows more about this.

Thanks for a quick and easy tutorial. I am wondering what page size do you use for the ebook?

This sounds a lot like my experience with Spoonflower. I get a sale every month or two and it surprises me every time. I've never made enough to actually withdraw the money, I just use it to buy "free" fabric lol.

The idea of organic social media marketing is easy for those getting high reach but not those with zero reach

Can you tell me what you mean by tags in kdp? Or are you referring to the keywords in the backend of your listing?

Good advice - especially reminding people to set up an email list. Even more so, given what's happening with TikTok right now.

That is so cool!! 😊

You’ve become one of my favorite creators here. Thank you for your honesty and transparency! I’ve been considering starting a Redbubble myself as a side hustle or source of passive income.

i prefer books to be unspicy, barely even salty if we're using the food analogy. but fanfic? anything goes

Thanks for sharing. As an indie author myself... I wanted to throw this out there. It took me almost a year after I published my book to put out an audio book version, I wish I would have done it closer to my book release. Audio version is selling very well and makes up a good portion of my royalities.... wish I would have done it sooner/closer to my paperback release date.

Thanks for this. I think the biggest takeaway I got from this was don't hate on people for liking what they like. Focus on finding something you like. I read Throne of Glass. I hated it. But I can understand why some people might have liked it. Did I say some? Clearly more than that:)

Your opening LOL I won't lie every time regarding ur intro - TH-cam has tried to put a "romantasy is a problem" or "spicy romance is a problem" thumbnail in my face i very resolutely ignore it I don't even care if it's clickbait and they actually talk about loving it!!!!! I do not want to click on a video on the premise of being mean to my fun thing that makes me happy !! Love the video Wonderful yes thank you for informing me of lots of new terms :3 I very agree with your take on why ppl criticize or dislike the romance genre !! Spicy scenes are fun!!! Big agree I CANNOT handle them in audiobooks though OOP Way too intense

Personally, I think it comes down to the writing. I've found some books where even fade-to-black was very spicy because of the build up of tension prior to that moment so that when it finally arrives you don't need to spell it out for the reader to be moved by it. And, similarly I've found some books that are graphically explicit that are much tamer in a way, because the emotional build-up or tension is lacking so that it becomes almost mechanical. I think that the emotional connections and the circumstances surrounding these scenes contribute so much to their impact for the reader. My two cents...

Spice does not belong in YA. Smolder, absolutely. Yearning, please. But the most that should happen on page is kissing.

I must admit. I've never found L3 spice much more than filler. Normally you lick your thumb, ruffle through the pages until the story starts again. There are, realistically, only a limited number of ways that Tab-A fits into Slot-B.

Thank you, great vid! :) Never heard those door terms before, so I learned something new today

5 spice is basically porn tho, just in a different medium

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Do you use beta readers/arc readers?

OMG 🥹 I never considered _music_ could be fanart before, but that's sooooo cool 🩷

sleep token level pining?? YES PLEASE!

How does book 1 end? It seems like not a lot move on to the second book. Just a thought. Thank you for doing this!

My goal is to bring transparency to the publishing industry, which is why I make these income videos as well as monthly videos that include a slightly more detailed look at what I do for marketing. In this video, I did not mention expenses. The main reason for that is that I do my own cover design, interior formatting, proof reading/ editing, and marketing (th-cam.com/video/kVU1lorUWjY/w-d-xo.html). I actually published for under $100 (th-cam.com/video/Ol9pV4FPO8w/w-d-xo.html). I do have some small monthly expenses like Adobe and Envato Elements, so while the final number in this video is not ENTIRELY profit, the vast majority of it is. Thanks for being here everyone, and thanks for being so supportive 🫶

Not a single word about your expenses. Did you pay for anything like covers, editing, proofreading, or marketing? Unless you published totally for free, this video didn't say anything about you profits, only revenue. It gives a false impression for others wanting to self publish. The vast majority of self published authors lose money. I did. Lost over $1,000 in 2024. Book covers, editing and proof reading, along with marketing. It all adds up. The key to making any money is controlling cost.

Congrats!!!!! I can't wait to see what 2025 will bring you 🥰🥰🥰

Absolutely fabulous video, thank you so much for your transparency. Sorry to bother, just two / three questions (beware I´m european so I don´t have enough knowledge of american culture, and I don´t know much about self-publishing): - Do you know why is march your best month? Is it something cultural and global in US, that march is the month where people read / buy books the most, or is there a different reason? - Do you know your readers in Amazon (have a list or a database of them), or at least has Amazon system a way to contact first readers, in order to push notify them about your other next books? - In that sense, have you analyzed if there is a correlation between pages read and next books bought? Apparently, the more pages read in the first should give a higher probability of buying a second on the series, but that would be great to calculate by the real numbers, and maybe you can have them, by reader. Anyway, thank you so so much in advance. Keep the writing adventure! Regards from Spain!

Never heard of nano-rhymo(?) not sure how to spell it

So many congratulations on getting monetised x

Two days ago I woke up and wrote a 1200 word outline. Oyt of nowhere. I haven't done any writing in nearly two years. Sometimes something clicks,and everything falls into place. Other times, we just need a break to unwind or recharge. Writing is a journey. It has ups and downs. Ride the waves. Paddle through the troughs. Writing is life, and life is writing. Keep up the great work!

As someone who design her own cover, write them and format them, think you're amazing! Have you thought about do a video of how you design a book cover? I might do it soon!

Just one book written and self-published. Taking romance writing classes and a screenwriting class helped me immensely to figure out how to write a good story (along with reading a lot of the romance genre). The romance classes required submitting short pieces for class and teacher critique - perfect opportunity to start the novel I had in mind. Really tough part was reading the critiques from fellow students and teachers. Tougher was deciding what critique input was valid and what was not. Now four months since my novel was published, I am trying to figure out how to get the book noticed by people who aren't family/friends. It's a struggle. I have an idea for a second book - turning a secondary character in the first book into the heroine of the next book. But I don't have much more than who she is - story arc still eludes me. And I really want to generate a little more in sales on the current novel before investing time and money in a second book. With all that said, I enjoy your frank and interesting videos on your journey. Thank you.

I was just curious how you came back to writing after 5 years? Did you plan to write and publish right away? Or was it a slower process?

Thank you so much for the info about college, now I am straight shooting for a creative writing minor degree.

Not book related and a bit random lol but can you introduce your dogs? 😂 every now and then a little head will pop up in a video and it’s very cute ❤

MONETIZED!!!!!! this is gonna be huge. so happy for you

How do you stay motivated when drafting sequels (or even prequels) in a series? Standalones come very easy for me, but I sometimes have stories that end in cliffhangers and I want to know what will happen next! But I haven't successfully written a connected (even interconnected) sequel in about 8 years. I have one series in particular that I really want to finish the sequel for--in 2020, it was going to be a trilogy, then I thought it would only be one book, but it needs 2 for all the dots to connect and the story to come full circle. I have a few people who are still waiting to know what comes next, but I've been struggling. ♥

A question for Series Vs Standalones. How is the worth of a standalone and a series when it comes to making the first book would you rather have a person find your books from a standalone to then go look at your other works or would you rather have them find you from a series to know there is more in the future if they want to say and wait?