As I progress in my still fledgling career, I find that I’m often giving advice to other writers. Given where I am, with 3 books in the world and another on the way in February, one of the groups of people I can often help is debut authors.

This is going to be a really long post. Everything in it comes from stuff I’ve shared with other authors individually over the past couple of years. All I’m doing here is putting it in one place and making it available to everybody.

I should note that I’m published by Harper Voyager, so not all of my advice is going to apply to self-published or small publisher authors. But some of it is universal, so pick and choose as you will.

And of course all of this is my opinion. I’m not interested in arguing about it. In some cases, I’ll give reasons for what I think. In some I might not. So take it for what it’s worth — the opinions of a guy who has some experience.

In some cases, I’m going to mention things that cost money. Instead of caveating every one of them with “If you can afford it,” I’m just going to caveat once right here. I’m giving broad advice to all types of authors. In some cases, things might not be worth the money to you, or you may not make enough from your books to justify the investment. Or maybe you’re just at a point in your life where funds are tight. I get it, and I mean no offense. But a lot of my little hacks are ways to save money, so there’s that element, too.

1. Buying your own books. I’m going to start with easy ones. Your publisher probably gives you some author copies. It won’t be enough. By the time you do some giveaways and send some to your beta readers and family and friends, you’ll be down to almost nothing. And you probably want to have some on hand for random things. If you go to conventions, if people ask you to buy signed copies, or if your neighborhood book club decides to read your book (hey…it happens) then you’re going to need books to sell. I usually sell 10 to 20 books whenever I speak at a writing conference (back before the plague days). There are two ways to get additional copies of your own books.

a. Additional author copies from your publisher. In your contract, it probably tells you how to do this and at what price you can get those books. For me, it’s half of cover price. So $4. It probably also says you aren’t allowed to resell them. And you’re not. But if you’re doing it with a dozen or two books over time, they’re not likely to care.

b. Cut a deal with a bookseller to buy at a discount. I use AuthorAuthor. You can google them. They sell authors their own books at a super discount if you buy in bulk. I usually buy in 25s or 30s, and get them for around $4.65 per copy. But wait? Why would I buy from them when the publisher is cheaper? Because I get royalties on the books I buy from them. My royalty? 64 cents a book. Pretty much a wash. Plus they’re super easy to work with, they’re fast, and there’s nothing in my contract that says I can’t resell the books I buy from them.

2. Mail. You will mail books, and the cost of that will add up. A couple tips to keep the cost down.

a. figure out what size your book is and buy envelopes in bulk (25 pack) that fit it from a discount retailer and keep them on hand. You’ll save a ton of money over buying individual post office mailers.

b. Media mail is your friend. It’s slow, but it’s about 25% of the cost of priority first class mail in the US. You can’t use it if you put anything other than media (books) in the envelop, so if you have pins for swag, you’re out of luck.

c. Foreign mail. Don’t do it. It will cost you more than the cost of your book to mail your book from the US to another country. But if you do want to send books outside of the US, Book Depository does free shipping to a ton of countries. Granted, you can’t send signed copies this way, but you can still do giveaways.

3. Expenses. Start tracking your expenses now. I’m not going to go into what is an expense and what isn’t. That info is out there and easy enough to find. But the short answer? Track everything. You can figure out what is deductible later.

A great way to help you track your writing expenses is to get a separate credit card that you use only for writing. Charge everything. That way, you can download your end of year statement and use it as a check on your own records.

4. Book 2. Let me say this up front. Book 2 is hard. It just is. You can ask anybody. There are a lot of reasons why it’s hard. First, you’re on deadline, probably for the first time ever. But even without that, there’s just so much more pressure. Because you’ve got these things in your head. What if book one doesn’t sell and nobody wants book 2? What if people LOVE book 1, but I can’t repeat that with book 2? I could go on.

But this is a post about how to deal with things. So…how do you deal with book 2?

First, and most important: be kind to yourself. It’s hard. It’s hard for everybody, not just you.

Second: start it now. If you signed a multi-book deal and your first book hasn’t published yet, do what you can to get book 2 done before book 1 comes out. Trust me on this one. You will never in your writing career have more time than you do while you wait for your first book to publish. At least I haven’t, and I just finished the draft of my fifth contracted book.

It gets trickier if you’re on a one book deal. I haven’t been on one, but I know people who have. Because what do you write? That’s a great conversation to have with your agent. But trust me, use the time to write something. If your first book sells, even if you didn’t write the correct thing, it won’t be wasted. I started what will be my 4th published novel before I ever wrote my 2nd and 3rd. I just stored it away until it was time.

