Learn from My Mistakes Part 2: One Month In

In May 2026, I self-published my first novel, Ahelno, on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. Like most indie authors, I’m operating on a budget, and I’m doing everything myself–the writing, the editing, the marketing–and I’m making a lot of mistakes. But! I’m documenting them so that you don’t have to make the same mistakes I did.

I will remind you that comparison is the thief of joy. There are some books that released around the same time as mine that have already sold thousands of books and have hundreds of reviews. Others are still waiting on their first sale. I’ll detail everything I’ve done in the hopes that others can replicate it or build upon it, but some of it comes down to luck of the draw.

The good

1. First, I am absolutely thrilled with my sales and pagereads! When I first published this book, I had a simple goal: I wanted ten strangers to read my book. That’s it. Just ten people. And now --35 people have purchased my ebook, one has purchased a paperback, and the pagereads (at about 420 KENP) come out to another 92 people. So in total, 128 people read my book in the first month.

That is, honestly, astounding to me. I never would have dreamed so many people would pick up my book, much less like it. Other stats:

Amazon:  4.2 stars, 16 ratings, 11 reviews

Goodreads: 4.04 stars, 23 ratings, 14 reviews

2. ARC reviews: I touched on this in my prior post, but I used BookSirens for my ARC campaign, and the majority of my reviews have come from those ARC readers. Fifteen BookSirens readers downloaded my book, and 12 left reviews (9 on Amazon and 11 on Goodreads). Reviews and ratings are the social proof other readers are looking at to determine if a book is worth purchasing. Running an ARC campaign is essential to launching a successful book.

The bad

1. There will be bad reviews. Not everyone is going to love your book, and they certainly didn’t love mine. One reader wrote a scathing one-star, five page review. And while at first it stung, I was actually ok with it. One, they took the time to write a thorough rundown of what they didn’t like, and I do believe criticism helps us grow. And two, when I got a two-star rating a week later (no review), it didn’t bother me at all. I think getting that first bad review out of the way was really helpful. 

Brace yourself, and don’t respond. I do see some authors on Reddit talking about responding to bad reviews that they feel are unfair, and that’s just going to make you look defensive (even if the review really is unfair). Just remember that a negative review doesn’t mean your book is bad. Dune, one of the greatest sci-fi books ever written, has over 25,000 one-star ratings.

2. The nerves. The first week that you release a book is emotionally exhausting. You know that one bad review will tank your star rating, and you need to try to keep that rating on Amazon over four stars so the algorithm will continue to show your book to new readers. You will constantly be checking the KDP site to see if anyone has read your book, and Amazon to see if anyone’s left a review. The need to refresh does die down with time, but I was glued to my phone the first three weeks. I was a hot mess, so if you’re in that stage, know that you are not alone!

What worked

• Kindle Countdown Deal + Cravebooks promotion: I did a Kindle Countdown Deal, reducing the eBook from $3.99 to 99 cents for 6 days. I heavily promoted the deal on social media, but it wasn’t until I paired it with a Cravebooks promotion that it gained traction. That week, I sold 22 ebooks and had over 10,000 KU pagereads (about 25 books). The Cravebooks promotion cost $8.10, and I made about $60 in royalties–even though the price was reduced to 99 cents. Not huge money, but it paid for itself and got my work out there a bit more.

  
  

• Keywords: I broke down and bought Publisher Rocket for $169 (with a coupon), for the lifetime subscription, which I think is a fair deal. I used it to test the keywords in my KDP metadata and competition for those keywords. Using their software, I was able to position my book FIRST for certain Amazon searches. What does this mean?

If someone searches for “alien romance,” there are too many competitors out there who are much better established, with higher seller rankings. There’s no way Amazon is going to show Ahelno in the top results for someone who searches that phrase. So there’s no point in using “alien romance” as a keyword in my metadata, because no one will ever see my book if that’s what they’re searching for.

But if they search for something like “alien romance with noncon” or “child-free alien romance forced proximity,” they would have a better chance of seeing my book. (Disclaimer, these are just examples and not the actual keywords I’m using). Publisher Rocket enables you to test different search terms that describe your book to determine what keywords are going to best position you at the top of a user’s search results. Using Publisher Rocket, I’ve been able to position Ahelno at the #1 spot for two keyword searches and the #5 spot for another. Only a few hundred people each month are looking for those exact phrases, but that’s a few hundred people who might not ever see my book otherwise.

I did a free trial with Bookbeam earlier in the month, which is a similar product, but I didn’t get the same results as I did with Publisher Rocket. However, I’m not sure if that’s due to a real difference in the software or just because I didn’t really know what I was doing yet.

What didn’t work

• Romance.io Promotion: The first paid promotion I did was to Romance.io. It is, as I said in my previous post, the Bible of romance books. On its face, the results of my ad look impressive: 613,427 views, 734 clicks for a one-week ad. But the week of that ad was my lowest week of sales (other than the half–week of the launch). The ad cost $40, and I made $45 that week.

• Social Media: I’ve posted pretty much every day on TikTok and Instagram. There’s no way to attribute any sales to social media, but most of my posts garner around 50 views, so it feels like screaming into the void. I didn’t have any social media prior to this journey, so I definitely have a learning curve. Plus, I’m posting faceless content only, which is a harder sell. I currently have 36 followers on Instagram and 46 on TikTok, so I’m definitely not one to ask when it comes to social media. 

That being said, Reddit has been a welcome surprise to me. The /selfpublish and /newauthor subs are full of helpful people who’ve been on this journey already, and I’ve made some outstanding author connections and even found a critique circle! A couple of people read and reviewed my books based on my Reddit posts. Who knew?

Now on to what you really want to know.

Final First-Month Results

Initial expenses (see first post): 215

Publisher Rocket:    169

New cover design*:  250

Cravebooks promo:     8.10

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Total expenses:       642.10

Estimated royalties: 228.99

Total profit:  - $413.11

*As I detailed in my earlier post, now that I have some proof my book is viable, I’ve contracted an artist to draw a new cover.

So what’s next? I’m busy editing the completed first draft of my second book, A.I. Human, which is due out in September. And I’m planning to experiment with Facebook ads to test the old cover and new cover for Ahelno. Stay tuned!

Comment below if you have any questions or tips for new authors.