Advice for first-time self-publishing?

[Waifuchu]

I've spent the last several months writing a short-ish novel. Now, I considered shopping it around to traditional publishing houses, but I think self-publishing is probably the only way to go here. My understanding is that "proper" publishing requires a literary agent, which I can't afford, and it'd go nowhere anyways because I'm a HWHYTE MALE with a speculative fiction manuscript, and that's not what publishers want.

So self-publishing on the amazon/e-book/kindle store seems like the move. I've got the manuscript written and edited, I've got a cover made, and I think I'm pretty set on that front, so... Any advice going in? I'm not aiming to become some overnight sensation and rake in millions of bucks and a movie deal, but I'd like it to at least not immediately go under and max out at eight sales across the board. Just anything I can do to boost my chances of getting eyes on it, getting people interested, that sort of thing.

And as much as I'd love to PL and tell you guys the title and my precise release date next month, probably attaching my KF account with a public release would be a bad call. I'm surrounded by people who don't take kindly to the "Nazi hate forum".

 

[SofondaCox]

Have you checked out Dr. Peterson's self publish options? Amazon has some too, but I think a chapter play type release is the ideal for Amazon.


We ought to put together a chapter play written by a conglomerate of farmers. We release a chapter per month for a dollar, gib the proceeds
to Jersh. It starts with a little boy being forced into dresses by his mum. Imagine all the murderous and bizarre shit he could get up to. Endless
possibilities!

 

[Safir]

My understanding is that "proper" publishing requires a literary agent, which I can't afford

As I understand it, literary agents typically take a cut, you can apply for free.
There are based and gay faux-based imprints.
If it's short, you can try e-journals --

I'm surrounded by people who don't take kindly to the "Nazi hate forum".

-- this means you can try even a woke e-magazine with your public persona.

(I don't actually know anything about self-publishing, but I do see huwhite male centric and sometimes horrifically woman-hating stories [no troons] by straight huwhite male, self-identified wokist authors in woke magazines. On the Internet, no one knows you're a fluffy New Zealand bird.)

Without dirty tricks, your best bet to successfully publish a book is to have a preexisting audience and sell them on your book. That said, it's still a (Bossman-style) bet. One of the most intelligent authors I e-know, the Joyce scholar Raphael Slepon, self-published a Joyce-like book. You'd think the users of his Joyce database would beg him to sign their tits. But the book, in almost 12 years, has accumulated 3 ratings on Amazon, and 1 not-review (in Spanish).