Musings on Self-Publishing

   There are a lot of times when I've questioned whether I made the right decision in self-publishing my novel. Mostly on days where I just feel low in general, and see that there aren't very many sales, and marketing doesn't seem to be working, no one seems to be looking at my postings etc. Then I look and find a few more 'like's' on my Facebook page, and a few more views of something I posted on my blog, or a person mentioned that the premise of my book seems really interesting, and they'll have to check it out. Then I realize, if I hadn't self-published, most likely my book would remain unseen and unread. Sure I may not be making a lot of sales, but it hasn't been published for very long, and the amount of sales per month have been increasing. I have gotten more people reading my blog and short stories, and I have my third book in the editing phase. A lot of things are looking up, and I don't know about the rest of you, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!
   That's not to say the road will be easy, because obviously it isn't, but the richest things in life are the things you have to work for. I may not be the best at marketing (or even any good at it at all) but I am learning, and trying to avoid making too many mistakes. I already know that I have posted links to my books too often, both here and on Facebook. Then I figured out how to post permanent links to the top of my blog page, and started sharing links to my author pages and blog posts in addition to book links on Facebook groups. I've also tried to use different summaries at the tops of the links, to avoid having exactly the same thing posted all over the place.
   Also, I quite often have trouble figuring out things to post on my blog, so I end up having update after update that have little to no importance in the grand scheme of things. So now I am trying to post more about my own thoughts, a little more on characterization of the people in my books, and the short stories (which will be few and far between at this point, although I do enjoy writing them :-)
   The moral of the story is, while I have made mistakes, I try to correct them and do better. (And in case anyone is wondering, this isn't a response to any criticism or comment by someone else, all of this is simply my own views on what I have learned in the few months since I started self-publishing.) I hope I have been succeeding! Anyway, I'm sure other self-published authors have been through similar problems, and if any of you have further improvements you think I can make, please feel free to let me know! I'm always looking for ways to get better at marketing! Thanks for reading!