hi my name is Savannah and this hair is
a choice
so a few years ago I self-published a
collection of poetry called graffiti
which I just so happened to have right
here and it went on to do pretty well
and I get asked often how that sort of
came to be I asked you guys on Instagram
what you wanted to know about the
process and the sentiment was mostly
like just all of it so I'm gonna do an
overview of the whole logistical process
start to finish and then address some
more specific questions at the end but
yeah let's get into it so I've been on
YouTube since 2011 my god and graffiti
came out in 2016 so at this point I
already had an audience I wanted to
mention that because some of the things
I'm going to say that I did might not be
the wisest thing for someone without an
audience to do I think most of the
things I'm gonna talk about are still
like relevant and even if you have a
small audience like everything applies
to you that was one of the questions I
got asked most often if the fact that I
already had an audience helped with the
success of graffiti and the answers for
sounding the yes and I actually have a
lot of problems with this guy oh look at
there when we get there though this is
actually the second edition of graffiti
and some of the problems I had with the
first edition were resolved with this
hopefully I'll get across that regrets I
had with this whole process so you don't
make the same mistake so the first thing
I want to say and it feels like I
shouldn't have to say it but I do finish
your book you must you must do this
first I get so many messages from people
especially young writers who are so
excited about their book and getting it
published and they want to have a book
published for their 20 and it sold very
fast and exciting and I'm like that's
great do you want to get an agent doing
a self-published what do you want to do
and more often than not they have not
finished the book yeah I implore you I
beg if you don't set in arbitrary age
cutoff or try and publish a book as
quickly as you can it will prove so much
more valuable to you that instead of
having a good book for an 18 year old
you just have a good book right but your
time and effort into making what you've
written as good as it can be first
before you even think about published
but for real that was one of my biggest
regrets about graffiti I felt I had
rushed it and in that same vein I didn't
get a professional editor ah I had
friends read it over for me and give
input and some changes were made as a
result of that input but honestly they
were probably just being nice and I
think maybe there's something charming
about the fact that it all feels a bit
untouched my thought process was that I
wanted it to be like a direct
continuation of the stuff I've done on
YouTube and some poems from YouTube were
in the book so I didn't want those to be
changed too much but it doesn't matter
having an editor would have improved
everything about it and throughout this
I'm gonna mention things that will cost
you money and getting a professional
editor is one of them but it's also the
most important I think so if you're
gonna spend money on some things had to
be editing the book is finished it's
edited the words you've written are the
best they can possibly be you're ready
for it to be a real thing time to enter
the wonderful world of typesetting
typesetting process is what takes just
like the words in your word document and
assembles them into what looks like an
actual book a graffiti I do this myself
through a program called book write hi
I'm Carly class and I just created my
own book not sponsored it basically
gives you the layout of what it will
look like printed and then you can paste
and arrange everything page by page this
is the thing that you can pay someone to
do for you if you plan to do it yourself
I caution you study the books you want
yours to look like the fonts are
important margins are important the way
it's arranged as important all the text
and the first edition of graffiti is
centered ooh what's wrong with me you
need appropriate page numbers table of
contents frontmatter that was one of the
things I had to learn about the
frontmatter is one of the first pages in
a book with all the copyright
information and like legal jargon you
need that and then it was around this
stage in the process that I hired my
illustrator his name said stop them he's
an amazing artist we already sort of
casually knew each other so I sent him I
think a Facebook message and I was like
hey I've got like 25 poems that how many
I'm just
I have like 25 poems that need
illustrations would you be up for it he
said yes I really didn't have anything
specific in mind I sort of handed him
over the document and I was like just
sort of whatever doodles come into your
head for each one because I didn't want
like elaborate illustrations I really
just wanted them to be sort of sketchy
he came back with a bunch of options and
they were perfect yeah I was really like
stress-free collaboration I paid him pay
artists kids so from there I played
around with illustrations in the actual
book there wasn't a whole lot of rhyme
or reason to it again I looked at books
that I liked the layout of I also got an
ISBN around this time and ISBN is the
numbers in the barcode on the back of
every book you'll need fun the process
changes depending on what country you
live in it will also change appending
upon how you're actually self-publishing
so if you're doing it like hard mode
like the way I am doing it then you need
to get one yourself I had to pay for
mine
he was like 90 pounds in the UK but if
you're publishing through like Amazon
KDP then I think they automatically
provides you with one I might be wrong
but I might be right so that's another
