Interview with Self-Publisher Cat Voleur
1. What can you tell me about your experience as a writer?
I have worked in a lot of different freelancing fields, and the one that I feel the most passionately about is writing. It is, by far, the hardest field that I’ve worked in, but I also find it to be the most rewarding.
2. What made you decide to write a book?
I don’t think I ever decided to write a book? I just find that I have to write. Creative writing is something that I’ve done for as long as I could remember. I think even if I had pursued a different career, I would have kept doing fiction just for myself, because it’s something that makes me happy.
3. What circumstances brought you to the decision to self-publish your book?
Self-publishing is something that I’ve always been interested in. I love writing books that are between genres or markets, because I like fiction that challenges me. Those aren’t always the kinds of stories that are marketable, and it occurred to me while I was querying that a lot of my books are probably going to be hard sells.
I was very fortunate to have my debut novella, Revenge Arc, published by a small press. Working with Archive of the Odd was one of the best experiences of my life. They were so good to me, and I learned a lot about the ins and outs of the publishing industry.
Honestly, what made me want to self-publish was a desire to learn even more. The formatting for that book is so gorgeous, and I decided I wanted to learn how to do that. When I started formatting for other people who were self-publishing, I realized that I’d be a lot better at it if I had some hands-on experience with KDP and IngramSpark so that I could better answers questions for my clients.
It was around that time that I was invited to work on a self-publishing project entitled “All of These People Are Going to Die.” Five characters. Five writers. We each got to write and self-publish a short book killing off one of the characters. I was honest going in that I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but I’ve never been happier to learn.
My desire to keep self-publishing stems from the fact that I’m still learning, and wanting to improve. And honestly, I write more stories than I have time to query. So self-publishing has been a great supplement to my continued efforts in publishing through presses.
4. What has your experience as a self-publisher been like?
Overall, I would describe the experience as a self-publisher to be very humbling. Anyone who thinks that it’s easy is in for a rude awakening.
My first self-published book was a fantastic networking opportunity that gave me a lot of confidence I didn’t previously have. My second self-published book has actually been picked up by a publisher for an exclusive edition. I viewed both of them as basically instant successes, even outside of monetary factors.
My third self-published book, Mon Amour, was where I realized how challenging it was going to be to keep pursuing publishing on my own. Even keeping costs to a bare minimum for a project that experimental, it takes a lot of work and promotion to make a sale.
When you’re a one-person team, you learn your weaknesses very quickly. I’m bad at marketing, scheduling, and self-promotion, which are all very essential aspects of making money at self-publishing.
The good thing about being a one-person team, is that I don’t ever have to wait on anyone but myself to improve. Now that I know what I’m bad at, I am taking steps to address those challenges.
5. How do you respond to the negative stigma attached to self-publishing and self-published books?
I am very fortunate that I don’t often have to deal with that directly. I try to surround myself with other creatives who understand the process and are supportive.
As a general rule, though, for the people who just don’t understand all that it takes to be in self-publishing, I’d just point out all the very successful people who are making their living by working hard in the field and producing amazing books. It takes so much skill and dedication and passion to make it, so I have so much respect for the people who do. Anyone who can’t (or refuses) to see that as impressive is someone I probably don’t need to be associating myself with.
6. What is one very important lesson you have learned as a self-publisher so far?
Quality matters. It’s not just about the people who will want to look down at self-pub books, but you are in constant competition with yourself. You have to believe in your books if you want to sell them. When you have multiple titles to sell, and they all need marketing attention, it’s very easy to see which ones you might favor.
Marketing also eats up a lot of time. So even though self-publishing means you can write and release whatever and whenever you want, it’s important to pace yourself if you want all your books to succeed. You have to be very honest about which ideas are your best, and you feel most passionately about putting out into the world.
7. What do you know now about self-publishing that you wish you knew at the beginning?
I wish I had known how to prepare for a release better. As a reader, I love when writers do surprise drops. But as a writer? That’s not a realistic (or financially viable) way to handle releases. It’s so much easier to hype up a book before its release, and that’s the one type of marketing it’s too late to utilize with my first few titles.
8. A lot of authors of self-published books have reservations about promoting and marketing their book. Some even feel that it is a form of vanity or self-importance. What is your opinion about this?
I get it. I’m one of those writers. It feels like I’ll be annoying if I spam content about my books. Talking about myself feels very self-aggrandizing.
It’s hard to hype myself up to want to promote, and then to brainstorm fresh marketing content, and then to make that content and post it regularly. It’s my biggest weakness. And you know what? My sales are terrible. They suffer whenever I’m feeling insecure about marketing and that gives me imposter syndrome and then I don’t want to market and it’s a vicious cycle.
Recently I had an experience where I made an offhand comment online about being bad at marketing because I feel annoying. And a very kind writer went through my Twitter feed and pointed out that I hadn’t actually posted about my books in over a week. I realized I never get annoyed seeing other writers talk about their books, I need to get more comfortable talking about my own.
Because, even though I hate to say it, people won’t buy the books if they don’t know they’re there.
9. How do you promote your books and what form of book promotion has worked the best for you?
I’m constantly testing out new things and trying to find something that works better. My most successful promotions, currently, are cover reveals. They feel the most natural for me because I can hype up the amazing artists I work with, I never get tired of seeing/sharing art, and I happen to have great book covers.
I’m currently working right now to make graphics for the blurbs I’ve received, as well as to pull some quotes from my books.
Some of the marketing that has been most successful for me has been when I’m able to guest on shows and podcasts and do things like this amazing interview right here. But it’s been dangerous to rely on other people to have opportunities for me to talk about my writing. I need to start making more of those opportunities for myself.
10. What are some other important things you have learned as a self-publisher?
This might be cheating a little bit, because I have learned this as a writer through a press as much as I’ve learned it through self-publishing. But. If you don’t know how to market your books, you’re going to struggle.
A lot of people opt for publishing through a press because they don’t feel confident in marketing. I’ll be completely honest and admit a big reason why I continue seeking press publications is because that’s an area where I need so much help. (I also do my best marketing work when I have a team to bounce ideas off of.)
Unfortunately, small presses don’t have an outrageous marketing budget either. Part of being successful is being able to present yourself and your work, and ensure quality.
Self-publishing is infinitely harder to me than querying and collaborating with a press. But the skills are the same, and you’re going to need to learn them no matter what.
11. Do you feel that self-publishing is a viable choice for other authors?
I feel like self-publishing is a viable choice for anyone who is passionate about their art and willing to learn. It’s also helpful to know what success means to you before deciding whether or not those goals are obtainable in the field of self-publishing.
12. How do you feel that self-publishing their books has helped many unknown authors finally get the recognition their books deserve?
I think self-publishing has been a great source of recognition, income, and community for a lot of self-published writers. Some of my favorite people working in the horror space today are writers who have carved a niche out for themselves and their books. If you want to sell something “unmarketable” then you have to be utterly unafraid to build a market of people who want that thing. Self-publishing is perfect for that.
ABOUT CAT:
Cat Voleur is the author of Revenge Arc, and a proud mother to all the rescue cats. She cohosts Slasher Radio and The Nic F’n Woo Cage Cast. When she’s not creating or consuming morbid content, you can find her pursuing her passion for fictional languages.