When I decided to take the plunge and publish my first children’s book, I had absolutely no idea what to expect.

I had spent months writing, illustrating, formatting, ordering proofs, purchasing ISBNs, creating websites, learning social media, and convincing myself to click the “Publish” button.

Then…

Almost nothing.

At least, nothing dramatic.

No instant bestseller badge.

No thousands of followers waiting to welcome me into the author community.

Rude, just kidding…. mostly.

Instead, something much quieter happened.

One sale.

Then another.

A follower here.

A subscriber there…this may be the hardest part.

A review that made my entire week. (I still check to make sure Amazon didn’t take it back. 😂)

Looking back, I don’t think my expectations were unrealistic because they were too high.

They were unrealistic because…

I had no expectations at all.

Sales

I genuinely had no idea what a “good” first month looked like.

Was it one book?

Ten?

One hundred?

After talking with other indie authors and reading countless stories online, I realized there isn’t one answer.

Every author starts in a different place.

Some launch with an audience they’ve spent years building before publishing a single book.

Some already have multiple books available.

Some have publishers and marketing teams helping them get in front of readers.

Others…

…have a laptop, a dream, and a coffee that went cold three hours ago.

Hi…that’s me.

If you’re in that last group, welcome.

You’re in good company.

Followers

This one surprised me.

Publishing a book does not magically create an audience.

You can get hundreds—or even thousands—of views each week, along with likes, saves, and the occasional comment.

Most people simply don’t follow right away.

Readers don’t know you exist yet.

You’re brand new to them.

That isn’t failure.

It’s simply where every new author begins.

Every follower is someone who chose to stick around.

That matters.

I’d rather have five engaged followers than fifty people who simply scroll past my content.

The bigger number may look better, but genuine engagement helps you build a community…even if they haven’t bought a book yet.

Marketing

I honestly thought marketing would be the easiest part.

After all, I had managed social media accounts for years.

What I hadn’t done…

…was market myself.

Or a product that had never been tested with real readers.

Curveball.

Instead, I found myself learning:

• SEO for authors and children’s books.
• TikTok, which apparently has an entirely different algorithm than the one I watch every day.
• Amazon Advertising…I’m still figuring this one out. I’m currently running a 30-day test and I’ll report back.
• Email newsletters. These are GOLD…but first you have to convince readers to invite you into an inbox that’s already overflowing. Be patient.
• Websites. I built a simple landing page and subscriber funnel with MailerLite in less than a day. This blog, however…WordPress humbled me. It isn’t perfect, but it’s mine.
• Metadata…I mean, seriously? I’m still learning this one every single week. It’s incredibly important, but it seems like the rules change constantly.
• Keywords. Thankfully, these are much more straightforward…and absolutely necessary.

Publishing a book isn’t just creating a product.

It’s learning how to help people discover it.

For most authors, I’d guess writing the book is the fun part.

Everything after that is where the real learning begins.

Content

Here’s something else I didn’t expect…

You don’t stop creating after the book is finished.

You create blog posts.

Videos.

Character cards.

Reader emails.

Behind-the-scenes moments.

Social media captions that somehow make every single word feel important because they might affect your reach.

Publishing the book wasn’t the finish line.

It was the starting line.

Goals

Once again, I searched endlessly trying to figure out what a reasonable expectation should be.

There isn’t one.

So I set my own.

My goal is to sell 500 Fableway books this year.

Will I reach it?

I honestly don’t know.

What I do know is this…

From the day my first book launched on June 8, I intentionally continued publishing quickly to build a catalog.

I didn’t want one book carrying the entire weight of introducing readers to my work.

Today, I have:

• Four adventure books.
• One activity book.
• One Seasonal Collection book in proof.
• Its coordinating activity book in proof.

Will that strategy work?

No clue.

Will I reach my sales goal?

I don’t know.

But goals aren’t predictions.

They’re direction.

They give me something to work toward.

They remind me that today’s numbers aren’t permanent.

What Month One Actually Looked Like

My first month didn’t make me rich.

The dashboard rolled as sales came in, and honestly…

I felt rich simply because readers showed up for something I created.

(Instant happy dance.)

It kept me motivated to keep publishing, even without a large audience waiting for the next release.

I learned more in thirty days than I expected to learn in a year.

I stopped thinking like someone who wrote a book.

I started thinking like someone building a publishing company.

And that has been the biggest surprise of all.

If you’re getting ready to publish your first book, don’t measure your beginning against someone else’s tenth year.

You’ll only discourage yourself.

Instead, measure it against the courage it took to begin.

Clicking “Publish” and opening your work to endless opinions from strangers isn’t for the faint of heart.

I hope the readers come.

In the meantime…

I’ll keep writing.

One book.

One post.

One conversation.

One day at a time.

Your friend in the hedges,

Morgan