My new book was a financial disaster. What happened? 

This is probably the best ad the book could've had.

step 1: make a book. step 2: sell the book. step 3: realize you got the target demographics wrong. step 4: make a video about a failed book you made. step 5: profit.

i respect this dude a lot, half of his videos are about all the L’s he’s taken, it takes a big man to have that kind of self reflection and drive to keep going

Austin: I made a book. Everyone: ... Austin: No one bought my book. Everyone: TELL US MORE

I don't follow this dude. But he always pop-ups in my feed every few years with a failed project. Good for him.

Another long awaited installment in the "I did a thing" series

I feel we’re glossing over the fact that you finished your grandma’s story - one that she had specifically wanted you to one day write. That’s awesome, I’m sure she’d be proud (or maybe she is proud right now, depending on how things work). From that perspective, doesn’t really matter how many you sold.

This man can’t catch a single break with his creative endeavors outside of this channel

I'm trying to not be rude but "It's a coming-of-age story about family, high school sweethearts, and growing up in the year 1940" has so little information. It's hard to see what would the hook is? Maybe some of Neva's aspirations? Maybe where in the US this took place? Aside from some good cover art, there's no personality. A good hook is short, but still tells you something about the character/s. I get wanting to not spoil too much, but there's just not enough info there to interest me. I might go back and watch the video (honestly never saw it on my feed) but why is there so little information about this on the actual amazon listing?

This dude has an amazing way to even capitalise on his failures. It's the second time I'm seeing him do it. Gotta give it to him.

I see what you're doing, Austin. Hitting us with that reverse psychology. I bet a lot of people are going to buy the book due to this video (including me).

I remember thinking "oh this looks interesting!" And then I promptly forgot the book existed

I'm probably somewhat within the target demographic of the book (young woman that reads a lot of YA, though I personally dislike YA romance). I watched and liked your original video about this project and loved the idea of finishing your grandma's book. I'm a big fan of your content. I also know exactly why I didn't read the book and never expected it to sell. I could tell as soon as I clicked on the Amazon page. I think I also know why my demographic didn't read the book. I don't think you touched upon any of those reasons in your video. Even if your audience was mostly teenage girls, I doubt you'd sell more than five hundred copies. Gonna put on my tough-love critic hat on and suggest a few reasons why: - It's low concept, or at least appears that way. The Amazon page has almost nothing to recommend the book or distinguish it from every other book of its kind. Coming-of-age is just not an interesting descriptor. Most every middle-grade and YA book is some sort of coming-of-age. I'm sure the description "It's a coming-of-age story about family, high school sweethearts, and growing up in the year 1940" fits the book, but it also fits five hundred other books. I'm sure the book has more going for it than just that, but the Amazon page wouldn't indicate it. Young girl in historical period is not enough. Regardless of the target demographic, there's countless books with that specific setting and character age that also have attention-grabbing premises (read the Amazon page for the Book Thief). I don't even know what country your book is set in. Who is Neva? Why should I care about her? I'm not going to pay 5 dollars for a Kindle book that I know nothing about. You also listed that it's a romance, and yet there's no information whatsoever on that. If it's a romance, commit to that and market it as such. Who are the people in the romance? Why should we care about them and hope that their romance is a success? Here's the tricky part. Explain that all as concisely as possible. - The Amazon page description doesn't readily indicate a genre - it either doesn't have a genre, or isn't marketed according to its genre. Low concept books need a genre. I don't personally understand YA Amish Romances. They're all exactly the same (and all equally dull), but they all fit into a wildly popular genre and so are eagerly consumed. Or maybe it does fit into a genre - YA Historical Romance. If so, no aspect of it is marketed or described like a YA Historical Romance. You'd also need to give out ARCs to Goodreads reviewers that really appreciate that genre, to generate interest. Your platform is not good for marketing books - you're not a booktuber, after all. But you do have connections. You could reach out to Booktubers and ask them to promote your book. Either way, you need to tap into the reading community. This here is not a reading community. - If it does fit into the genre of YA Historical Romance, then it's too short and the cover's entirely wrong for the genre (though the artwork is lovely, it doesn't look like a book cover). If it was marketed towards middle-school age girls (in which case the genre would be middle-grade, not YA), then the protagonist would have had to been around 12 and wouldn't be romantically involved in any serious way. Middle-grade novels don't feature high school girl protagonists. Even if middle-schoolers will sometimes read YA books they don't fall into that target demographic. You have to a) conform to genre conventions in cover and marketing as well as b) stand out in the genre, especially with an engaging premise. The first part comes before the second. - Your marketing has been really timid. I get it. You don't want to humiliate yourself with yet another potentially-questionable project. But if you don't even seem to like the book or think it's worth reading, why would I? - Maybe the average book consumer cares who wrote the book. I don't. I really enjoy Austin McConnell's content, but I would only buy Austin McConnell's book if it grabbed my attention and held it. Ultimately, there was nothing to sell it (not characters, premise, genre, or even prose) besides the fact that you wrote it. Let's take the hat off now. I'm really glad you wrote it (hope it gave you some closure after your loss) and I'm sure it's wonderful - I just have no way of really knowing it's wonderful. You're good at taking creative risks. Try seeing what happens if you complete revamp the marketing and Amazon page of this book (and, if possible, make your collaborations and send out book copies to Goodreads reviewers). If your beta readers were worth their salt, I suspect the actual novel is good. All you need now is to market it the way it deserves. It's difficult and it's daunting, but hey - at the very least, you could make a fascinating video about it. Just know whether you choose to spend more time on this project or move on to a fresh venture, we're all excited to see what you create next.

