I have learned not to neglect the physical
because I live on the physical.
How can I ignore the earth when I was born from it?
Not the first womb.
Not the first place my human self called home.
And I have learned not to neglect the spiritual
because it is higher than the physical.
It will help me to transcend the works of my flesh.
Both important.
Both necessary.
Neither forsaken.
Oh nothing, just getting back to my poetry.
Congratulations to the winners of this year’s poetry contest. We crown you, poetic scholars, for your commitment and dedication to poetic excellence on this 28th day of December 2023.
“I’m Living”
@musings.from.my.younger.self
“What I Lack”
@thesensualgenius
“Grace”
@ _olops_
“Grace”
@adariyahysrayl
And congratulations to everyone who participated! There would be no contest without your support. Keep an eye out for the individual spotlight interviews of each poet and details on Yecheilyah’s Annual Poetry Contest, 2024!
Yecheilyah’s 7th Annual Poetry Contest 2024 (Coming Soon!)
Yecheilyah’s 6th Annual Poetry Contest 2023 (Page Being Set Up)
Yecheilyah’s 5th Annual Poetry Contest 2022
Yecheilyah’s 4th Annual Poetry Contest 2021
Yecheilyah’s 3rd Annual Poetry Contest 2019
According to Kindleprenuer, a vetted and well-respected platform for self-publishers headed by Dave Chesson (who has listed me among its Ultimate List of Best Book Review Blogs under Yecheilyah’s Book Reviews), these are some of the best platforms for writers who self-published in 2023. (I put them in my own order, though, lol.)
Book retailers are platforms where you can upload your book directly to their site and sell on their market. These are your Amazons, B&Ns, Kobo’s and more.
Book aggregators are third-party platforms where you may submit your book, and it will be distributed to book merchants all over the world. It is one of the simplest ways to get your book on practically every online retailer’s website without much effort. Draft2Digital and PublishDrive are two of the most prominent book aggregators.
Amazon has an 85% market share over all these platforms, so I will start with Kindle Direct Publishing to get my books on Amazon.
While other platforms, such as Bookbaby and IngramSpark, can send your book to Amazon, I have found it best to use Amazon for Amazon to decrease the chances of my book not showing up or being out of stock.
However, I opt-out of expanded distribution while on Amazon, which will put my book into Ingram’s database under Amazon. I want it under my own company.
After I upload my files to KDP, I head over to Ingram.
Under my own Ingram account, I publish my book to IngramSpark. I have not done this with every book, but I have done it with my last two and in the future. I do this for easier distribution to bookstores and libraries but under my own company name (Literary Korner Publishing), not Amazon.
This is where having bulk ISBNs comes in handy, as you will need one for Ingram different from what you used on Amazon. Ya’ll know I don’t do free ISBNs except for with ebooks.
Then, I log into my account on Draft2Digital and upload my files there to get my ebook on all major online retailers—however, I opt-out of Amazon since I have already uploaded my book there separately.
I also have yet to use their print book version, now available for authors who want to use the feature. I only use them for the digital version of my book so if you’ve tried their paperbacks let me know how it turned out! How’s the quality compared to KDP?
When it’s said and done, I’ll have my book available on Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, and everywhere books are sold online with the option to get it into bookstores, libraries, and schools.
I didn’t plan on posting today, but there is a debate going on about whether new authors should spend money on self-publishing their books.
In brief, publishing a book you want others to spend their money on will cost some financial investment if you care about your reader’s experience.
There’s a reason authors who sign with conventional publishing houses don’t pay money for editing and cover art. It is because the publisher has a team of experts to take care of that. In exchange, the author sells the rights to their book and receives royalty payments for sales.
As a self-publisher, you are the publisher, which means you are responsible for outsourcing everything you need to ensure a profitable product.
It doesn’t have to be an arm and a leg, but you want to, at minimum, cover editing, a decent cover design, print and digital formatting, and own your ISBN from Bowker so that you are the publisher of record.
Paying someone to publish your book is also not self-publishing.
If you paid someone to publish your book, including editing it and everything else, you have not self-published it. You have paid a vanity press to publish it for you.
I’ve heard too many horror stories from authors who say they will never self-publish again, only to discover they never actually self-published. They signed with a vanity press who uploaded the book to Ingram, and did little more than the author could have done themselves.
But this isn’t about vanity presses. This is about how too many people self-publish because they think it’s easier than all other routes: vanity, hybrid, and traditional. They have not considered if they have the time and resources to self-publish or if it’s even something they are really interested in.