potential cost to think about you're
also gonna need a cover this is another
thing that unless you yourself are
really good at design you shouldn't do
it yourself because I was already
working with an illustrator I just had
to design the cover from you but there
are so many great cover artists online
so don't skimp out on that I know I just
threw a lot at you so here's a breakdown
of things to consider some of the prices
are just estimates via Google but they
should be a good starting point
[Music]
so now you've got a finished PDF it's a
beautiful cover to cover we're going to
print nerds this isn't hard if you're
publishing through like Amazon's
publishing service for example such
probably safe graffiti is now only on
Amazon it's print-on-demand so there's
no like print runs it's just whenever
someone buys it it's printed and it gets
sent and that's the best option for a
lot of people because it means you don't
have to drop a bunch of money upfront
unlike a whole print run but as a result
of that also because when you publish
through Amazon you're also using like
their fulfillment their warehousing
customer service etc etc they take a
pretty big cut through royalties for the
sake of the video I figured I should
give you some actual facts and figures
here some real hard-hitting stuff on
Amazon I sell graffiti for $9.99 and I
earn sixty percent in royalties less the
cost of printing which means I earn 429
per book but I didn't want to publish 3
Amazon the first time around I quite
frankly thought I could do a better job
myself
so I worked directly with a printing
company in the UK I contacted them I
said hello I'm 19 I'd like above are
incredibly kind and helpful they sent me
out a bunch of samples of books they've
done in the past to get an idea of like
what I wanted like the finish of my
cover and the pages the size of the book
so actually my first proof copy of 50
was way too big it was like I don't even
know what I was thinking not just the
size of the book itself but like the
text was too big so then at that point
actually have to go back into book write
adjust the whole thing I eventually
settled on an iteration of it I was
happy with the first edition was
actually hard to cover I ended up with a
cute little prototype and I was like
okay I guess let's let's do it so I was
gonna put like another title card here
but these two things are kind of like
elated so maybe just half a title card
with the printing company I worked with
I had the option to do prints on demand
but it's just more profitable to buy a
bunch of books and bold cuts
you've guessed it it's also much more
expensive so at this point in my life I
was at school I was at university I had
no money zero money and paying three
thousand pounds for the first print run
of the book was just not possible so I
up setting up pre-orders I mean you know
how pre-orders work but it was like the
book came out in March I think it was
February and I'm like you won't get the
book until like March end of March and
you can pre-order it and that way not
only was I able to get a better idea of
how big the printer I needed to be but
also I had money to pay for the print
run in the first place and this is one
of the things I was talking about at the
beginning that if you don't already have
an audience I don't think this is the
way to go even though like I said print
on demand is less profitable there's way
too much risk and putting a bunch of
money towards the printer on I sold the
books myself through Big Cartel which is
just like an online storefront and I had
the brilliant idea that with the
pre-orders I said here's your pre-order
incentive I'll sign all the pre-orders
and I am so happy and thankful that this
happens now at the time I was still
happy and thankful but it was also a lot
I think it was like in the first two
weeks ended up selling 2,500 books in
pre-orders you don't know what 2500
ebooks looks like until you see 2500
books so the story of this is again I
was at uni I was in a tiny little dorm
room I think it was like a Friday and I
get a phone call at 7 in the morning
from my University's head office there's
a man on the phone who sounds very
frantic and says you have a pallet of
books here for you and I asleep I'm like
oh all right so I hang up and I'm sort
of slowly coming to and I'm like I
should go so so I run outside in my
pajamas there's a man large truck pulls
out two pallets of books drops them on
the curb says here you go goodbye and
then leaves and so again there were
2,500 books there are about 40 books in
a box 40 books is heavy by myself I
think it took probably two hours to get
all those books into my flat my room it
was literally just I had a little trail
there was one to my desk and then one
out it was craziness so not only did I
have 25
books but because I was signing them and
shipping them out myself I also needed
2500 envelopes you don't know what 2500
envelope so I already had all the books
and then the envelopes come and there
they're bigger boxes because I am below
they're bigger and I stack them up and I
think I had one stack that went all the
way up to my ceiling it was a fire
hazard it was bad so then began the
process of shipping them all out thank
God I had burped to help me it took it
took a month and we were doing it
everyday I would load my biggest
suitcase up with as many books as I
could and the closest post office was in
the town center which was a bus ride
away so I had to take the big suitcase
onto the bus and I go to the post office
- silly guy guys it's me breeziness and
I honestly don't know how we managed it
I actually halfway through got the worst
flu I think I've ever gotten it was
awful but then I was like I still need I
need to go I need so like there's people
