#selfpublished Archives - Brandy Isadora

Self-Publishing Journey: The Importance of Staying Organized

Self-publishing my first book was one of the hardest things I have ever done. There were so many skills that I had to learn that my head would actually ache at the end of the day. The worst part, however, was that I never felt like I was on top of things. No matter how many hours I worked, I felt like I wasn’t getting enough done. My desk always looked like a tornado swept through my office. Finding a particular sheet of paper would provoke an anxiety attack. When I was in high school and college, I thought that I was fairly organized, but when I started this journey of publishing Tattle Tales: Tattoo Stories and Portraits, I found myself constantly feeling overwhelmed, disorganized, and anxious. There were post-its everywhere with half-written notes. Because there were so many moving parts in the self-publishing process, it was easy for me to lose track. Fortunately, I didn’t miss any important deadlines, but I realized that I suffered more than I needed to because I wasn’t organized enough. I needed to create a system that would work for me. It’s really important to have a method for staying organized. Each […]

Dec 14

by Brandy Isadora in Self-Publishing 0 comments tags: #amwriting, #arizona, #author, #authorslife, #books, #fiction, #fictionbooks, #fictionwriting, #novel, #selfpublished, #selfpublishedauthors, #shortstory, #stories, #writing, #writingcommunity

My Relationship With Fiction

Before I became a photographer, I studied creative writing. During my time as a graduate student at California College of the Arts, I finished my first (and very rough) draft of my novel in addition to a handful of short stories. When I started my novel, I didn’t even know it was going to be a novel. At the time, I was working with a mentor who wanted me to practice writing emotions associated with the description of a room. A single writing exercise turned in to the first two chapters of my story. Since then I have learned more about fiction through the process of writing my first novel. It’s not easy for me to articulate my relationship with fiction because it has evolved over time. I used to believe that there was a sharp divide between myself and the material I created. The reason I chose fiction was that I wanted to explore personalities and subject matters that I thought I would never experience in my own life. It has always been too difficult for me to write about anything that too closely resembles my life. I can’t be entirely authentic because I get anxious. Part of […]

The Second Book: Lessons Gained and Lessons Learned

When I was in graduate school, a mentor told me that each book was like starting over. Each project has its own differences and challenges. I didn’t completely understand this until I started working on my second book, which explores the history of mannequins. Of course there were certain things that were easier about making this book because I had learned those lessons while working on Tattle Tales. However, when it came time to publish the second book, I realized that I had to do things differently. This meant another learning curve and a bit of frustration. Being a writer, and especially a self-published author, means that you’re constantly learning. Besides developing your skills as a writer, you have to stay on top of all the new ways of marketing, publishing, and distributing. In the age of technology, the rules are always evolving and changing. Additionally, what works for one book may not work for the other book. I’ve listed some of the lessons I have learned from my second book. The message of this post is to urge self-published authors to be flexible and open minded. I had a much different idea of my path when I […]

Feb 24

by Brandy Isadora in Self-Publishing 0 comments tags: #amwriting, #author, #bookcontests, #bookmarketing, #marketing, #photojournalism, #selfpublished, #selfpublishedauthors, #tattletales, #tattoobook, #writing, #writingcommunity

Book Contests: Are they worth it?

When I first started getting into photography, I would submit my work to contests now and again. Most of these contests I found through social media platforms. While many of them had reasonable application fees, they were time consuming and I was competing against thousands of very talented photographers. After a while, I wrote off contests. Fast forward a couple years. . . I published my debut book, Tattle Tales: Tattoo Stories and Portraits, and now I was trying to gain exposure for my book. As a self-published author, it can be extremely challenging to get your book seen by the right audience. According to Forbes, anywhere between 600,000 to a million titles are published each year. The chances of readers stumbling onto your book on Amazon is pretty small. In the beginning, I was mostly focused on social media marketing and advertising. By chance, I found out about a contest from the Nonfiction Author’s Association Book Awards program. I entered the contest and received two Gold Awards for Photography and Pop Culture. In addition, to receiving an emblem and title, which I could now use for my marketing materials, I got exposure from their marketing channels from […]

Feb 10

by Brandy Isadora in Self-Publishing 0 comments tags: #amwriting, #author, #authorcommunity, #authorslife, #blogging, #photojournalism, #Pinterest, #selfpublished, #selfpublishedauthors

My Self-Publishing Journey: Social Media

I’ll be honest here. If I weren’t an artist, I probably wouldn’t be on social media or my presence would be limited. I’m very shy and introverted, and I’ve seen the ugly side of social media. However, while I might complain about social media, I also understand that it plays an integral part in our lives. This is particularly true for individuals who are marketing themselves. Social media has its place, and it’s here to stay. I’m not writing this post because I’m an expert on social media. Like most people out there, I have struggled building my social media presence. Over the last couple of years, I have spoken to other artists who have experienced the same challenges as me and hearing their stories has helped me put things into a more healthy perspective. Let’s face it, the self-publishing world is not for the faint of heart and there are many days you might feel like you’re working for nothing. There were many days that I would scroll through Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook and think, “What am I doing wrong?” Building a meaningful presence on social media takes time, but don’t discount the small successes along the […]

Tattle Tales: Making the Book

Considering the fact that Tattle Tales: Tattoo Stories and Portraits was first photography book, I definitely went through a learning curve. Looking back on the process, there are things that I wouldn’t do and other things that I would do again. Creating a sample book was one of the best decisions I made. I feel with most things in life it’s a good idea to really know and understand what you want, but remain flexible and open to other people’s opinions. For my sample book, I used Mixbook because it’s fairly easy to use and they frequently have sales, which makes it more affordable. There are many websites that allow people to create photo books. I just happened to hear about Mixbook, and I felt pretty happy with their quality and customer service. My book was pretty easy to organize because each spread was about one or two people. However, I wanted to make sure that my layout wasn’t too text heavy or stylistically repetitive. Initially, I wasn’t worried about the page order. If you try to make all the decisions at once, you’ll feel overwhelmed. I created the page spreads first. Afterwards, I took a few days away […]