Last week, I hosted another monthly masterclass for my paid subscribers. The topic was Self-publishing: what works, what doesn’t, and the mistakes I’ve made so you don’t have to.
If you’re a writer sitting on a manuscript, or someone who’s been circling the idea of putting your book out into the world, this session was built for you.
What We Covered
I walked my paid subscribers through my own journey as a self-published author — the wins, the losses, and everything in between. As someone who’s published multiple fiction books (including Karma Unleashed and They Called Me Wyatt) and a children’s book (The Lonely Cucumber), I’ve learned that self-publishing isn’t a shortcut. It’s a business.
Here’s a taste of what we dug into:
Why KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) is the backbone of most self-publishing journeys — and the concerns some authors have about Amazon
How to think about structure, framework, and marketing as a self-published author
The publishing path I took and what I’d do differently
The real marketing strategies that move books (not the ones everyone recycles on LinkedIn)
We also had a live Q&A where subscribers asked the questions most writers are too afraid to ask out loud.
Why I’m Sharing This
I built these monthly masterclasses for a reason. The writing advice online is everywhere — and most of it is noise. My paid subscribers get the signal: the specific, experience-based guidance I wish someone had handed me when I was starting out.
Every month, I bring them into a conversation like this one. Recorded. Replayable. And theirs to keep.
One Thing I’ll Give You Right Now (Free)
Before I send you behind the paywall, here’s one of the most important lessons I shared in the masterclass, the one that changed everything for me as a self-published author:
Your book is not your product. Your author platform is.
Most first-time self-published authors think the hard part is finishing the book. Then they hit publish on KDP, refresh their sales dashboard for a week, and watch the silence set in.
Here’s the truth nobody tells you: Amazon is a search engine, not a discovery engine. It rewards books that already have momentum. It doesn’t create that momentum for you.
That means the writers who succeed at self-publishing aren’t necessarily the best writers — they’re the ones who understood, before they hit publish, that they needed:
An email list (even a small one)
A presence where their readers already gather
A clear answer to the question: “Why would someone buy this from me instead of the thousands of other books published today?”
If you’re writing a book right now and you don’t have an answer to that question yet, stop. Build
👉 Upgrade to paid and come build your publishing life with me.
