My debut fantasy novel is set to release Sept 12 (so in 7 weeks). I had planned to use that time to send out my ARCS and push pre-orders, not realizing that:

1. ARC readers won't be able to leave reviews on Amazon until the release date.

2. That people can't pre-order the paperback, only the ebook.

Do I stay the course and ask for reviews on Goodreads only? Or do I send out my ARCS ASAP and bump up my release date? I've just started gathering ARCs, so I don't have that many. Since it's my first book, is it better just to get it out there?

I would have done my release date a month earlier had I known. So, looking for any advice from self-published authors on Amazon (I only plan to do KDP and KDP select for now - and will go wide later on once I've built an audience).

I just read the news that a judge (who apparently retired right after?) ruled in the lawsuit against Anthropic that AI companies can train on copyrighted books without permission, declaring it "fair use" - whatever that means.
Now, they did hold them accountable for using pirated books, and Anthropic paid about $3,000 per book to settle.
But this sets a terrifying precedent. As an author, I’m concerned because it effectively costs tech companies nothing to scrape our work and use it to train their ai without our consent. And now they have the courts backing them up.
We need to start thinking seriously about how to protect our work in a world where AI can be trained on our writing without permission.
And if you think you’re safe just because you don’t use AI in your own writing process, you're wrong. As stated above, your books can be pirated and fed into AI without your knowledge. It can happen to anyone.
What’s the point in copyrighting if it’s now legal for tech companies to ignore it?

I’ve rewritten my blurb 20+ times, and it still feels kind of clunky? I’d appreciate any feedback!

“Sylvia Fisher hates her boss.

When an intern dies on the job, he treats the tragedy like an inconvenience. Between his indifference to the death, the mandatory overtime, and the unsettling interest he’s begun taking in her, Sylvia has had enough.

On top of that, Sylvia’s tired. Working the night shift and taking care of her dying mother have made sleep a luxury she can barely afford. 

Soon, though, sleep escapes her entirely. 

Do you know what happens when you go too long without sleep? Sylvia does. 

Hallucinations. Delusions. Paranoia. 

Sylvia starts seeing things that aren’t there and hears a voice in her head that wants her to kill her boss. The longer she stays awake, the harder it becomes to tell what’s real.

And the harder it becomes to ignore the voice.”

All: What are your thoughts (meaning having data points from historical experience) for a debut author pricing between $2.99 to $4.99 for ebooks? I sold well with promos, and one school of thought is to keep the momentum price lower. Once I'm more established with more books, then I can price higher. I am experimenting with price changes, but curious what you all have observed...

Hello.

I'm about 8-10k away from finishing up the first draft of my debut novel. (First and only manuscript I've ever stuck with until the end.)

It's a contemporary gothic romance.

I revamped my potential back cover blurb and just want to know if it's horrible or not.

The moors remember.

Emmi Crimson chased her love of literature halfway across the world, hoping it would fill the void left by never quite fitting in. Instead, she finds herself drowning in assignments, broke, and sharing a flat with Teddy Hartley—a cynical frontman of an indie band.

She'd dreamed of visiting the windswept village of Haworth for years—but her long-awaited trip awakens something that should have remained buried. Forgotten letters, impossible memories and whispered voices drag her into a story that should have died centuries ago.

The last person she expects to become entangled in the mystery—or her heart—is Teddy. As reality begins twisting around them, disbelief is no longer an option.

Some loves survive death.

Some ghosts never stop waiting.

And on the Yorkshire moors, every story leaves an echo.

-TIA.

Im on my 3rd or 4th full edit of a book that’s 275 pages. It’s a memoir I have been working on for 5 years. In your collective opinion, when is it time for “pencils down”?
Or is it totally subjective?

I think there’s a point where self editing starts to hurt your story instead of helping it. Granted, each revision makes it tighter and more concise, but I don’t want to overthink it.

I really want a line editor, but they cost a ton. Kind of annoyed it’s holding me back from getting the publishing process started.

I wrote the first book of a sci-fi series about a year ago, which has been well received but certainly not popular. I paid Bookbub to be part of their promotion for discounted books and made it free for a week which resulted in 7,000+ downloads. Cost me somewhere around $200 or so, which I figured I might make back if it gets people reviewing or recommending my book. No reviews ever really came in, and it never moved the needle on my book sales.

I ran a few ads on Bookbub to experiment which always resulted in nothing but wasted time and money.

Then, I released the second book in the series earlier this month and paid $400 to Bookbub to be part of their new releases for less email. I recognized I might not make that all back, but getting a few books sold would make it worth it for the same flawed logic as above. (Before anyone asks, yes it was professionally edited, and I paid for an incredible interior/exterior design of both books). Anyway, it resulted in three sales.

Total of three.

Either Bookbub is a total waste, or it’s a total waste for science fiction. Anybody have similar experiences throwing money into Bookbub’s fire?

I'm trying to format my book for free with Reedsy studio. It works wonders in general, but I noticed that hypehenation doesn't split words where it should (it splits syllables in half). I am working in italian, but I specified that was the language of my manuscript in the software settings. Is there any way to fix this? Thanks in advance.

Good Morning Reddit,

I have an ARC posted with Booksirens and it’s not doing very well through their platform. I don’t think it’s the platform, but based on comparing other titles within the same genres it looks like their readers just don’t flow through into humorous sci fi or sci fi in general (at least in large numbers). The ARC campaign is a little over a month old and I think BookSirens has found me 3-4 readers.