This guy's workshop failed He embraced it His first movie failed He embraced it His first book failed He embraced it He wrote another book It failed ...God ..he is such an inspiration

After seeing how many drafts and correction this book went through, I'm amazed that younger me thought it was a good idea to write and publish each chapter of a story one at a time on Wattpad without even having planned the next chapters

From an accountant who's spent 10+ years auditing publishers and now self-publishes: honestly, where you went wrong was starting with trying to predict total lifetime sales of your book, instead of focusing on your breakeven point. Even pros at traditional publishing houses get their estimates wrong ALL THE TIME (they'll have fancy spreadsheets and stuff but it all really comes down to wild guesses). ~$5k is fairly middle of the road as far as self-publishing costs go (the typical range is anywhere between $0 to $10k) but if you had created a title P&L to begin with, then monitored how each additional investment you made changed the breakeven point, that would have helped you reduce the size of your loss. Another thing is the pricing - $12.99 for a paperback and $4.99 for an ebook of a NOVELLA?! Not my genre or niche, so I'm not sure whether this is on par for this particular kind of book, but it seems high to me (especially for a first title by a new author). Combine that with your cover (does not match the style of the other covers in your categories, which is...not a good thing), your title (super generic - who is Neva and why should we care?) and your blurb (it's all about you and your grandmother, with some very generic stuff - instead of clearly telling someone what kind of story they're in for), I very much doubt the $150 you spent on Amazon ads were effective at all. Readers being targeted by Amazon ads or just coming across your book who don't know anything about you are unlikely to go for it. HOWEVER! Based on your current Amazon Best Seller Rank, you're selling about 9 ebooks per day and 19 paperbacks per day right now (maybe this video gave you a boost!) so that's a good place to be in. That boost won't last forever, so you have a narrow opportunity to fix things. The good news is that your cover and your blurb each matter as much as the contents of your book. Which means 2 out of the 3 factors that drive book sales can STILL be fixed! In order of least expensive to most expensive: 1. Write a better blurb. (FREE) Delete the current blurb. The acknowledgements/dedication section is the place to put all the sentimental stuff about why you wrote the book and what it means to you, etc - and yours is already super extensive. The blurb is your sales copy, and it should tell people why your book is awesome and they should buy it. At minimum, they need to know: what kind of story they're in for; who the protagonist is; and what problem/s the protagonist is trying to overcome. 2. Move the dedications/acknowledgements/foreword (why is there a foreword in a fiction NOVELLA?!) sections - move all that stuff to the back of the book! (FREE) Right now, when a potential buyer clicks on "LOOK INSIDE" (assuming they were even compelled to click on the product page in the first place), the first thing they see is a 2 page foreword about your grandmother, how this book is a book she never finished writing and that you also have questions about...and they haven't even read ANY of the story. All they want at this point is to take a look at the first few pages, and they have to scroll. (they're probably not going to spend the time scrolling. Most likely they're going to click off and look for a different book) 3. Change the title to something more compelling (FREE). If you're not sure what would be more compelling, come up with 2-3 candidates then do some testing on them with some Facebook ads. ($) 4. Change the cover ($$-$$$) I know you like the current cover. I know you have already gone through several revisions of it. But your book is listed in "Teen & Young Adult Fiction about Girls & Women", "Teen & Young Adult Girls & Women Fiction" and "Teen & Young Adult Contemporary Romance eBooks" and its cover doesn't match ANY of the top sellers in those categories. The majority of covers in the first two categories are photo-realistic posed shots of the protagonist in question wearing cool clothes or text only titles with close ups of objects; the majority of covers in the romance category feature the love interest revealing a variable amount of bare chest and/or tattoos and smouldering their best Blue Steel at the camera. Get a cover that stylistically fits in with the other covers in the categories you're targeting. If I were you, I would do ALL of the above, because if you've written a good book that people enjoy, you should be able to recoup your investment in the long run if you fix these things now. At an initial investment of $5,103,24, you only need to sell ~1,050 copies at a $4.89 royalty to go from a financial disaster to breakeven. Let's up that to around 1,200 copies to factor in spending some additional money to fix your cover. 1,200 copies is absolutely doable in self-publishing if you have written the right book for the right audience.

