Self-publishing has never been easier—or more competitive. Advances in technology have empowered writers to bypass traditional gatekeepers, design professional-looking covers, and upload manuscripts with a few clicks. But with that power comes a hidden challenge many authors underestimate: discoverability.
Every day, thousands of new books are added to digital storefronts. That means your masterpiece isn’t just competing with traditionally published bestsellers, but also with a tidal wave of self-published books across every genre imaginable. The question becomes: how will readers find yours?
Strong writing is a good start, but only the foundation. Self-published authors now wear multiple hats—marketer, co-designer (because presumably you’re also using the expert assistance of an actual designer, right?), strategist—all rolled into one!
Understanding how metadata works (title, subtitle, keywords), leveraging categories, building an author platform, and gathering reviews are all crucial to standing out. Every detail matters, even ones you may not initially consider—like your book’s description or cover thumbnail—can impact your visibility and conversions.
Social media, email newsletters, podcast interviews, and Amazon advertising all play a role. But none of them guarantee sales. Discoverability isn’t solved with a single post or promotion; it’s a sustained effort, requiring time, patience, and a willingness to treat your book like a long-term product—not just a launch event.
That’s why the term “self-published author” has evolved—from the lone wolf handling every task solo to the savvy creative who partners with seasoned self-publishing professionals. These experts bring decades of experience to help ensure the book you’ve poured your heart and soul into actually reaches the readers who deserve to read it.
This content was enhanced through collaboration with AI-powered creativity applications.
When it comes to self-publishing a book, authors have the option to embrace their true identity or venture into the realm of pseudonyms, alternate names, or pen names to publish a book anonymously. These literary disguises provide authors with a cloak of anonymity or a chance to explore different genres. In this article, we will delve into the world of pseudonyms and discuss the benefits and considerations of publishing a book under a different name.
The Power of Pseudonyms Publishing a book under a pen name can offer numerous advantages. Let’s explore a few reasons why authors may choose this path:
a) Anonymity and Privacy
How to publish a book anonymously– Some authors desire privacy or wish to separate their personal life from their writing career for one reason or another. Publishing a book with a pseudonym allows them to shield their true identity and maintain a level of anonymity.
b) Genre Exploration
How to publish a book under a different genre– An established author may wish to explore a different genre without confusing their existing readership. Adopting a pen name to publish a book with a different name enables them to experiment with new writing styles and genres without the risk of alienating their current fans.
c) Market Appeal
Publishing a book under a pseudonym can also help authors appeal to a specific target audience. For instance, a well-known romance writer may choose to use to publish with a pen name for their foray into mystery novels, attracting a new set of readers.
The Process of Publishing with a Pseudonym If you’re considering publishing a book under a pen name, here are some essential steps to follow:
a) Choosing the Perfect Pseudonym
Considerations when selecting a pen name– Brainstorm names that resonate with your book’s genre, themes, or target audience. Ensure the name is memorable and not already in use by another author (or, at least not a famous one).
b) Legal and Copyright Considerations
Copyright protection for pseudonyms– Check copyright laws in your country to understand if pseudonyms enjoy the same protection as legal names. In some cases, authors may need to register their pen names as trademarks to safeguard their rights. In all cases, your self-publishing company is going to need to know your real name (since fake people can’t cash royalty checks).
c) Informing Your Publisher
Communicate with your publisher– Once you’ve selected your self-publishing partner, discuss your intention to use a pseudonym. They will guide you through the necessary steps and ensure proper representation of your chosen pen name. In order for you to maintain your copyright, your copyright page may need to display your real name. If that’s a deal breaker, you will also need to secure an LLC or DBA so you can assign your copyright to that entity on the copyright page.
d) Marketing and Promotion Strategies
Establishing your author platform– Building an online presence and connecting with readers using your pen name is crucial. Create a separate website or social media accounts to engage with your audience while maintaining the mystique of your chosen identity.
While pseudonyms offer a host of benefits, authors should carefully consider the potential drawbacks:
a) Personal Connection
Building a connection with readers: Publishing under a pen name may limit personal connections with readers. If you’re comfortable revealing your true identity, your readers can better connect with you on a personal level.
b) Branding Challenges
Developing a consistent brand: Publishing books under different names may complicate branding efforts. It requires separate marketing strategies for each pen name, potentially dividing your audience.
c) Balancing Multiple Identities
Juggling multiple pen names: If you decide to write under multiple pseudonyms, managing various author personas can be challenging. It requires careful organization and an understanding of each pen name’s unique brand.
