## Metadata - Author: [[Teddy Stevens]] - Full Title: 5 Years On: What I Learned About Self-Publishing - Category: #articles - Summary: Don’t rush the process. You have time to be excited later. - URL: https://writingcooperative.com/5-years-on-what-i-learned-about-self-publishing-de3ab84763bf?source=rss----6e9c0c9fd682---4 ## Full Document #### Don’t rush the process. You have time to be excited later. Photo by [Stephen Phillips - Hostreviews.co.uk](https://unsplash.com/es/@hostreviews?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral) *Hey! I’m Teddie — I published a collection of short-stories on Amazon both with a co-author and also independently. It was a great experience, but no, i’m not a millionaire and the books didn’t do awfully well. But I learned a lot.* Have you finished your novel or short story yet? I bet you’ve got that tingling feeling in your stomach, butterflies excitedly dancing around in expectation of becoming the next best seller. Who knows, maybe this time next year you’ll be on a book tour around New York with fans surrounding Barnes and Noble in anticipation of a signature. Well, i hate to break it to you. But that’s not going to happen. When i was at University in London, my friend and I loved to write. Whether it be full-blown novellas or short stories, we felt the passion to write every single day and publish it on blogs or in group chats. Whatever the medium, we’d show our work to everyone we could. Of course, you’re friends will always say, “Wow! It was amazing.” But you can’t let that carry you away to the magical publishing land. So, if you are ready to self-publish with a gleaming script of creative genius, consider these 5 tips before you do. ### Manage your expectations I remember polishing up my manuscript with my co-author and sitting down together in the pub clicking through amazon KDP to the final page. We sat there, eyes wide with bewilderment, excited. We even clicked the mouse together. Lame i know — but what were we to know. It felt like when we pushed that publish button that the money would roll in. People in the Kindle Unlimited programme would rush to buy our book and we’d be successful authors that could drop out of University and become writers full time. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. I think our first round, we spent $20 on advertisement and made a total of $100. The excitement was still there don’t get me wrong — we had 30 or so people buy our book. People were reading our writing and [leaving reviews on](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Keeps-Calendar-Imogen-Adams/dp/1731436904)…