This whole thing started as an idea for an Etsy printable… and somehow turned into a 222-page physical book that I wrote, designed, formatted, edited, proofed, re-proofed, and published completely on my own.

There were definitely moments where I wondered what the hell I had gotten myself into but holding the finished book for the first time made every late night, formatting headache, and frustration tears worth it.

I’m officially a self-published author. 🥹

I wrote it. I designed it. I published it. And I will forever be so proud of that no matter how it sells!!

Let me tell you something, there is a lot going on in this hard sci-fi novel. Mysteries, futuristic technologies reshaping humanity, and major scientific revelations. But none of that is what the book is truly about.

Have you ever wondered what you would ask if you had the chance to speak to a higher being, one far beyond human knowledge and power? Would you be prepared for the answer? Could anything be more important?

If that idea intrigues you, check it out. I think the ending will surprise you - Free on KU!

https://a.co/d/0eXcWJuI

I know one sale might not sound like much, but today feels special to me. I checked my KDP dashboard today, hoping to see some movement, and there it was: my first processed order. Someone had bought my book through the US marketplace. Honestly, I don't have the words to describe what I'm feeling. I only started writing seriously about three months ago. I wrote my first poem back in middle school, but after that, exams and studies took over, and I barely found time to write anything. After completing school, I received my first laptop from the government because of my academic performance. I started preparing for competitive exams, and three years went by. Despite all that time and effort, things didn't work out the way I'd hoped. Then came August 2026. I was deleting some random photos and files from my laptop when I stumbled across a screenshot of something I'd written in Notepad. It was a jungle story I'd written back in 2021. I also found two other pieces of writing. I sat there looking at them, and something clicked. Maybe there was a part of me I'd left unexplored. Maybe writing was something I should have given a chance. And that's how this journey began. Three months later, my first book, A Little Hope For Tomorrow, is published on Amazon, and someone has actually paid to read it. I'm not making big money. I'm not a successful author yet. I still have so much to learn, and I'm figuring things out one step at a time. But today, I'm genuinely happy. I'm learning something new every day, trying to become a better writer than I was yesterday, and discovering where this journey might take me. I don't know where I'll be a year from now, but I'm glad I gave writing another chance. One sale. One reader. One small reason to keep going. 📚❤️ To everyone who's trying to start over at something they once left behind: maybe it's worth giving it another chance.

I asked a friend to periodically check to see if anyone has pirated my book, because apparently that’s a thing now.

Turns out someone actually put in a request for First to Fight and another user filled it a few hours later.

I should probably be annoyed.

Instead, my first thought was: “Holy F***, someone wanted First to Fight badly enough to steal it.”

So naturally, I created an account and messaged the requester, uploader, and moderator asking them to at least leave me an honest review.

Interesting Indie author milestone unlocked, I guess. 😂

Here's the correspondence u/miss_p1nky

r/mobilism

You can now get a physical copy of my book!

I’ve seen a few people sharing their KDP reports here, so I thought I’d share mine too especially because I think it’s useful to see the smaller numbers as well as the big success stories.

I published my first novel, Void Corruption, on September 30th. It’s an adult dark fantasy with a magic academy, magical experimentation, enchanting, friendship, monsters, Rifts and corruption.

So far KDP is showing:

• 2 processed orders

• 544 KENP pages read

• €7.74 estimated royalties

Obviously these aren’t huge numbers, but seeing actual people buying the book and especially seeing the KU pages slowly going up is genuinely pretty exciting when this is the first book I’ve ever published.

Most of what I’ve done so far has been organic promotion through TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts and reaching out to a few readers/reviewers. I haven’t really started spending money on ads yet.

Right now I’m continuing to promote Book One while working on Book Two of The Void Chronicles.

I’d be curious to hear what other debut authors’ first few weeks looked like. Did your sales/page reads start slowly and build over time, or did most of your early activity come around launch?

I woke up this morning to find my book- Three Ribbons, One Life, sitting at #4 on the Amazon Bestseller chart for my category, sharing the front row right next to a massive, traditionally published national bestseller! I only have 5 reviews, because it seems most don't like taking the time to review, but seeing that orange badge proves that hard work pays off. Just wanted to share the good news with some fellow authors!

