Let's break self-published authors out of the cage they've been put in.
Will you help me with an experiment?
I’m an Irish self-published author. I’ve published 8 books with traditional publishers (Hay House, Llewellyn Worldwide and Gill Books, Ireland). I’ve published 12 books on my own.
I’ve learnt that self-publishing is just as much work as traditional, but more freeing. Being self-published, I can express myself fully outside of the restrictions placed upon me by the traditional publishers. Yes, I actually was restricted by my use of language, the topics I covered, and was curtailed to a certain level of my self-expression. I have nothing against editors, by the way. I liked my Hay House editor so much I asked her to edit my fictional trilogy, and she did! No, it wasn’t the editors that restricted me, it was the publishing houses themselves.
You see, as well as the subtle curtailing of my voice, my traditional publishers gave me the expectation that they cared about my book, and about me, and that they would promote my work. It’s a bubble that burst for me very quickly.
The only book that I have traditionally published that is currently being promoted is called, “Energy Healing Basics”. It is part of a set of books, and the publisher promotes the entire set, rather than focusing on mine. It’s more worthwhile for them, and, kudos where kudos is due, this book of mine has spawned a video class, and been translated into 8 languages, including Russian. But the rest of the books, well, they’re just sitting there on a back shelf on Amazon.
The thing is - a traditional publisher will not promote your books, they will just get them into the bookshops via their catalogue. And if your books don’t sell in said bookshops, the bookshops stop buying them in, and then, your books don’t appear anywhere.
It’s disheartening, upsetting, heartbreaking, in fact. What’s an author to do? Well, if they’re anything like me, they get on with it and write more books. Being a born writer, it’s part of who I am, I can’t help it. I have to do it!
I’ve had a couple of Irish bestselling books, namely the One Day at a Time Diary. Gill Books got it into the Irish bookshops and the bookshops loved it, so they placed it up front, and it sold. 4 years in a row. I was in the top 10, I was in the top 30 for more than 6 weeks and I hit the top 5 bestselling books in Ireland once or twice, for a week or two. It was great to see my book up there on the lists, to know that people liked it, and that they wanted it. Right up until that time in 2022 when I went on my annual book signing expedition, to sign the 2023 diary, and it wasn’t in any bookshop, bar one. That was a shock. The book just was not there. That year’s diary didn’t sell, and then they discontinued it. I’ve written about that here.
Being in the book charts is not the be-all and end-all, and as you, my dear readers know, being in the mainstream is not necessarily a good thing. However, as a self-published author in Ireland, we are practically locked out of it, and out of the bookshops, too. That just isn’t right.
On cue, I introduce Rachael Drury, the founder of BuyTheBook.ie. Rachel knows that getting into bookshops is practically impossible for Irish self-published authors due to the monopoly of Easons and Argosy. I have no issue with naming names. What’s worse, is that self-published Irish authors who use Amazon can’t even buy their own books from time to time, let alone give potential Irish readers a link to buy their book. You see, since Brexit, Amazon.co.uk will not ship Irish self-published books to Ireland. It’s a conundrum. Can’t get the books into a bookshop, and the world’s leading bookshop won’t ship Irish books to Ireland. Thats where Rachel comes in.
Rachel’s website facilitates Irish authors selling their books to Ireland, but, even better than that, she’s become a recognised, registered bookseller with Neilson. So BuyTheBook.ie is an Irish bookshop. And it caters just for self-published authors. Her sales statistics are sent weekly to Neilson, and Neilson are the ones that complie the book charts. Rachel has had several Irish self-published authors break into the Irish bookcharts over the past year or so, and I congratulate her for that. What does it mean? Well, they get their name printed in the Sunday Times Irish Book listings. And maybe someone that didn’t know about them, will see the book, and want to get a copy. Because that is the main issue for people like me - getting new people to find my work.
So can you help me see if I can get back into the Irish Bestseller list?
My newest book, The Raise Your Vibration Bootcamp Book, will be launched September 16th worldwide via Amazon. But it is currently only available on BuyTheBook.ie for Irish pre-orders. I can only ship signed copies of my book to Ireland. Don’t worry if you’re not in Ireland and you want one, it will be on Amazon after the launch date.
So - a little bit about my book. Its called, ‘The Raise Your Vibration Bootcamp Book’. It took me 10 years to write! In it, I have amalgamated the best exercises from the past 10 years of my Raise your Vibration Bootcamp healing programme.
I've worked out some statistics for you. This book has:
27 Stand-alone exercises (1 a day)
11 exercises that take more than one day (35 days worth)
4 complete bootcamps, including the very first one. (84 days worth of work!!)
Over 7 full hours of webinar footage on video
More than 3 hours of healing, guided meditations
One exclusive, brand-new, technique for healing your inner child (and other aspects of you)
It's a bumper-pack book of healing with Qr codes linking you to all the videos and meditations, and healing tracks. It teaches you how to heal many things including:
Healing your inner child and aspects of yourself
Doing your own Soul retrieval
Reclaiming power and strength
Entity release (yes I really teach this in the book)
Cord cutting
Increasing self-esteem and self-worth
Clearing Addictions (including food and alcohol addiction)
Healing your body
Learning mindfulness
Connecting with your guides, power animals, the elementals and the angels
There is so much in it, I get buzzy when I think about it! It will help anyone who picks it up and starts reading it. People who know me and people who have not heard of me, or the work that I do. So I want to try via Rachel’s bookshop and see if I can get into the book charts. At the very least, it will be a good story to tell in my writing class with Mark Attwood in October. And yes, Mark Attwood , I worked it out. This is book number 21!
So, if you're in Ireland, and like my work, and want to help me with my experiment to teach self-published authors break out of the cage they've been put in, please pre-order a signed copy here: https://bit.ly/RYVBookIE
And if you’re not in Ireland and want to buy a copy of my book, stay tuned, I will let you know where you can get it on the launch date, September 16th.
Thank you!
Good for you Abby. Ever resourceful God bless you!