In conclusion, writing and publishing a book anonymously by using a pseudonym or penname has its advantages and disadvantages. Whether driven by privacy concerns, safety concerns, genre exploration, or market appeal, self-publishing authors have the opportunity to shape their literary personas.
Best Seller and Category Ranks are based on customer activity – sales and borrows – of your book relative to the activity of other books. A book ranking #1 in Mystery & Thrillers is the book with the most activity in Amazon’s Mystery & Thrillers category. Books can appear in up to three categories. The book’s rank in each category will show under the Product Details section. Activities that may not be an accurate reflection of customer demand, including promotional Amazon Giveaway sales and purchases that are later returned, are not counted towards sales rank.
Rankings are updated hourly but may take 24-48 hours to appear. Rankings reflect recent and historical activity, with recent activity weighted more heavily. Rankings are relative, so your sales rank can change even when your book’s level of activity stays the same. For example, even if your book’s level of activity stays the same, your rank may improve if other books see a decrease in activity, or your rank may drop if other books see an increase in activity.
When we calculate Best Sellers Rank, we consider the entire history of a book’s activity. Monitoring your book’s Amazon sales rank may be helpful in gaining general insight into the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and other initiatives to drive book activity, but it is not an accurate way to track your book’s activity or compare its activity in relation to books in other categories.
The ranking for books with consistent activity histories that have been available on Amazon for a long time may fluctuate less than the ranking of new books, or books whose histories aren’t as stable. One sale of a very popular book may not influence its rank much at all, but one sale of a lower volume book may significantly improve that book’s rank.
Note: Each available format of your book (eBook, paperback) has its own independent Amazon Best Sellers Rank.
This is a lot to parse, but the main points to remember are these:
Your sales ranking is essentially an attempt to quantify your book’s popularity;
The release of new books, awards announcements, and book club recommendations (among many other factors) means that new books are always climbing the rankings, while others are dropping in the rankings at the same time—it’s a constant balancing act, and sales rankings are relative;
Even if you sell the same number of copies each month, your sales ranking will rise and fall dependent on factors outside of your control. As I mentioned in my last post, there are yearly rhythms to book sales that mean you need to sell more books at certain times just to maintain the same ranking relative to other months when book sales are lower for everyone;
Blockbuster books are constantly battling it out for the upper sales rankings in every category, and rankings mean less to popular books because they have other avenues to selling a lot of books. But for new books, indie publications, and self-published books? Sales rankings mean a lot more, because even one or two sales can boost an author’s sales ranking, and as a result, boost their visibility, which will itself boost sales. It’s a feedback loop that can work to your advantage.
Amazon also has a page dedicated to giving its sellers a larger-picture idea of what their sales figures represent, and that’s worth checking out as well if you sell on the website.
But what about the stuff that Amazon isn’t saying about its sales rankings?
Any number of websites out there at any point in time are happy to claim that they’ve “cracked the code” or “tamed the algorithm” or can help you “game the system,” but the fact of the matter is, most of them are offering something more along the lines of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) advice, which is totally well and good, but not quite the same thing as delivering on a promise to make Amazon’s system work for you.
At its core, Amazon is a business which is driven by its bottom line, which is to say, eking every possible profit out of both its customers and its third-party sellers. Their algorithm code is not fully public, and while we can speculate about ways to improve sales rankings, it’s entirely Amazon’s right to code their algorithm to ignore the little sales and boost the visibility of popular items, including those blockbuster book sales that I mentioned earlier. It’s not actually in their best profit-driven interest to be fair, even though it’s certainly in their profit-driven interest to discover new niche markets—which they often do by measuring how many readers access titles through their Kindle Unlimited offering—a service which rarely profits the authors themselves, as authors themselves often point out. All this is to say, we don’t actually know how sales rankings work, other than what Amazon itself has told us, and Amazon has more than one horse in the race to make money.
Next time, I’m going to look at what we know about preorders and how they affect sales rankings—so check back in two weeks for more on this fascinating and important subject!
You are not alone. ♣︎
ABOUT ELIZABETH JAVOR: With over 20 years of experience in sales and management, Elizabeth Javor works as the Director of Sales and Marketing for Outskirts Press. The Sales and Marketing departments are composed of knowledgeable publishing consultants, customer service reps and book marketing specialists; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Elizabeth Javor can put you on the right path.