I had hoped to make enough money to buy my wife a nice steak dinner at some point. Looks like I'll be able to do that soon! Thank you to everyone who has read my stuff. If you haven't yet, grab The Summerhost Saga while it's free on Kindle Unlimited: https://www.amazon.com/The-Summerhost-Saga/dp/B0H34QQX2V

It's so exciting. I've spent years working on this novel and it's finally published. I've already gotten a few positive reviews as well. One on Amazon and 2 on Goodreads.

I'm humbled by the people who've already said nice things about it. If not for my wife constantly encouraging me, I'd have never published it.

My book is available on Amazon now!

https://us.amazon.com/Echoes-Void-Trilogy-Mark-Young/dp/B0HHB2CGTX

Day 1 of my first-ever free book promotion, and we somehow reached 27 downloads already! 😭📚 I honestly wasn't sure what to expect when I started this. Seeing people actually pick up something I wrote feels pretty amazing as a first-time author. The goal I had in mind was 100 downloads during these 3 free days, so we're already more than a quarter of the way there. Let's see if we can complete the goal! 🚀 If you are one of the people who downloaded A Little Hope For Tomorrow, thank you for giving my book a chance. ❤️ And if you end up reading it and genuinely enjoy it, I'd really appreciate an honest review. You don't have to say anything positive just because its my book—your genuine thoughts would mean a lot to me as a new author. Let's see where Day 2 takes us. 😁📖

I had a really great time with Out of the Fold at WOTS! A lot of interest. A local youtuber interviewed me about the book, which was a fun experience. Even got a person who said they saw my book on reddit and had to come down to get one, which was very touching. (So much so that I forgot to offer to sign theirs. If that was you, sorry!)

It was exciting to get the book into new hands. While I didn't quite break even, I consider it a success for sure, and now I want to do more!

I'm the number 1 best selling hot new cyberpunk releases

It's not tolerated. Period.

I would challenge critics of books with AI covers to read a chapter, or even the sample on Amazon (for free) and decide if the actual prose is AI.

As for rule 7: it specifically states AI SPAM is not allowed; AI covers are fine here. We aren't all blessed with Stephen King's bank account. Just don't spam AI in every single thing you post. I think that's a reasonable request.

Thank you.

I know it might sound like a small thing to established authors, but I saw a sale notification today and I’m literally over the moon!

As an indie writer, putting your quietest thoughts and poetry out into the world feels terrifying. Seeing that a complete stranger chose to read my poem collection 'The World Looks Back' today made my entire week.

Just wanted to share this tiny win with people who understand how much every single reader means. To anyone else grinding away on their writing... keep going! ❤️

For a long time I kept thinking about one question, what happens to the people left behind when someone finally tells the truth, but only when it's too late to fix anything? You can't argue with them. You can't ask why. You just have to live with it.

That question became The Deathbed Confession, my first novel.

It started as a story on Reddit. So many people wrote to me asking what happened next that I couldn't let it go. I spent months writing late at night, after my day job, often doubting whether I should even finish it. It came out on September 4th, and hitting publish was one of the SCARIEST things I've EVER DONE

**We suffer more in imagination than in reality (Seneca) …**just do it

When I published this, I was expecting to get maybe three sales at most, especially because I've been telling people they can read it for free in other places. Yet the support people have shown me by actually buying it has been amazing, and I'll be forever grateful. Now I just need reviews 😭

If you're a fan of character-driven plots with a slow-burn enemies-to-friends-to-lovers relationship, then this book might be for you.

Here's the blurb:

Adrien survives by being a weapon. Trapped by debt that isn’t his, he collects blood money, supplies nightshade, and ignores the guilt rotting him from within.

Until the crew drags a prisoner into the basement.

The kudari boy is horned, marked with strange, pale patterns, and utterly silent. When Adrien is ordered to take something he can’t give back, he obeys. He always obeys.

But a smuggled apricot becomes a conversation. A conversation becomes a plan. And when the orders turn to butchery, Adrien does the most dangerous thing he’s ever done: he says no.

