Winner of My Poem Book Review Challenge Announced & Some Other Comments on Indie Publishing

Today is June 1st! Time seems to be flying!

Last month, I ran a contest to get some of the readers who bought my poetry chapbook, Life’s Inspiration and Reflection in a Few Words (2022), to write an Amazon review for the book. If you don’t know, book reviews greatly enhance the saleability of a book. For the first eleven months of being sold, my book sat on Amazon with just a single review. I sold 15 copies on Amazon from May 2022 through the end of April 2023. I’ve also sold additional copies to friends and family members, locally, as well as at a gift boutique in Iowa after having a public reading there the week after the book was released. It’s been a positive and successful experience.

After I wrote about the book’s birthday, one of my kind Poetry Friday compadre’s bought the book and reviewed it. When she did that I thought I would try to enlist more of my book buyers into writing reviews. The post about doing so was made on FaceBook and on this WordPress blog. The deadline was to write the review before June first to be entered into a random drawing for a $20.00 Barnes and Noble gift card.

Three more people responded with reviews! And last month, I also sold four more books! Of nineteen books sold, I have five reviews! And they are all glowing!

I thank each of these people for thinking enough of me to 1) buy the book, and 2) write a glowing review of the book. I am humbled by their kind words!

It is one thing to write a book – any book – even a small chapbook like mine and another thing to publicize the book without turning people off with over-posting and self-absorbed drum beating. I tried not to do either, despite my pride in this accomplishment.

At a recent poetry reading in April, another poet coyly asked how much I had spent to publish my book. He had also published a book of poetry recently and it cost him $800.00 to do so. He stated that he didn’t sell any copies other than to family and friends and barely made $50.00 in return.

Ouch!

I am making an educated guess that he went through a vanity publisher. When I told him that it didn’t cost me much at all because I went through Kindle Direct Press, he balked and said he couldn’t have done that because he lacked the technological user ability to do anything digitally by himself.

As for me, I am finding that I really enjoyed the indie publishing process and am planning to do it again. I did have to pay for an ISBN and pay a copy editor to review my work. I used Canva to make my book cover and bought the cover photo rights for $1.00. I paid to have two proof copies made and sent. It was WELL worth that nominal fee before making the sale of the book live. I have not added up what I spent but it was nowhere near the $800.00 the other poet spent.

My book is only available in hard copy and only through the US market. Next time around, I will be sure to make digital copies available as well.

I do have to admit that I made a smart choice when I registered to get an ISBN for my book. This means that it can be found through that number and easily sold. I did not buy a bar code but I will next time. The reason I did not this time is that the barcode was not needed to sell my book on Amazon or in the gift boutique where I was a featured poet.

Recently, having an ISBN helped me to be verified as a book author on Medium.com. Those that published on KDP/Amazon without an ISBN did not have such good luck and have not been verified as authors on Medium. Seriously, they are authors and I hope this changes for them. But, I’m also glad I was given advice to buy an ISBN for any book I publish. This was the biggest cost of my publishing process.

In my opinion, an ISBN should be purchased through, the appropriate agency for your country – in the US it is In Bowker. There is a great deal of information on their website.

The advantage is your book has a commonly recognized unique identifier.

The disadvantage is that an ISBN is expensive. I bought a bulk pack of ten to save money. But this also means that I better get writing! They are not transferrable to others.

Here is a comprehensive article on ISBNs and whether you need one or not.

What Is An ISBN? 11 Facts For Self-Publishing Authors

And now for the WINNER!

Here’s my methodology to make the drawing as fair as possible.

I had five reviews. I assigned numbers 1-5 to each reviewer in the order they were received.

#1 C.G.

#2 D.K.

#3 C.L.

#4 C.B.

#5 M.L.

I put them in a random number generator that I found online.

#2 is the winner, which is my friend from the Poetry Friday group! Congratulations, Denise! I’ll be in touch about sending your gift card to Barnes and Noble!

I know you’ll appreciate some new reading material for summer!

Thanks to all for participating in my review writing challenge! I very much appreciate your time and kind words!

Here are a couple of useful articles you might want to check if you are considering publication without an ISBN. It’s possible to do so but I would advise buying your own ISBN.

https://www.makeuseof.com/normal-vs-amazon-kdp-isbn/

and

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GTJ8LBXL6Z4WV5QX

Other poetry happenings in my world…

Throughout May, I submitted a microfiction (100 words maximum) story to Vocal.com. There are prizes if selected as a winner. I would count the prize as money earned if I happened to win. My story has to do with a mythical creature that is seen to arise from a pool during a party but the observers have eaten a suspicious wild-edible plant! I had fun writing it!

I also turned in a total of 8 poems to anthologies looking for submissions. We’ll see. I was sad that I could not use one poem that fit the theme but I had published it on my blog – that was not allowed for this publication. I used the opportunity to edit two of my poems prior to submission.

Lastly, I’ve been scouring the internet (Twitter) and a couple of websites I belong to for more opportunities to submit. I have a running list. It helps me keep track.

Be sure to check out my post for Poetry Friday too! Thanks!