I’ve gotten a 3 and 4 start review, so it’s a start, but I was hoping for more prior to release 10/19/26.

Does anyone have recommendations on where to get this book in front of the right demographic of reader?

In one of my books, I included an extra section at the end featuring content connected to the story, including a period photograph of the city where it takes place (courtesy of the city's public library) and what I like to call a "musical bibliography", a collection of 14 songs that directly or indirectly resonate with the narrative.

The idea came naturally because the music gradually became part of the story itself. In one scene, two songs spark a conversation between the main couple. Living in Boston, the young woman dreams of moving to San Francisco—a free spirit in the 70s—and her dream reminds him of the flowers in her hair from Scott McKenzie's San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair). In response, he quotes the Bee Gees' Massachusetts, a more grounded song about returning from San Francisco.

Elsewhere, a street musician appears, a character casually mentions a song, and in other scenes the music is never explicitly named, yet it shapes the atmosphere and emotions of the moment.

Has anyone else included a section dedicated to music as extra content in a novel?

I wrote a small book (48k words) and would like to have a physical copy of it for myself. Potentially I'd also like to give away some copies to friends but I wouldn't want to print more than like, 25 copies or something. What would be the cheapest/best website to do that? I just want it to look/feel like a book.

To begin with, i dont want to use AI in any of my work, dont use it in my writing, did however use it to generate an image that i sent to GetCovers for them to create me an book cover: "Like this, but by a human" was the crux of the request. In the interim I created my own version on canva, using all the assets ON canva, as far as im aware, zero AI has been used.

After i got back what GetCovers are calling the 'Finished' 'Work' *fnar fnar fnar sarcasm sarcasm sarcasm* i thought i best run it through an AI checker, it passed with flying colours, 3% chance of being AI, i then thought i best check my own Canva created variant and it was 97% chance created by AI. If anyone can shed any light on this i would be very grateful, I am still 7 months out from my release date but its all very... irksome.

Basil’s sick of selling potions out of his cramped apartment and taking odd jobs from the Magician’s Bureau just to get by. He wants a real shop—shelves lined with colorful bottles, a small garden out back, and enough space for customers to wander. After years of saving, he’s close, just one good commission away.

So when the owner of a conservatory offers a small fortune for a potion that will stave off any disease or pest, Basil jumps at the chance, thinking his luck has finally turned around.

That’s when Remy shows up.

The energetic little boy has more magic than the greatest mages in the world, but none of their self-control. If left unchecked, his power could summon storms, level buildings, and destroy Basil’s one shot at his dream.

Now Basil has to juggle completing the most important commission of his life and protecting his dangerously gifted apprentice from himself and others. Power like Remy’s doesn’t stay hidden for long and the people who come looking for it rarely have good intentions.

I've finished book 1 (50k words) of a dark fantasy trilogy. It's not a standalone story and ends kind of on a cliffhanger. I'm currently writing other projects now so it would be some time before I do book 2. My question is, should I try to finish the whole trilogy before I put out book 1? Or would it be better to just publish now and see if anyone even likes it first?

I keep seeing conflicting things. Some people say groundwood is what traditionally published books use, but others say it's too thin. Also what about hardback? Appreciate and thank you for any tips!

During back to school season sales have been ROUGH been they were last year as well.

Finally started making a good profit back off ads after a big learning curve but this week things have tanked.

I think if I have Atticus, I'll have creative control over my book and won't have to rely on others. At the same time, wouldn't it be cheaper to have someone format it for me?

Yeah, I know it's cheaper in the short term and more expensive in the long term. But as a newbie, how do we know how our books will perform? Even if the ebook does well and we buy Atticus, we might later realize that paperbacks are not selling much.

Hopefully this is the right sub. I’m helping my grandma write her memoir, and I want to format it for her Kindle so that she can increase the text size if needed. There’s about a dozen photographs in the book, but I’m having trouble figuring out how to make it so the images are on a new page and take up the whole page (it’s fine if they have a border, but I’d like them to be centered). I created the book in affinity 3 and I also have Kindle Create and Calibre and I feel like I’ve watched so many YouTube videos, but I still can’t figure this out. Can anyone help? Open to downloading inexpensive software too. Thank you!

How much should I realistically expect to spend on marketing to have a chance of reaching the Top 5 in a moderately competitive Kindle category?

I'm having some problems with my royalty payments, and I can't figure out what happened.

I have e-books set at $2.99 for the USA and 70% royalty.

My first couple sales had a $2+ royalty. The last 3+ have been just over $1. I double-checked that I had 70% chosen, that the Amazon page said $2.99, and that they were ebook purchases from the US.

Is there anything else I need to check? Obviously I'm confused at this point

Thanks in advance for the help -- Google was not helpful in this regard.

Anyone else a Scribecount user? It's been down (Loads a blank white page) for two days now. Their socials are blank/nonexistent so figured I'd ask folks here assuming plenty of us are users.

Like the title says, I’m curious which review site would be better for a 150k epic fantasy/romance that is already published. Booksprout, BookSirens, Netgalley, Pubby, etc.? I already have some organic reviews as I market on social media, go to in person events, etc., but I’m looking for ways to kind of gather a lot more readers, as I’ll need ARC readers for book 2.