My Journey to the Stars of Aspiria
Author Oliver Randall on self-publishing his debut novel and where he is now after its launch
In 2014, I had a dream about what would become the story for my first science-fiction novel series. As I wrote the initial plans for “The Cryp’lar Series,” I wondered how I would create these stories and in what medium. At the time, I had just started an Illustration degree at the University of Gloucestershire, so I was focused on drawing and visual mediums rather than writing novels. I have always loved storytelling in all its forms, and enjoy both drawing and writing – something that greatly benefits the worldbuilding aspect of creating stories. By the end of my degree, I realised that I wanted the story to be in book form. I distanced myself from Illustration after three years of creative exploration and pursued my interest in the story from my dreams.
After a year or so of worldbuilding and plotting, I came across a series of writing prompts that helped me enhance different corners of my fictional universe through short paragraphs. One of these inspired me to create an entirely different first book, turning what was the first story into the sequel of this new project. In November of 2018, I began the first draft of “Stargazer,” which would later become “The Stars of Aspiria.” At the start, I planned to self-publish the story in order to retain creative control over every aspect of the book, but as the years went on, I wanted to try to get it traditionally published through a literary agent. This would later come to a head during the COVID pandemic.
The Summer of 2021 afforded me enough time to finish the final draft and prepare the manuscript to pitch to agents (after previously having gone through rounds of beta readers). During this time, I received many rejections and no offers of representation from an agent.
Six months later, it seemed as if I was getting nowhere and I decided that I would move to self-publishing so that I could finally get my story out there. I had already done a lot of research with this avenue of publishing when I initially wanted to self-publish, and I now had the time and money to properly format, market, and promote the novel. I had gone through the manuscript so many times already that I felt I did not need to hire a developmental editor, and would continue with several more rounds of editing by myself. Most of the expenses went towards paid commissions of illustrations for the characters of my story. While I also could have drawn them myself, I wanted the drawings to be the best quality they could be to not only accurately represent the characters, but also look professional when promoting them through social media and blog posts.
My marketing campaign began earlier this year, and involved weekly blog posts on my author website, regular posts on social media, an in-person launch event, and networking at local gaming events. While I pushed for more in getting reviews from a variety of indie book reviewers and influencers, I was never able to land one in the end. The couple of Amazon reviews I did receive across multiple marketplaces were positive, which was great to see and tells me I am doing something right.
For the launch event, I was hosted by Incom Gaming in Cheltenham, where I had a table set up with signed books and free merch you could get on the day. It ended up being a success and a great confidence booster for myself as a published author, with a number of sales being made or reserved. It is definitely something I would do with future books and an experience I would recommend for anyone starting out with self-publishing.
Now, I am continuing to promote “The Stars of Aspiria,” albeit more passively through Amazon ads, and updating subscribers to my site with monthly newsletters about what I’m working on. I have started drafting the second book in the series, and aim to release it within the next year. I had already spent a year plotting this second book after I graduated, so was able to dive right into the writing.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my experiences with self-publishing as a debut author, and that it helped you in some way to understand or relate to. If you’re interested in what you’ve learned about “The Stars of Aspiria”, I would appreciate it if you checked it out on Amazon. Thank you for reading, and thanks to Dialect Writers for hosting me on their site.
Oliver Randall is an English author who enjoys creating and telling stories across various artistic mediums. He loves science-fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction. Oliver is currently working on The Cryp'lar Series, which details an alien invasion of humanity in the 24th Century.
Twitter: @Ollie_Rd
Instagram: @oliverrandallauthor
Website: oliverrandall.com
