With more than 4 million sales in her DCI Tom Douglas series, Rachel Abbott is one of the world’s most successful self-published writers. Here, so you can learn from her experience, she outlines what she got wrong when she started her self-publishing journey.
Mistake number 1 Failing to define what success looks like to me.
Publishing success means many different things to different people:
• Commercial success – afocus on profit
• Maximising number of readers
• Critical acclaim
• The simple joy of having published your book It doesn’t matter what drives you, provided you identify what it is.
I thought that just getting my book out there was an accomplishment. But when I made those few sales I realised it wasn’t enough for me. I wanted it to be a commercial success. It expectation. I sat and watched as it sold a few copies – mainly to friends or family who I had bribed to buy a copy (most didn’t even
