My experience with the self-publishing platforms

So, it turns out that November hasn’t ended yet, and my new novel safely made it onto three self-publishing platforms. I think it’s a good moment to make a short post and talk about my experiences with these, should you happen to use them in the future.

The manuscript

Before the publishing process, you obviously need to have your manuscript. Maybe in a different post I will get into greater detail about my modus operandi, but here I will present it in a nutshell: I compose the first draft in Google Docs. That is because of a browser add-on that enables dark mode in Docs. As a result, my eyes don’t get tired that much. When I’m done with the first draft, I save it as a Word file and edit it in Microsoft Office.

Wattpad

To be honest, Wattpad is actually very easy to use. And, arguably, it’s the first platform that comes to mind when you think about self-publishing. It’s free, and there’s no staff-approval process. You just create a draft, fill in the details, and you may paste your text chapter by chapter. The best thing about the platform is that it preserves the formatting of Office Word. So, if you have, for example, chunks of text in italics in the manuscript, then the italics won’t disappear on Wattpad.

Getting wattpadders to read your work is a whole other beast to tackle. I guess you need to be active and engage in read-for-read announcements on Reddit(?) I’m not sure, because I have never done something like this so far.

Inkitt

Like Wattpad, Inkitt is free to use, but there are differences in usage. When you create your draft and fill in the novel details, the platform gives you the ability to upload the entire Office Word manuscript(!) However, you are then prompted to review the uploaded thing before it’s actually saved as a draft.

If your original manuscript is formatted and divided into chapters properly (something I will need to discuss in a separate post), then you can skip this review process and save the draft. Afterwards, you can edit your chapters on the platform as much as you want before publishing.

Which brings us to Inkitt’s catch… The platform actually has a Quality Assurance Team that needs to approve your work when you submit your draft for publication. Again, if you know your English, and if your manuscript reflects the way a normal novel is written, then you will be in the clear. But you need to be patient.

When I submitted my first novel last year, it actually bounced… One of the editors contacted me saying that Inkitt doesn’t allow “stars” (like ***) as section breaks, and authors need to use the in-platform special line break. Okay, so I fixed that and resubmitted my draft. I had to patiently wait three months for it to get approved.

In the case of my novel, however, I was completely surprised. I submitted my text thinking I was in for another three-month wait, but it got accepted with a hitch after five days!

Well, that’s my experience with Inkitt. In contrast to Wattpad, Inkitt seems more lively, for lack of a better word. It’s easy to find other writers and follow each other, but then again, it’s very sterile rather than personal. Instead of genuine conversations, you’re in for walls of book advertisements. Though Inkitt recently began sending me emails with suggestions on how to get my story noticed. So, at least, they're trying to help out the writers somehow.

Medium

In my opinion, Medium is like a sheet of paper; it will accept everything: from my novel to AI self-help drivel, but it exists, and it’s free. In the case of my second novel, the publishing experience was also smoother than last year. If you have your novel posted online already (like I have on my blog), then they allow you to import it through a special hyperlink form. Then you can edit individual chapters and schedule them for publication.

That’s that. Arguably, the only positive thing about the platform is that it’s based on an email newsletter, so your novel can reach someone who is interested in the tags you listed when publishing the draft.

Additional: Story Star

I know I mentioned this platform before, and let me write more about it here. Story Star is a great website if you have short stories and want to get decent, heart-warming feedback. Users and the admin are very active and delightful. But, there is a downside. Although you retain your copyright to your work, you cannot edit or delete it once it’s published on the website.

In consequence, you need to be careful about what you share on the platform. Because if it’s something that you want to publish later on… It won’t be accepted by the publisher if it can’t be taken down from the site.

That’s it for this post. Of other news: I also made my account on QueryTracker today, but I need to seriously learn how to use this site before using it. Actually, this one is not for publishing, but for finding prospective literary agents. I don’t have high hopes, but I need to try.

PS I finished my watching-marathon of the Godzilla Heisei movies, so I should be able to write my thoughts on them next week.

Image attribution: The feature image was taken from Pixabay.