okay. here i am. the reason i'm glad you started this thread is because i've been wanting to get more actively involved in the self-pub subforum, but i haven't self pubbed anything just yet.
with a thread about goals, i feel more comfortable to talk about things while having no firsthand knowledge.
so here goes...
"critical failures" is in its third or forth rewrite (there was some hazy rewriting in between official rewrites), and hopefully its last. i'm hoping to have it polished as shiny as it's going to get within a week or two (probably two), and my cover art guy should be sending me his work around that time as well.
i wrote a book a couple of years ago that i couldn't even be bothered to salvage with a rewrite. looking back on it now, it's an embarrassment. but i'm sure most of us have one or two of those.
the one i'm polishing up now, however... i must have read it a hundred times, and not only am i not sick to death of it, but it still makes me laugh. and one time while reading the end of my last chapter while drunk, i even managed to pull one of my own heartstrings just a bit.
so... i think it's safe to say that in T minus a month (at most), i'll be able to find out if i'm really as entertaining and funny as i think i am, or if i have far too high an opinion of myself and my beta reader has been far too kind. (mind you, that kindness included making me rewrite the whole m**&%&^%%^%&^ing book to change the POV, not to mention murdering more than a few darlings.)
in the meantime, i'm beta-ing for my beta reader, and i'm six pages into the first sequel to "critical failures".
as far as marketing plans go, i'm a member of several rpg forums (my book is about a group of guys who piss off their game master and get sent into the fantasy world... and no, it's not as lame and unoriginal as it sounds), so i should be in a good position to reach most of my target audience. i'm not planning to even mention my book on those forums. i'm just going to have links to my signature, and get actively involved in normal sort of gamer talk. i figure if i make my presence known as an intelligent and active participant in the forums, people will get curious about me, and click on links.
also, i got my brother in law to get me a domain name. so with his help i'll be making my own website. and i'm going to make a facebook author's page (i've figured out how to do that on my own already, but i haven't done it yet, because it feels kind of lame to have an author's page before you have a book out.)
most importantly, i'm keeping realistic expectations. if i sell a couple of books a month in the beginning, i'll be thrilled with each one. and if i get just one fat, pasty-skinned gamer geek to claim himself to be a fan of mine, i'll weep rivers of joy.
i'm all kinds of excited and just a little terrified.
thanks again for starting this thread. the vent was very cathartic.