Hi, David. Fellow YA author here. Just want you to know that you're living my dream! :P Any advice for beginning self-published authors out there like myself?

David Estes Hi Melody! Thanks so much for stopping by! I am living my own dream too, and for that I feel incredibly lucky. My amazingly supportive readers have taken me from a completely unknown learning-the-ropes writer to a fulltime author. Looking back, sometimes I don't believe this journey happened TO ME. But it did, which solidifies my belief that all things are possible in this life, especially if you commit to it.

I think congratulations are in order, you've already published TWO books this year? Well done! Welcome to the YA Indie team! As far as advice goes, I have an "Advice" page on my blog with my thoughts on lots of topics relevant to Indie authors. This page was in response to many of the questions I've been getting over the last few years. Here's a link:

http://davidestesbooks.blogspot.com/s...

And here is page two of the advice blogs I wrote: http://davidestesbooks.blogspot.com/s...

From my experience, the two most valuable pieces of advice for growing your readership are:

1) Write series and publish them as quickly as possible (while still ensuring they're well-edited, of course!)- The reason this is so important is that speed to market is one of our major advantages as Indie authors. While it takes a big publishing house a year or more to release a sequel, we can release them mere months after publishing the first book. Lately I've been releasing the first TWO books in my series on the same day, and then the third book a couple months later. Also, a side benefit of writing A LOT, is that you improve your writing very quickly, and future books are even better than your early works.

2) Give away as many FREE books as possible, particularly the first book in a series- Doing a BookBub promotion is the best way to do this. They seem expensive, but they have always paid for themselves in my experience, when you get full-price sales from the sequels. (the only caveat is that you should wait until ALL books in the series are published before doing a BookBub promo.) Also, keep in mind that getting a BookBub promo is extremely difficult these days, as you're competing with tons of other authors for a limited number of spots. Every few months, try submitting to BookBub again, even if you were rejected previously. In the meantime, focus on getting as many reviews on Amazon.com (and Goodreads) as possible. Use Read to Review programs (explained in one of my blog posts) and/or contact bloggers to request reviews in exchange for a free ebook. EVERY new reader is important, treat them like the angels that they are!

Thanks again for your question, Melody, and best of luck! If you ever have any other specific questions, feel free to send me a personal message on Goodreads or one of my other social media sites :)

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