Sorry, long post, but you asked for details so here we go. Maybe we can compare notes?
I haven’t made any firm decisions yet. Everything is in a state of flux and delayed by a year 
Real life got in the way of my plans.
While it sucks to delay, it’s given me more time to observe, research and consider possibilities.
I’ve considered a completely quiet launch, just hit publish and move on.
I sorta did that with my debut Soul Survivor on Campfire actually, but always with the expectation that I would be going wide soon after with the proper launch. That “soon” date got delayed by a year already and I’m still not ready.
i don’t regret quietly launching it there. Not much happened there, very few copies sold which is expected since I haven’t promoted it other than making an announcement to my very small audience. And their reading platform is very new so organic search is limited.
I don’t think it’s hurting me in any way that the book is published there early. The only way it would hurt would be if I tried to shop it with traditional publishers and I’m not.
aside on trad vs indie
I was always set on going indie because I wanted full creative control.
But in the process of doing market research for this book, I came to the conclusion that the best commercial genre this book fits under would be literary fiction. It was a huge surprise, and I resisted it at first, but that’s what it is. And the problem is that this is the one genre that everyone recommends you should go traditional with.
So I kinda shot myself in the foot there.
Well, I’m still self publishing this book but I fully expect that it won’t get the recognition I think it deserves. It will be a hidden gem.
I know, we all think our books are great. I’m not going to negate that. Let’s advocate for our books.
So now the question is what’s next.
The best way to look at it is from the point of view of what you actually want.
I want:
- I always wanted to make my books available to sell in both ebook and print.
- I don’t want to limit to one platform.
- I want my book to be found in book stores and libraries.
Ebooks are easy. You get the file ready, submit, and hit publish wherever you want. Yay. I’m planning all major platforms: Amazon, Kobo, Google and Apple, B&N. I don’t remember where else. I’ll do it wherever I’m approved. Why not?
Print books require more effort. Need to choose a printer and how to distribute them.
Right now I think I might do a bit of everything.
I’ll put the book on Amazon and let them print those books on demand.
From price comparisons, printing it there is the cheapest. $3.19/each (without shipping and taxes). But I don’t want to stay just there.
I don’t want to tie myself just to the zon and give all my profits to Zuck.
And I’ve seen some indie authors complain that the print quality is sporadic.
But I won’t boycott it either because lots of readers still shop there.
I’m likely going to print it with Ingram too because book stores and libraries are able to order directly from there. $5.14 each. More expensive than the zon but still doable.
But I’ll have to turn off returns because I just can’t afford that. This unfortunately will limit the chances of book stores ordering my book at all. Oh, well. 
So, I’m not in a rush.
I will also want to print a few copies for myself so I can sell on my website (or maybe ko-fi because I tried setting up woocommerce on my site and it sucks, ko-fi is so much easier to manage). I’m looking forward to that because then I could sign the copies or do giveaways, etc.
So now comes the question, where do I print those? The zon is the cheapest but what’s the quality like? I don’t know yet.
I might try out Ingram for it. Maybe.
And I looked at other options.
B&N estimates $5.19 for me so very comparable to Ingram. If the quality and experience is same/better, I’d prefer it.
I’ll have to order samples from each to decide that.
I looked at a few others but prices were unacceptable. I haven’t tried any local print shops so I don’t know how they compare.
There’s also another thing I’m thinking of. Since I can’t invest in advertising right now and my social media game is poor, I don’t expect readers to even know that my book exists. So I need to think of other ways of getting it out there. Because what’s the point of doing all of this if no one ever reads it?
I’m wondering if it’s possible to donate it to my local library. I would totally be willing to do that. I haven’t tried to reach out to them yet to ask about it. We’ll see.
And I also plan to contact my local B&N store (there aren’t many other book shops around here, but I’ll look later) if they accept consignments. Then I could actually get it in a bookstore instead of waiting for orders that might never come. That would be beyond cool. I’m looking forward to it.
Regarding social media, I’m thinking to finally start doing TikToks and repost them on Instagram.
I don’t know about the other platforms yet. I’m so tired of new social media popping up every other week. I don’t have the time or energy to keep up with them.
I’m still observing right now, trying to figure out my angle. I’ll start posting when I’m closer to publishing something.