I love how this guy's career is basically "I made this and it didn't work or it flat out sucked"

Now that you’ve made a video in the style of your audience’s tastes, I think you might get more sales from your audience

“A lady in ____ finds the sweetness of the first love while dealing with the reality of the beginnings of World War II” could be more appealing to young readers.

As someone who aspires to be an author as well this is a humbling and transparent video. What I appreciate is you don't sugarcoat your failures and you understand and learned from them. I love that you are showing your mistakes as other people can take them as lessons to get better themselves. Thank you for this

I bothered to copyright a book and then never published it. It’s literally in the library of Congress and I never did anything with it.

As an aspiring author, this is the kind of video I needed to see. I don’t know if I’ll go the self-publishing route, but it’s nice to get a look at what it entails.

I'm truly sorry this didn't work out. Regardless, I'm sure your mom and grandmother are very proud.

Me and my good friend have always bonded over literary mediums and writing together, we decided spur of the moment to make a mini book club between the two of us, right as Neva’s Story dropped. We read through it and discussed it weekly, such a good story you’ve put together, your grandmother would be proud.

I love how willing you are to just laugh at yourself and take things in stride. Respect.

If you're saying "a financial disaster", I'm gonna say a few hundred copies.

I almost wish Austin had published it with a different title and different cover art. As a teenage girl (pretty close to the target audience) the name and picture don't draw me in at all. The bit about it being his grandma's story does though, so maybe that should've been included. That part seems too cool to not put front and center anyway. Gotta admire the effort that went into it though!

Honestly, big respect for the dedication he put into this.

You’re such an interesting person, the way you learn and view successes and failures as a learning opportunity is amazing. Really inspiring

Man your approach to this is so refreshing. It's somehow more motivating than seeing someone succeed at something

Ive Seen you host a Seminar with NO ONE in attendance, still went through with the whole powerpoint lol You're Fearless

Perhaps a book containing “Useless Information” would have been a hit?