waiting for their books so one day I was
totally bedridden but then it was the
next day I'm like I have to get up so I
went to the post office and huh looks
like fainted on the bus but anyways what
I'm saying is distribution is definitely
something to think about if you're
getting it if you're working like
directly with a printing company and not
just through Amazon who will do it for
you so that's when I moved to my
printers also has like a fulfillment
center so at that point it would be like
every week I'd send out the list of new
orders to them and then they'd send them
off for me but even with that burden
lifted I was still selling them myself
so I still was getting the orders
together replying to emails sometimes
people wouldn't get books so then I made
the decision to move to Amazon and
exclusively and yeah I'm happy I did
that I literally don't have to worry
about it at all it just lives up there
and if people want it then they can get
it and yeah as far as I'm concerned at
this point in graffitis lifespan I think
that's the best place for it okay I
think that's a pretty good like base
level overview of everything so now this
will just be a self-publishing Q&A
[Music]
so again there were a lot of questions
that were basically like can you do this
without an audience it's not wise to to
publish a book and just throw it into
the void and expect people to look at it
but I don't necessarily think you need a
huge audience and obviously there's
outliers where people got really
successful basically on accident and to
be honest the landscape has changed so
much that I'm not even sure how people
build audiences anymore I know for me
YouTube was the reason the whole thing
happened I've seen people be really
successful on Instagram I think the
thing that connects people who are
successful on social media is that
they're consistent we have to be
completely honest I think you do need at
least like the semblance of an audience
just so you have a foundation to build
from doesn't self-publishing lead to you
not being perceived as a serious writer
in some ways I mean yes but by [ __ ]
soulless tree has always been a really
hard sell and this is changing to the
point where there's whole publishing
companies created around like selling
Instagram poetry totally unrelated if
you're interested in this my friend
Ariel did a documentary about Instagram
poetry for her masters and it's really
good so I'll link it in the description
the traditional routes publication which
is getting agents picture book to
publishing houses hope one of them buys
it for poetry that's always been less
successful self-published poetry has
always been a thing whether it's through
like actual mountains books more
commonly its zine which is a really
affordable way for sort of beginning
poets to have like a bound version of
their work I certainly don't perceive
people who self-published as like less
serve writers I just think the industry
is changing and it's not just poetry
there's some genres of fiction where
self-publishing is incredibly lucrative
as in like people are making seven
figures self-publishing like romance for
example most self-publishing sites look
so dodgy and they scare me
honey you recommend so why just that is
really all I know in terms of like
avenues yeah maybe in the comments
people can be more enlightening you can
always go the route of like contacting a
printer directly who I'm sure will be
happy to talk to you like I said mine
offered print-on-demand it just wasn't
something I wanted to do so yeah there's
definitely options I feel like we can
just cut out the scary dodgy middle
entirely having published and
self-published now which do you prefer I
have a novel that's traditionally
published if you don't know the best
part about that is that I'm a writer and
that's the main thing I do and as soon
as the writing is finished then that's
the extent of like my responsibilities
then with self-publishing you have to do
everything else - which you know can be
fun creatively because you really do get
to make it exactly the way you want it
at the same time I'm not a typesetter
I'm not like a proofreader I'm not a
cover designer I'm not any of these
things and I wouldn't really say I'm
good at any of those things I'm not sure
if there's one I like more for context
I'm working on another poetry collection
at the minute and I think I'm going to
self-published that one - someone asked
if I went self-published again and the
answer is yes this person asked do you
regret self-publishing we didn't help
lead to other opportunities I definitely
don't regret the act of self-publishing
like I said there were specific things
about the process that I wish I'd done
differently but as a whole I don't
regret like having done it at all
actually I know we were just talking
about like being self-published and then
going on to traditional publishing and
working against you I found the opposite
was true for me because graffiti had
done so well that actually worked in my
favor when we were pitching it to
publishers but would I self publish a
novel I don't think so
me personally someone asked how did you
decide to publish those poems rather
than waiting to write something better
my dude I am never completely happy with
what I make never so I think you have to
get to a certain point where you say I
would fiddle with this for the rest of
time if I could but you can't do that
because then you'll never put anything
out there after the first edition
happened
and I had a little time away from it I
went back to it and I was like oh god I
would change a lot about this
so I basically gave myself permission to
do that and that's what became the
second edition of graffiti so I ended up
actually editing most of the poems I'd
