I need your opinion on publishing!

To Self Publish or not to Self Publish…

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That is the question…

I present to you 😀

I value your opinion.

To me, your input is important because some of you know I’ve worked extremely hard on the story of Zoe. I just put out a Twitter pole on whether I should Self publish “Facing the Grey” or not. I need your thoughts too.

You’ve been so supported of my first work, “Reality; Darkness into Light” and know the tough labour I’ve put into it–though a very novice writer. Finally I got Facing The Grey pubished and was delighted. Here is the book trailor for that:

Then, when I thought I was finally published the doors slammed shut, at no fault of my own. At the time, I was already half way through finishing the third book in the series. Here was the template cover I made for the book:

Hidden Identity | Reality Series #3

Fun fact: I made the cover that was used to publish Facing The Grey. They took my idea and recreated it to the ‘T’ and then said they made it, lol.

At the time of all of this, I made a wonderful friendship with Angela from Coffee&Chapters, as I am sure most of you know! I gave her a copy of Facing The Grey and she gave me some feedback. I was considering rewriting all three books into one novel and just renaming it, Hidden Identity.

The book has been sitting idle ever since.

This is where YOU come in!

Currently, I’m working on two major projects that I have posted about recently and I want to continue with these.

Should I just leave Zoe’s story until I can combine the entire series into one novel?

Should I self publish Facing The Grey until I have time to put into completing the entire thing?

Or, should the project be placed entirely on the back burner until I can put it into a stand alone novel and try to Traditionally Publish it?

What do you think?

Please leave your comments below. Each one is valuable to me and will direct this novice writer into new endeavours whatever you decide ❤

God bless!

Thank you and Happy Reading!

8 responses to “I need your opinion on publishing!”

Grace M. Morris

December 29, 2017 at 10:58 am

Hi Melanie, I knew about your book for awhile and have been wanting to read it. 😉

Now if you should wait to publish Zoe’s story and put it in one novel or publish it as more than one book…. How long is the books right now? Sometimes it is better to publish them as separate books if it would be too long as one novel. And sometimes it is good to keep it as one book if separating them makes the books to short.

Right now with the series that I am working on and self-publishing, I plan to have quite a few books at around 30,000 to 50,000 or more words each. After I complete the series, I have been thinking about combining them into four or five large books, depending on the size of the small ones.

So you could always self-publish your books separate at first then combine them all together later. It mostly has to do with preference.

I also know some people prefer to traditionally publish their books. That’s fine too. Self-publishing is very cool, and people can do a lot with it. But traditional is another way of doing things, and can be both fun and cool as well. Even though, I myself have never traditionally published a book, other authors who had seems to have a good time with it.

I am pretty sure that I would like to read your book, and I am sure that other people would as well. It really depends on what you would like to achieve with your book, when you want to publish it, how long you would like your book/s to be. I know authors who have been both successful with both Self and Traditional. But I know that I also really want to see how your other projects turn out as well. =)

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1. bmkilsby
  
  December 29, 2017 at 5:58 pm
  
  Hi Grace 😀 Thanks for your feedback.
  Book 1 is written in first person. Very introspective of what happened to Zoe and quite small. Maybe 25, 000 words.
  
  The second (the one that was published) was 50, 000 words are so. Still kind of small. But not too bad. The third was already at 30, 000 words.
  
  The idea was that I would combine book #2 and #3. Then, weave book one into the entire story.
  
  The entire book together would be around 80, 000 words as a stand alone.
  
  So far, the Twitter pole is undecided. I have 8 hours left to see what people think. What are your final thoughts?
  
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  1. Grace M. Morris
    
    December 30, 2017 at 3:33 am
    
    Hey again Melanie, 😃 sorry it took me awhile to reply.
    
    From what you told me, I think that combining books #2 and #3 with weaving book #1 into the entire story is a great idea. To me it just seems as though doing it that way makes your book more complete as a whole, and might read better. Plus 80,000 words, from the research I have done, is a good word count for most novels.
    
    Though as for either self-publishing it or traditionally, that depends on what you prefer. I have never really looked at traditional, but I know that both can be both wonderful and difficult to do.
    
    Anyway, whatever you decided, I just want to let you know that I will be looking forward to being able to pick it up and read it someday. Wishing you the best.
    
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  2. bmkilsby
    
    January 4, 2018 at 8:45 pm
    
    That is very encouraging! Thank you for your comments Grace 🙂 When I do publish it, either way, you will get a free copy. So, be sure to remind me when the time comes 😀
    
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latenightcoffeemoms

December 29, 2017 at 6:29 pm

I really enjoyed the first Zoe story. think my teenage self would have loved it. Self publishing is awesome and fast but takes A Lot of self promotion. But so does sending out query letters. Reading about your cover experience brings this question to mind… are you willing to wait for a publisher to have them “recreate” your story? If not then self publish. Either way I’ll be cheering for you.

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1. bmkilsby
  
  January 4, 2018 at 8:44 pm
  
  That is so kind of you to say!!! Thank you. I really appreciate your comment. To answer your question, I am willing to wait. I just want to make sure readers are too. Thanks again ❤ ❤ ❤ Either way, I will send you a free copy when it is published. So, please do remind me when the time comes!
  
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Anna

February 3, 2018 at 6:20 pm

You should traditionally publish with me. 😉

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Sarah Gai

February 13, 2018 at 12:27 pm

I’ve just come across this! I think you self publish 😉 I love being self published. Yes, there is a bit to do as far as marketing and building up your back log of books, but I really feel it’s worth it in the end.
Thanks for letting me put my two cents in…. Good luck whatever you decide x

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