"By the way, go make a website" Best segue to a corporate sponsorship ever

Man, you are SO LUCKY to have that bit of creativity from your grandma. My great grandpa was a treasure hunter and a rock hound, and he had hand drawn maps of the mojave that were fucking thrown away by another relative after my great grandpa died. the only reason given was "they weren't worth anything." Some relatives are just vultures, waiting for the richest old person in the family tree to die so they can swoop in and pick the bones clean. Totally not bitter that LITERAL TREASURE MAPS are gone forever. At least i have one thing though, which is an awesome portrait my great grandpa drew of my great grandma on one of his air force manuals during WWII, and i have some of his minerals. You are lucky if you leave anything behind after you die that anyone finds value in

I am looking forward to reading Neva’s Story while taking a 7-hour flight to visit my mother. I haven’t seen her in three years. That first hug will be special because our moms are special.

what i love about you is that you are honest about making a crap ton of mistakes, and are able to effectively reflect on those mistakes and share it with others. You are wildly different from other content creators because you aren't shy about being human and making mistakes. This might sound odd, but you are the most real and human content creator on youtube.

I love how you casually listed Brandon Sanderson, who has sold over 10 million copies, alongside regular book-tubers.

You were definitely missing professional reviews as well. You have the connections to reach out and get your works reviewed in other publications, I have to assume. I was looking forward to writing a Wikipedia article on Neva's Story, but there was nothing to work with. No reviews anywhere to serve as reliable secondary sources for building an article.

Re losing money on publication: It's really a memorial to your Grandmother and a gift for your Mother. You could just as well make the e-book version free, or at least on Kindle Unlimited. I had a similar situation: my wife's Chinese Poetry group wanted to publish a volume, and I warned her about "vanity presses" being a scam. She understood that it wasn't going to be marketed or sold by anyone, but she wanted to buy a bunch of copies to help finance the print run for the benefit of others in her group that could not afford to. This isn't a common print-on-demand book, but a beautifully made, high-quality volume. And I have about a dozen left after giving out a bunch.

It’s awesome to see you admit mistakes you made. That takes a lot

It’s not about the money, it’s about sending a message…..

I genuinely wished I had your motivation, persistence, and resilience.

One of the reasons I like Austin's channel is that he fails quite a bit and keeps at it. It's a reminder that failure is ok and getting help is too 😉. Perseverance wins in the end.

You always teach us valuable lessons from your “failures”. Thank you for the vulnerability and honesty. I bet your family is so proud of the book.

as an english major currently taking a seminar in coming of age modern american fiction (yes this is an amazing coincidence) the one thing i really wish you had done differently was the title. i’ll be honest, i didn’t buy or read the book, but the title is probably part of the reason why. i’ll point to two novellas i read in class the past two weeks for this aforementioned seminar. “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, and “We the Animals” by Justin Torres. these titles tell me what i’m reading in one way or another. theyre wildly different from each other but theyre both evocative in some distinct way. and they mean so much more after the story is over. an amateur mistake that i make often in my writing is letting the title be an afterthought. maybe your title came from your grandmother’s original vision which is great. and i haven’t read the book so maybe the title says more with the added context of the story, but titles in principle should say something ABOUT the story because people read titles before they even read the synopsis. the idea was there and i definitely admire you for the risk. i was one of the people who watched the original announcement videos when they came out, so i guess this is a peek into what kept me from even checking out the amazon page. i admit it is literally judging a book by its cover, but i’m just gonna be honest here.

Ouch. - You spent 5x more than the average self-published author - Middle-grade does better in traditional publishing - You didn't market to middle-grade sources at all (like teachers/parents/librarians) - Your cover, although very beautiful, is not on market and does not pop - You wrote a book you weren't passionate about - You wrote too it too short - You priced it too high Hi, Austin. I love your channel, and I commend you for fulfilling your nana and mother's dream, that's really lovely (I hope my kids grow up to be like you one day). Self-publishing is definitely a different game than traditional and, based on the sources you gave, I think you needed a lot more research into the business side of things. I will say, A LOT of people make the same mistakes you did on their first try, so you're not alone. I hope your video will serve as a great warning to help other authors from diving too deep, too fast. Because this wasn't about money, just writing a beautiful story, I think you achieved your goal regardless. Writing a book that's meaningful to you doesn't always have to be about turning a profit. It can be about the journey and the satisfaction you feel at the end. I'm sure your mom and nana would be proud of you (I would be if my son had done this). Good on you and good luck with your future projects.

