Hi everyone

I'm new to the forum and I'm hoping to find some like minded self-publishers with a bit more experience than me for guidance!  I'm a professional portrait artist and author, who has been lucky enough to have three books on how to draw with graphite pencils, published by Search Press. However, I've always had a burning ambition to publish a book on how to paint with pastel pencils.  I did approach my publisher but they had already commissioned another artist to do a pastel book so they weren't interested.  So, I took the plunge and self-published my printed book which was launched on Amazon Feb 14th 2021.

It's been a bit of a rollercoaster since which I'm sure many of you can relate to. Lots of ups and downs, doubts and worries and Amazon, I have to say, have made the journey very, very stressful.  I do have a great website which we are constantly updating where I sell my book as well but currently I'm mainly selling in the UK.  Has anyone out there who has self-published a printed book successfully managed to sell through Amazon in the USA etc?  The process is SO difficult I have given up for now, even though I have my UTR and my registered trademark.  Are any of you selling in the USA through an agent?  How is your marketing going - that's not easy is it either! :-)

Anyway, thank you for reading this and hope to hear back from any other self-publishers out there who bit the bullet and paid to have their dream book printed too :-)