Some of the best literature comes from places that the average American reader might not know about, and we write about these places frequently here on Self Publishing Advisor: India, Britain, and this week, Australia. In this week’s West Australian, Jackson Lavell-Lee writes to promote an upcoming event at Barefoot Books Busselton, which according to Lavell-Lee “will host a book self-publishing event on Sunday at 2pm in conjunction with independent publishing company Book Reality.” Lavell-Lee goes on to interview Book Reality’s director and a number of authors who have self-published through Book Reality, giving this article an especially personal touch.
In other fascinating self-publishing news for the week, UK bookselling juggernaut Waterstones is dealing with a landmark case after a petition featuring over 9000 signatures was delivered asking the bookstore to give its employees a living wage. How does this relate to self-publishing? According to the article from Books + Publishing, “Campaign organisers also planned to present Daunt with a self-published book called Working at Waterstones, which includes anonymous testimonies from staff about their experiences of living on a low wage.” It says a lot about at least specific value of self-publishing that is has provided a platform for necessary anonymous publications and therefore the voices of those whose jobs are on the line, whether or not their names are attached to this petition. If they don’t file a petition, their jobs may prove unsustainable in paying basic bills. If they do file a petition and get called out for it, they may be let go on any number of technicalities. Thank goodness for self-publishing, eh? Speaking truth to power is one of its strong suits.
As a self-publishing author, you may find it helpful to stay up-to-date on the trends and news related to the self-publishing industry.This will help you make informed decisions before, during and after the self-publishing process, which will lead to a greater self-publishing experience. To help you stay current on self-publishing topics, simply visit our blog each month to find out the hottest news. If you have other big news to share, please comment below.
2019 is now well underway, but not so far underway that it feels quite like spring––at least, not if you live in the same part of the world that I do. The weather is grey and cold––and wet––and worst of all, there seems to be no end in sight (even though we know, in theory, that this happens every year). At some point during the incrementally lengthening days, there comes a realization: your writing is suffering. Whether it’s because of all the other things piling up, or because you’ve burned through your allotment of holiday candy, I thought I’d take a moment today to encourage you with a few simple––and practical!––ideas for kicking those pre-Spring blues.
Take care of your body. Revisit your sleep schedule, your vitamins C and D intake, your water intake, and those other finicky cycles that we all tend to interrupt and sacrifice on the altar of our incredibly busy lives. If you notice that one of these basic components of day-to-day health is off, don’t stress! Take a moment to breathe, and take steps to correct them––sustainably, of course, and never ever punish yourself for struggling or lapsing. Positive reinforcement only!
Check in with friends and fellows. We all need the boost that a good conversation can bring. Google it: research shows that we need positive interactions with friends, family, and other community members to stay positive ourselves. During this pre-Spring time, reach out and touch base with your friends and fellow writers. You need them, and they need you too!
Try something new, like signing up for a creative writing or introduction to publishing course through your local library, or join a local writer’s group. Don’t think in terms of a long-term commitment just yet––just give it a taste, a quick try, and reassess after a month or so. Is it helping? If yes, keep going. If not, let it go and try something else.
Get outside. We writers tend to stick to the hermitage for reasons of both preference and (mostly) practicality. Writing is easiest inside, where there are plenty of wall sockets and comfortable seating nooks and wifi connections. And before summer well and truly dries out the snowbanks, getting outside can be kind of … messy. But here’s the thing: sunlight and fresh vistas can be some of the best curative tricks in the whole trade. Take something portable––an iPad or regular plain old paper notebook––in case something sparks your imagination. Get it down then and there!
Plan something fun. Whether it’s a big vacation or a weekly trip to a local coffee shop (or, let’s face it, the local bookstore!), build rewards into your upcoming schedule. Giving yourself something to look forward to as you strive to write this spring will spur you on!
It only seems right that we lay a solid foundation for the months of work to come. Just remember: it’s okay to pick and choose what techniques work for you!
You are not alone. ♣︎
Do you have ideas to share? Please don’t hesitate to drop us a line in the comments section, and I’ll make sure to feature your thoughts and respond to them in my next post!
ABOUT ELIZABETH JAVOR: With over 20 years of experience in sales and management, Elizabeth Javor works as the Director of Sales and Marketing for Outskirts Press. The Sales and Marketing departments are composed of knowledgeable publishing consultants, customer service reps and book marketing specialists; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Elizabeth Javor can put you on the right path.
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