I'm just glad you're still kicking my dude. Here's to more potential successes (or failures) in the future.

“Financial Disaster” doesn’t inspire _much_ optimism, as a title.

Sorry to hear about your mom, Austin!

I love how you show your worst failures honestly

It's good to know you're still posting. A lot of people were worried.

I'm sorry your book failed, but you have to admit, that "Neva's story" doesn't inspire a lot of interest in the actual... You know, story. At least you could have given the accompanying videos a catchier title, but I appreciate how you did things and your honesty!

"I have an audience" - top 10 moments before disaster.

Its amazing that you put in so much effort into making something like this. This project was a huge undertaking, the amount of time and effort you put into it should definitely be celebrated. That said, I can honestly say, I'm Neva gonna read it.

"Here's the beginning of my new book" 😴 "My new book was a financial disaster" 👁👄👁

The story of how he wrote this story is a nice story in itself

Yeah, back when you were marketing it, I was thinking “wrong demo” the whole time. But as someone who starts and stops a lot of similar projects myself, I was rooting for you, and still am. Perhaps it’s not too late to go back to the traditional publishing house route?

I would have been too afraid of failing to get as far as to show my first draft to anyone in the world... Your tenacity and work ethic is very admirable.

it’s so refreshing seeing someone be honest about failure, thank you for not glorifying your life austin

I think it's very sweet that you turned your grandma's story into a real book, and the fact that you basically did it to make your mom's wish come true. that's amazing, Austin

Honestly, one of my favorite parts about your channel is that I have no idea what you'll put out next.

Between this, and Lindsay's videos on the subject, I've actually learned a lot about the process of writing, drafting, and publishing a first book.

Austin's dedication to keep on creating despite his failures motivates me. I have no right to lose confidence in my own work now.

Sorry for your loss Austin

Austin, I am _thrilled_ to know I am not the only one with results like this. I self-published a novel and a sequel novella a decade ago and, after similar collaborative and financial investments, I sold about 30 copies. And my book and sequel were about a young woman, giving me the same genre conflicts. However, since I didn't have any 1 mullion-plus subscribers, I guess I'm ahead of your pace! 😉

Haha I'm one of those people who had no idea you even wrote a book. Somehow I missed it! I picked up a copy though. Definitely interested in giving it a shot. I always love how you just roll with the punches. Can't wait to see what you do next!

Jesus Christ this man can't catch a break . At this point he can create a separate playlist for all the rough things he has gone through during these past few years..

This guy literally has a million subs and he's still doing other creative endeavors. Good for him.

I've been subscribed for years and had no idea the book existed... checked and I don't think the videos about it even got recommended to me. Once I have the money, will give it a read!

You went through the process and that to me is inspirational. I feel like this video will boost that book.

Let's take a minute of an appreciation for Squarespace, for helping you recover your loss. Thanks for making the video on this experience. We're looking forward to another one.

Loved your story but I have a small, insignificant gripe... you should put your grandma's name on the cover too

I haven’t seen any of your videos recommended to me for over a year, despite being subscribed. Had no idea this was a thing.

I love this video. Thanks for sharing this with us. I just discover the channel and i still have 136 videos to binge. Lucky me.

Very sorry about the loss of your mom

Something I noticed was that the title and cover art really weren't that interesting. I'd suggest a more intriguing title that sounds a little more poetic, and have "Neva's story" be the subtitle. something like "when the trees swayed with my heart: Neva's story" except better because you are the author and you know the story and themes much better than I do. (note: this is obviously my own personal observations, and I'm probably alone in most parts) The cover art just wasn't that eye-catching. Now that I know more about I definitely might check out the audio book. Excellent video, as always. Very informative on what it takes to actually write a book.

This is a great ad for the book! He knows his audience loves hearing about his various failures

I'm glad to have purchased and listened to the audiobook back in July. I listened to it with my family on a car ride and we genuinely enjoyed it, mostly because of the story of how and why you wrote it. It's not my normal cup of tea but I am glad to have been one of the few people to experience it.