say a lot of things about them
word choice punctuation it was
there are a lot of issues with
punctuation formatting so I worked with
that again and got new illustrations
done I wrote in introduction talking
about all of these things and actually
the margins looked a bit messed up so I
could come in and fix that yeah and I
really can't go back and read this
anymore for a couple of reasons first is
that I know there will be things I'll
want to change again and with the second
edition I basically told myself this is
it this is just how graffiti is gonna
live for the rest of its life after this
I don't want to change anything anymore
so that's the first reason and that
reading it might just be a special kind
of torture but secondly I find it kind
of embarrassing to be honest if you want
to do this like take writing seriously
you're right as a career that's what
you're signing up for that's what this
is especially when you're young
specifically when you're young even now
my brain isn't fully formed all the way
yet and the person who wrote this is so
different from me in so many ways and
because the way you write is so
intrinsically linked I think anyway as
to how you look at the world and how you
experience the world everything changes
your cadence your word choice your
subject matter your tone do I think you
should wait to write anything until your
brain this will be formed no absolutely
not
so just keep that in mind I get asked so
much about if I feel like this
represents me now
and it doesn't and the way I deal with
that is even though this is no longer me
it's not any less valuable and the
quality might be worse um but even then
I'm not sure that means it's any less
valuable because actually I think that's
exactly why people liked this people
liked this because here let me read back
to you these are poems about growing up
budding and grappling and shedding about
how wonderful it feels and how deeply
aches and I think that sums it up it's
so quintessentially teenage and that's
why I don't like a lot of the things
about it now but
that's also why for other people it
really resonates with that people cannot
just see themselves in the poems but see
themselves writing the poems you know I
think it feels really accessible is that
the secret to success maybe I don't know
I know it like the titles kind of click
fading it's like how I sold 20,000
copies or whatever when really this is
more just about like self publishing a
book so I'll try and give you some
nuggets of wisdom here like I said in
its immediacy it absolutely had to do
with the fact that I already had an
audience right it was it was my audience
buying it and that was it three years
later and I think people people get this
who don't know who I am and it's sort of
taken on a life of its own in that way
and I'm not gonna sit here and say it's
because it's really good but I think for
a lot of people it captured a time in a
place oh I forgot to mention to in 2016
this was a finalist and the Goodreads
Choice Awards in poetry and I think a
lot of people found it that way too when
they narrow down the finalists I think
it's only like five or six books and I
found a couple books that way where I'm
like what was the best in poetry or
whatever this year so I think people
found it through that too and I'm
incredibly lucky in so many ways and
when it comes to like a secret to
success I don't know really wanted this
to be like for the people who watched me
in my poems and like that was it and I
had never expected that it would go on
to do anything else so much of it is
luck I think I published it right around
when like the poetry boom was really
happening and people were really getting
into it you could say that was good like
business sense but really I think it was
just luck it's creating situations and
putting yourself in situations where
where good things can happen if you
wanted self-published then go for it
hopefully I've given you like workable
options I don't require you to like put
a bunch of money in something because I
would never suggest that you do that
we're coming full circle but back to the
beginning write a good book do your best
to write an amazing book cynically
there's lots of amazing amazing books
that don't get the recognition they
deserve but I also think as writers
that's the one part of the process that
we can truly control and I think that's
why I'm not like sitting here and giving
you marketing advice
because it'll it's all stuff that sounds
really great but self-publishing you're
one person and publishing houses have
tons of people and tons of money that
you just don't have when you
self-publish it's literally impossible
to compete so don't there's lots of
other resources on YouTube in terms of
like how to build an audience for
writers if author - that's a whole thing
that's a good rabbit hole - to get lost
in for a day if you're looking for more
information about this stuff but yeah
I've been filming for so long I don't
even remember what I said I hope some of
this was helpful I'm sure I missed out
tons of things so um obviously you can
leave questions in the comments and I'll
do my best to reply and hopefully offer
some insight again this was all very
like this was what I did and I got lucky
and it worked so it's hard to derive
from that experience like actual tips
and tricks that someone else can do
because really I don't even know how I
did it it's incredibly rewarding all
around I'm not sure I'd be at the place
in my career that I am right now if it
wasn't for graffiti so um for that I'm
incredibly thankful to it even though we
have our differences I'm still pretty
proud of this little guy so yeah I think
we're gonna call it a video thank you
guys so much for watching
[Music]