Authors Lounge discussion

I'm looking for some advice from some of you who have experience in self-publishing.

I recently published my first book (poetry) on Kindle Select on June 17. My idea was that adding the book to the lending library would help me build a base by offering the book to more readers. I understand that poetry isn't going to be a big money-maker. I mostly just want my work out there to be read. (looking for fame, not fortune -- ha! ha!)

I have several more books in the hopper and the next one is ready to go. Although I will publish it on Kindle, I'm not sure I want to be locked into the Select restrictions.

My number one question is about time line.

1.Should I just go for publishing the books (there will be 4 when I'm done) and then worry more about promotion? Or should I wait and try to get this first book off the ground?

2.What are your experiences with Kindle and/or Kindle select publishing?

3. What is the best platform to self-publish epub? I've looked at several. So far Smashwords and Lulu are looking the best but it looks like neither accepts pre-done ebooks. Am I wrong about this? I'm a linux user who hand-codes my books using sigil. I'd really rather continue with that than put them into a Word doc.

4. Where do you guys find reviewers? I tried a three-day giveaway on Kindle. Had some downloads, but no reviews (even though I pleaded for them).

5. What's the best way to get started here at Goodreads? I sort of feel uncomfortable butting into conversations as a newbie.

Hi, Linda, and welcome to the club. I'm short on time today so I'll just get right to giving you answers to the best of my ability.

1. Ideally, you'll promote and publish. You should start promoting even before you publish your first book, so start right now. Get yourself on social media, get a blog, get out there. And publish, too, but stagger it. Aim to release a new book every couple of months or so, and keep the promotion up all the time. I mean it. All the time.

2. Lots of authors here use KDP and I'm sure you'll get input from them. For me personally, I don't use it because I don't let anybody put rules and restrictions of where and how I sell my books.

3. I don't know anything about that. I'm a hardcore Word user, but I'm sure someone else can address that.

4. Look for book bloggers. You'll find plenty of them here at Goodreads, but it's also a good idea to get on Google and start looking. Lists of bloggers are especially helpful. You can bookmark them and start working on them. I mail bloggers at least once a week working on one letter of a list at a time. When I run through the lists I've got, I go look for more lists.

5. Never be afraid to jump right in. Search for groups that interest you. Look for groups in your writing genre, for example. You've got questions about Smashwords; there are several groups here for Smashwords authors. There are also many review groups. You'll find exchanges and review circles and many others. Join some groups and when a conversation strikes you, jump in.

And next time, include the link to your book and a picture of the cover! *wink*

@Linda Just a bit of info: Smashwords has changed so that now you can upload a ready epub to them. Here's their page on that:
https://www.smashwords.com/swdirect

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the answers. Helpful!