I didn't even see the original two videos in my feed! The algorithm really did you dirty man.

I mean, the best expectation you could have put on this project is, in my opinion "I'm restoring a work in progress my grandmother began in the 1940's". Expecting this book to be the next blockbuster, let alone break even grossly oversells this project. I haven't bought the book, and probably never will, but this project feels like an old photo you keep on a shelf as emotional significance rather than a financial blockbuster.

Thank you for being so transparent in this video. I've self-published a picture book. Did hype, farmer's markets, deals with local animal shelters (it's a rescue pup book) even got on the front page of the local paper, and only sold a little over 200 as well. I was very dejected about it, but seeing your similar experience at least lets me know I'm not alone. And you are right: it is fun to try stuff. Best of luck recouping your investment.

Austin: I’ll never financially recover from this. Also Austin: uses this this video to have a minor financial recovery.

Imagine being encouraged to finish a manuscript another family member started. Creative family, really cool.

My book is on 92 drafts. I number each version and as the story progresses and changes are made.

Damn. I remember seeing the announcement video on my feed, thinking "sure doesn't look like my thing but best of luck to him" and scrolling on. Sorry it went so poorly man. It may not be my thing, but you deserved more than a couple hundred sales.

Austin really out here roasting his Gramma-ma’s stories smh.

This video is gonna do well, and you'll start selling a lot of books. Mark my words (I didn't click on the previous book videos, but this one caught my interest)

I guessed 900 copies and was surprised by the real number. Wow. Real lessons learned here by you and us all.

I think a story about your journey putting together your grandmother's book (with maybe a fair bit of dramatization/fictionalization) would be a great story too.

05:44 "I am a man of few abilities." Maaan! That landed deeply at home. However, respect to you on how calmly you accept this and the fact that does not determine the effort you put to accomplish the things you run after.

I distinctly remember watching that video, looking at the view count, and feeling bad. While this isn't a surprise, I think you deserved a lot better than 200 something copies for what it's worth.

As usual, I hear about your latest project after you've deemed it a failure.

Massive respect to you for trying. Must have been hard to go through.

Man i have been watching you stuff for quite some time and i gotta say, you are one of the most resilient and self aware persons i have ever seen. As a kind of frustrated artist myself i really respect the confidence that you have on your work. Sorry for not being a middle school girl but best of luck to you!

Love the honesty!

Austin McConnell and Brandon Sanderson aren't the 2 names that I would've expected to be related by a long mile.

Don’t downplay how impressive writing a book is. Congrats man.

Obvious reasons that come to mind: - Coming-of-age stories with your chosen target demographic are run-of-the-mill and the market is saturated. - Your name isn't well-known in the publishing world - RU-vid subscribers does not in any way translate to a desire for people to consume or purchase other works by you - You immediately jumped into corporate book-writing, which turns it into a work designed by committee. - Self-Publishing leads to lack of advertising. in light of that, I'd expect maybe 1000 copies or so. I mean I watch your videos from time to time but I doubt I'd buy a book you wrote unless it had a LOT going for it. **Post-Reveal**: Oh dear. That was even fewer copies than I expected.

Austin you’ve helped me so much. I’v learned so much from your videos like this, instead of you telling me about your amazing projects that sold great and were wonderfully excepted… Thank you so much for taking the time to fail so completely, and document the process for other creative types like myself. I own two businesses, neither of which have anything to do with writing or literature… Or even content creation for that matter. But both my businesses are based on creativity and passion…… So videos like this help me more than anything! I can apply them to my own life and situation, and I genuinely think about them more throughout the day than any other content absorbed. Seriously… Thank you

I published my own book, doing my own marketing, no beta readers or anything. I paid 5k for marketing and print versions to sell. Total, I made 6k. I call that a good wash as that's my hobby. But hiring all those people for a 20k story? That's ludicrous!!! My stories go up to 80k words. You should have spent that money on your own development as a writer...which is weird...because you write out your transcripts for your videos, right?