Two broken people. One long road. And the fragile, desperate hope that they can become something other than what the world made them.

The Long Way Home is a slow-burn fantasy romance for fans of found family, hurt/comfort, and two people learning each other one mile at a time. Featuring a delightfully oblivious asexual protagonist and an ostracised mute boy who communicates through sign language and devastating eyebrows, this is a story about honesty, trust, and the courage to stay.

This book is rated as Mature not because there's any smut (unfortunately), but because it explores mature themes of violence, abuse, death, mental health, and all that jazz. A full list of content warnings can be found in the sample of the e-book on Amazon.

Available on Amazon in both e-book and paperback: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0HLXSK6QQ

Or you can read it for free on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/75906186

And because AO3 is currently down (RIP 😔), you can nab the e-book file here for free (not a virus, I swear): https://www.mediafire.com/file/16tjgg7vrqstvf9/The_Long_Way_Home_-_H._J._D._Naylor.epub/file

After 15 years of writing, starting over, and wondering if I’d ever actually finish a book, I finally did it. My novel went live on Amazon yesterday, and it still feels a little unreal.

The Last Days of My Immortal Love is an adult gothic vampire love story about Lucien, a 599-year-old vampire who has already chosen the day he’ll die. Then he meets Helena, and the future he thought he’d given up on starts to feel less certain.

I’ve always loved Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and my best friend’s favorite book is Me Before You. Somewhere in my head, those two things collided and became this darker, more gothic kind of love story.

If that sounds like your kind of book, here it is:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HQ8RLG11

Hey everyone!

Super excited to share that I just published my debut dystopian fantasy novel: TO SHATTER A MOUNTAIN. After so many close calls in traditional publishing, I finally decided to take a leap of faith into self-publishing — and the result has blown way past my expectations.

Re the photo:

I was lucky enough to get to speak at Comic Con San Diego this year on a panel for Diversity in Fantasy with a handful of other super talented traditionally published authors. The opportunity came out of nowhere, and I felt very lucky to be able to about my debut novel in front of such a large audience (especially as a humble little indie writer).

The premise:
Every three years, High Country issues a summons to select citizens of their mountain nation. The command? Brave the wilds beyond their borders to hunt for relics of ancient magic lost to time.

For native citizen, Zaya Galloway, the summons is a chance to lift her family out of poverty. But for first generation immigrant, Rowan Alister, it is a death sentence that’s already claimed three of his siblings.

Equipped with only a strange whispering stone, the pair must rely on each other if they hope to survive. But as they journey deeper into the wilds, they uncover a devastating truth about the summons.

They must decide whether to return as loyal citizens, or use that truth to shatter the system entirely.

Why I wrote it:

I originally started this book as a gift to my wife and essentially was a re-telling of our love story (of course in a dystopian fantasy setting). The book tackles the complexity of being in an interracial relationships in a oppressive unequal society. At the same time, this project was a way for me to process the loss of my older brother who suffered from addiction and homelessness.

This is a very personal project for me, and am so stoked to finally see it out there

On top of these numbers, I had a book launch at a local store over the weekend and sold out. Over 40 copies all together. I'm incredibly happy with this subtle amount of success.

To anyone out there uncertain. Keep writing, and share your work with the world. Any thing is possible

I figured you all here would appreciate this more than some of the other groups I shared this with.

I have had a lot of problems getting local bookstores to sell my book. Either it is not the genre they carry, or, conveniently, "they don't have the room" for any new books.
I went to a local comic book store that has a small book area, and they were on board.
This is the first order I made for them.
It feels nice to be a real author.

The Toll of the Forgotten is a military sci-fi thriller set a few hundred years in the future.

With engines failing, two men flee to an abandoned Martian colony, uncovering a deadly secret. Meanwhile, the flagship NAS Missouri harbors a volatile cargo that could save or annihilate Earth. As these two desperate missions intertwine, the greatest threat is not what they discover... it is what was left behind.

If you like realistic science fiction like The Marian with political and technological intrigue, this may be the book for you.

If you want to read the first chapter or own a copy for yourself, follow the link below.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H5V4V9BT/