When King Andovar and the Little Empress came out, I felt two things at once: pride, and the sudden sharp awareness of everything I did not know.
I had done the work. The manuscript was edited. The cover was designed. The formatting was clean. I had uploaded to Amazon KDP, Draft2Digital, and IngramSpark. By every visible measure, I was ready.
What I had not prepared for was everything that comes after the file upload.
The Writing Is Only Half the Work
Nobody tells you this clearly enough, so let me say it plainly: publishing a book is two separate full-time jobs pressed into one.
The first job is the one you signed up for — writing, revising, editing, designing, formatting. You know that job. You are probably already doing it.
The second job is the one that catches most first-time authors off guard. It is the infrastructure job. The platform job. The how does anyone find my book job.
Here is what that second job looks like in practice:
You are the publisher. You are the marketing department. You are the person who reads your first royalty statement at midnight and realizes the numbers mean something very different from what you imagined.
The Three Things I Would Do Differently
Build your email list before you publish. I cannot overstate how much I wish I had started this earlier. Social media platforms change their algorithms. They limit your reach without warning. An email list is yours — permanently, unconditionally, regardless of what any platform decides next week.
Start building it the day you decide you are going to write a book. Offer something free: a short story, a chapter, a writing resource. Give people a reason to let you into their inbox before they have ever read your work.
Have a professional author website from day one. Not a social media profile. A website. A domain you own. A place readers and media can find you that is not dependent on a third-party platform’s continued existence or goodwill.
When a reader finishes your book and wants to know more about you, they Google your name. What they find in that moment — or do not find — determines whether they become a loyal reader or forget you existed.
Understand your distribution options before you choose one. Amazon KDP is accessible and powerful. But exclusive distribution on KDP means limiting your reach on every other platform. Draft2Digital opens doors to Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and library networks. IngramSpark reaches traditional booksellers and libraries in a way that Amazon alone cannot.
Each has trade-offs. The right choice depends on your goals, your audience, and your long-term vision for your writing career. Know the options before you lock yourself in.
What Wasabara Exists to Do
I built Wasabara because I wanted authors to have the guide I did not have.
Not to write their books for them. Not to replace the publishing companies. But to walk alongside writers who are serious about their work and help them understand the decisions they are making — so that when the file is uploaded and the book is live, they are not starting from zero on everything that comes next.
If you are in the middle of this journey and it feels more complicated than it should, reach out. I work with authors one-on-one, and the conversation starts wherever you are.
— Elan
