[AlexStiner]

Love these boards!  I'm a new author, finding lots of great stuff here.  Anyway, I have one book on Amazon and the budget's tight.  I've bought a pre-made cover but have no budget for paid editor, etc. (esp. when I can't see the final product, unlike the premade cover).  I'd like to get some visibility for the book, but I have a nagging feeling that I should just wait and get more bang for the buck by paying for an editor first and then pay for ads after I have more than one book to which I can steer readers.  Thoughts on this?  Thanks in advance!

 

[MonkeyScribe]

I think your cover looks fine, but if you advertise and sell a bunch of books without having the thing edited first, you're likely to be saddled with some bad reviews complaining about the editing. At that point, you can edit the book to your heart's content, but your book will be saddled with those bad reviews forever.

 

[Carol (was Dara)]

I think your money is best spent on an editor. Many an author has updated to an edited version later, when they could afford it, only to face the frustrating fact that their now perfectly edited book is permanently stuck with reviews complaining of problems that no longer exist. Advertising and putting the unedited version into a lot of hands is likely going to make that problem worse.

But I don't want to sound discouraging. Putting out the first book is an exciting time and there's an overwhelming number of decisions to be made, especially when you're on a tight budget. Good luck to you!

 

[AlexStiner]

Thanks for the advice!