If you’re like me, it will get really hard to write around your release date. You’ll have publicity to do, and you’ll have to refresh Amazon every 4 minutes to see if your ranking has moved. You know…debut things.

5. Publicity. Buckle in. This is going to be a long one. Let me say up front that if you’re here looking for the magical answer to how to promote your book…you’re out of luck. I’m going to break this into two pieces.

a. What your publisher does. Get a room full of 100 authors, and 98 of them are going to tell you that their publisher didn’t promote them enough. Some of them are right. But not as many as you’d think. Some of that is over-inflated expectations, and some is not knowing how publishers promote. Sure, we’d all like a billboard in Target and to be on TV or have a national book tour. But that’s for the 1% (or probably less). Sometimes your publisher does stuff and you just don’t see it.

Are your books in brick and mortar book stores? Your publisher did that with publicity. The sales team marketed to the book buyers for those stores to get them to order your book. Is your book on a table or at the front of the store? Your publisher paid to have them put it there.

Did you get any trade reviews? Your publisher sent them your book. Your publisher probably sent it to them even if you didn’t get trade reviews. Trade reviewers make choices.

We all wish our publishers did more to sell our books. But when people say “I got no support,” well…maybe they didn’t. But if you see their books in stores, they got some.

b. What can you do for yourself? Well…this is hard. If you find the answer, you should bottle it and sell it, because this is what every writer wants to know.

It is my considered opinion that there is nothing that you can do that’s going to recoup the money that you spend to do it.

You can run facebook/instagram ads, and they might generate some sales. But not enough sales to pay the cost of the ad.

Some of the self-pub models involve using Amazon ads. I don’t know anything about that, because I’m not allowed to use them because I’m with a major publisher.

The only ad service I’ve seen where anybody has shown me a positive return on investment is Book Bub, but that’s for books on sale. If you’re with a publisher, it’s worth talking to them about it after 6 to 12 months, if your sales have dropped off. My publisher just does them from time to time and tells me when they’re going to happen. If you have to pay yourself, they are quite expensive. $500 to $600 I think. But again, I’m not an expert, and there are better sources out there.

There are two things I recommend that every writer do. As it turns out, both of these things are free, so these are guaranteed to work, or your money back.

One: If you have a publisher with a distribution deal that allows for returns, link up with your local indie bookstore about six months before publication and ask to partner in a signed pre-order campaign. For anyone who pre-orders, you’ll sign their book. This works for the bookstore, because pre-orders are risk free. It works for you because you get signed books out to those who want them and YOU don’t have to mail them or pay postage. I sold maybe 25 books this way. It’s not a huge thing. But again…free.

Two: Look for free opportunities online. If you’re a SF or Fantasy writer, John Scalzi and Mary Robinette Kowal often loan out their blogs to other writers. Both have instructions on how to apply on their websites. EDIT: I also recently saw Cat Rambo tweet about doing guest posts on their site. They are very generous. And again…free. Look for genre specific sites that do author interviews and reach out and offer to do one. There are tons of sites looking for content. It may not sell you a ton of books, but it does get your name out there with people who hang around the genre space. Have your publisher send the site an ARC as a thank you (and to further get your book out into the genre space).

Three: Other authors are your friends. If other authors want to read your book, get the book to them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a book on twitter and tweeted ‘Hey, I want this!’ and someone got it to me. At least 10. And I wasn’t lying. I wanted it, and if I want it, I usually read it, and if I like it, I talk about it. All for the cost of a mobi file. Those authors may or may not help you sell books. Probably a few. But there are a lot of other good things that can come from this. For example, a bunch of SF reviewers follow me. If I tweet that I like a book, maybe they move it up on their list of things to read. You just never know how it might help.

Some things that don’t work:
Twitter. Look — if you’re someone who can generate sales via twitter, you already know it. If you don’t know it, then you aren’t that person. I get a reasonable amount of engagement on twitter…but when I post publicity stuff, I get about 20% of my normal engagement. And that’s from people who already know about my books. Even if other people are tweeting, you can maybe…maybe sell dozens of books.

Paid Blog Tours. I’ve not done them, but I’ve had friends who have. If you’re paying for a blog tour, you’re almost certainly wasting your money. Not that blogs themselves are useless…they’re great. There are a ton of great book bloggers out there doing great things. But you shouldn’t be paying (other than sending a free book) to get on them. Because the ones you pay for are often low-impact sites scheduled by a blog tour provider to make it look like you’re getting something for your money. Instead, spend your effort researching the blogs in your genre that want you for you. Don’t be afraid to spend effort on a new blog…as a new author, that might be one of your only avenues. Take it. Do a guest post or an interview with anyone who wants to do it. Just don’t pay for it.