The truth is that not everyone is equipped to be their own publisher, which is fine! First-time authors are not required to self-publish, but if they do, they must recognize the financial risks involved in providing a quality product worth people’s money.
You cannot throw a book together that you claim you didn’t do to make money and then sell this mediocrity to other people.
Cause technically, you can self-publish for $0, but it will look like it.
I blame the existence of this debate on the whole “art” conversation. Authors don’t think they have to invest financially because too many of us consider publishing a book a passion project instead of a business decision.
This is the first mistake.
2020 was very challenging for me for reasons unrelated to the pandemic. As I reflect, it was difficult not only because of the tragedies themselves but also because of their proximity to one another.
I remember when I got jumped on as a teen by a group of girls in Chicago. Another quickly followed each blow until I could do nothing but allow myself to fall to the slippery floor of Nicky’s Restaurant and cover my head. They were too fast. The least I could do if I didn’t have the time to throw a punch was protect my face.
I walked away from that fight, blood trickling from my scalp. When I arrived at the hospital, it was so crowded that the blood had dried by the time I saw the doctor. I sat on the edge of a bed in the hallway while the doctor pierced me with the surgical stapler. I was not under anesthesia, but it didn’t hurt. It simply felt like pressure.
The staples dissolved and I healed nicely. I finished school and went on with my life like nothing happened. The scars from that night are invisible.
That’s how it feels to grieve the events of 2020 when I lost my mother and suffered multiple miscarriages in the span of a few months, each blow coming too fast for me to recover fully.
And I wonder if I am just balled up on the floor, covering my head to protect my face.
I don’t exist out of thin air.
I didn’t just pop up out of nowhere teaching this through Google and YouTube University.
I teach this because I’ve lived through it.
And, while much of what I discuss is well-known on the tail end of 2023, it wasn’t when I first started. Self-publishing has been around for ages, but Print-On-Demand was new, and no one was talking about it, let alone their journey.
I self-published my first book in 2010, and it was trash.
But I was 23 and unafraid.
There is something to be learned from young people.
The content was good, but the production was poor.
I knew nothing about editing, book cover art, or proper formatting.
Every mistake that could be made by self-publishing a book, I have made it and then some over the years.
But even though the book was far from perfect, I still sold copies. And even though I didn’t know what I was doing, my youthfulness had armed me with the boldness to put it out there anyway.
“Take the risk or lose the chance.”
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I remember being at my in-laws house in Memphis. My husband had told my nephew:
“You can do anything if you believe it. You can climb that wall if you wanted to.”
Do you know what this five-year-old did?
He proceeded to climb the walls.
The fact that he could fall had never crossed his mind. And if it did, he didn’t care.
As we age and experience the brutality that is sometimes this life, we become more afraid.
This causes us to overthink until fear paralyzes us into not taking action.
And now, we are afraid to move forward because we are afraid to fail. In many ways, this also means we are afraid to learn!
“The fear will become your weakness if you don’t overcome it.” – Yecheilyah
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I cannot say if I would have taken that leap of faith, the proof of what is not seen, had I known everything there was to know about book publishing. It would not have been perfect enough for me.
The most insightful lessons you will learn is through doing the work.
Don’t let overthinking paralyze you into not taking action.
I saw an Ad on Facebook where the person was telling authors that selling their books on Amazon is a waste of time and that they should sell directly from their website.
And, if you buy the course for $89.95, he’ll teach you exactly how to do it.
It’s not even that it’s bad, but it is unbalanced.
Questions.
How many people visit your author’s website monthly? Not your blog, your static author website?
How many author websites do YOU visit regularly?
When you think about a book you want to buy, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
For me, the answer is not from the author’s website but from Amazon, and if I am going offline, I am hitting up Barnes and Noble or my local Independent bookstore.
I have always advocated for author websites because they allow authors to track leads.
You can collect data to keep in touch with readers, like email addresses and phone numbers—something you can’t do through Amazon, which doesn’t show who bought the book. You only know if that person leaves a review.
But I wouldn’t consider Amazon a waste of time when they are the number one go-to for people looking to buy books.
This person’s perspective lacks balance. Authors can have books available through their websites and on Amazon. Also, consider everyone’s journey is different:
The best advice is lived experiences, and I recommend that everyone do what feels right with their souls. Otherwise, we risk stifling an author’s creativity and rob them of the opportunity to learn.
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