Any promotional service that’s not Book Bub. There are dozens of paid promotional services out there who will promise to put your book in front of ‘their curated list of tens of thousands.’ (Pretty sure that’s a quote from a spam email I got. You’ll get them too. They’re a waste of money. All of them).

6. Asking for Blurbs. This is a controversial subject on a lot of different levels. Do blurbs help? Are they fair or does it reward people with contacts? All valid questions. I’m of the opinion that they probably don’t help sales much, but they probably do help the marketing team as they try to sell the book to stores. I have no basis for this opinion beyond what people have told me.

And no. They’re not fair.

I’m not here to debate any of that. Here’s what I know: They can’t hurt. Tanya Huff’s blurb is on the front cover of my debut novel. She and I haven’t ever met or communicated in any way. Did it help me to have that blurb on my book? I don’t know. It did look pretty cool on the cover though.

Look, everybody hates asking for blurbs. But it’s free, so why not do it?

Here’s how I did it: My agent, my editor, and I discussed it together and came up with a list of people we’d love to have blurb the book. This may take research on your part — to find out what authors reside in your part of the genre. Maybe you already know. For us, we made a list regardless of how likely the person was to blurb for me. No restrictions — just everyone we wanted. John Scalzi was never going to blurb my book. But he was on the list.

Once we had the list, we decided who had the best shot at getting the blurb, and we went from there. For example, my editor knew Marko Kloos, because they had been at 47 North at the same time, so that one was his. My agent reached out to Tanya Huff and Jack Campbell, because they’re clients at the agency. And I reached out to some authors I knew, like Peter McClean and Gavin Smith. And yes, I know, I had a ton of advantages in my situation. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you’ve got to do it all yourself. Or maybe you have to ask your publisher and/or agent to help (mine volunteered). So do it. There’s no reason not to. Every author with at least a couple books published gets asked for blurbs. Some do them, some don’t. But none of them are going to think poorly of you for asking.

I’ve been asked by authors, agents, and writers for blurbs. My answer every single time: Sure, send it along. I might caveat that with notes about my schedule, and I refer people to my blurb policy (you can find that here if you’re interested).

How to ask for blurbs: First, check their website and see if they have anything about it there. If not, reach out through their contact form or via email if you’ve got an email address, and just politely ask. Introduce yourself, give a short pitch of the book, and ask if they’re interested. Include relevant dates, if you want, such as ‘for a blurb to appear on the cover, we’d need it by xx/yy, but we’re happy to have one at any time.’ (That’s literally what every publisher/agent says to me when they send requests). And after you’ve asked, never speak of it to the person again. Send the book, and if they want to blurb it, they’ll blurb it. This isn’t something you nudge. As a rule, most authors are going to tell you to send the book and then they’re not going to read it. It’s not personal. Reading takes time, and time is scarce. So send the book, and if they get to it, they get to it. Even if I tell you I plan to start yours next, I might not get to it. Because who knows what happened after I told you that? Maybe someone else sent me something and it interested me more. Maybe I got my copy edits. Maybe I went on a drunken netflix binge watch session.

I can’t speak for every author, but I will say that I’m more inclined to read something if I’m asked by an agent or a publisher. But only because that’s more rare, and I trust that the agent and publisher have a reasonable idea that I’m a good fit for the book. With authors I don’t know, I’ll still consider it. But the pitch about the book is more important. And I’m absolutely going to try to make time if I’m asked by my agent or my editor. Because of course I will. Because they know exactly what I like, and I have a relationship with them. (Note: That doesn’t mean I’ll blurb it if I don’t care for it. Just that I’m very likely to read it). What does all of this say about me? Don’t know, don’t care. I’m just telling you how it is.

Book Launch. Do what you want and have fun. That’s it. That’s the advice. Book launch parties don’t sell books. Just understand that going in. So do what you want. This is a celebration of you and your accomplishment, for you and your friends and family. Throw a party. Do an online launch party. Spend as much or as little as you want. (and track your expenses!) But seriously, keep it fun.

If you do it online and you’re not someone who regularly runs online events, consider hiring (or finding a friend who is) a producer (it’s not that expensive). Consider it like a wedding planner. It’s a person who will run the details and keep things on schedule for you, as you’re likely to be caught up in the event. And they can handle the technical details. Because there’s nothing worse than your mom clicking on the link and getting a blank screen. And again — this is about you, your friends, and your family having a good time and celebrating.

And with that, I can’t really think of anything else right now. I’m sure more will come to me later, and I’ll update the post to include other things as I think of them. Good luck with your writing, wherever you’re at in the process.