After shamelessly lurking for over a year now, I decided a few months ago to make the blind leap off the cliff into the vast pool self-publishing. I can't even begin to express how much everyone here at the cooler has inspired me without even knowing they were doing so. I would like to share my adventure now, as I go, and try to give back some of what I have gained from everyone over the past year or so. I'm hoping that I can inspire and encourage someone else the way all of you have inspired me.
Quick background: While I have written several novels over the years, I never had the confidence to polish them and send them out into the world. The few people I did allow to read some of my early work tried to convince me to pursue writing seriously, but the confidence and courage just weren't there. About six years ago, however, I looked around at my life and realized that no matter what career I pursued, I wouldn't be happy or content because none of them were what I really loved doing. I love writing. And so, I sat down to draft a book with the sole intention that this would be The One. I wanted to create something that would appeal to a wide range of readers and something that I felt was current and marketable. March of last year, I finally finished it. I polished it. I edited it. I sent it to a few select readers to test it, and then I polished it some more.
Then, heart in throat and shaking like a leaf, I started sending out the query letters to the literary agents I thought would be the best fits. It was probably the hardest thing I had ever done up to that point. I expected rejections. I was prepared. And they came, one after another.
Conflict: In the meantime, I was also researching and reading about self-publishing versus trade publishing. I started weighing the pros and cons of each, and I really started to examine what I wanted from my career. What, exactly, were my goals? How would each road address those goals? What was important to me?
These were questions I asked myself while faithfully sending out query – synopsis – first 50 pages to the gatekeepers of the industry. These were questions I continued to ask myself as I received feedback (some helpful, some not) from the agents in the industry. In the end, those questions were what led me to the start of my adventure this past July.
Really, it all came down to control. I decided, in the end, I wasn't willing to give up even a little bit of the immense control that I have over my work through self-publishing. The catalyst was in June, when I received my last letter of feedback from an agent on a partial request of my manuscript. That agent enjoyed it, but wanted to see changes of A, B and C – all of which were key elements of the plot and character development. I felt the changes they wanted to see would take the passion right out of my story. I finished reading the email, sat back, and made my decision. It was the last week of June.
Decision: On July 3rd, I contacted an artist that I am lucky enough to know and asked if she would be willing to try cover art. With the holiday, I didn't expect to hear back for days. She answered on July 4th. Guess what? She loves doing cover art and would be thrilled to work with me on a cover. Wow. Ok. That was fast. I sent her the manuscript. A week later, I had the first draft of a cover that I LOVED.
Everything just fell into place after that. Everything. The cover, the formatting, the editing, even the head shot for Amazon...all just happened. A process I was fully expecting to take months was taking off at a pace I never expected and I published the Kindle edition of Next Exit, Three Miles on August 15. The CreateSpace POD went live on August 20.
Holy Moly, what a ride it has been! I have been so blessed and I can now say, this was the best decision I could have made for myself. Yes, I know the road is long. Yes, I know it will be very slow. And yes, I am already struggling with promotion and marketing. BUT I am loving every minute of this adventure. I truly am.
I've had a website for almost two years now, and that has been a great tool to chronicle the craziness and blog about anything that pops into my head. I have a Twitter account that, admittedly, has very few followers, and an author Facebook account. I also have a personal Facebook that I have had for years. And that, my friends, is the extent of my promotion and marketing. I work full-time in a very stressful job and this is all I can manage at the moment for promotional purposes. However, I think that these are the basics and a good start. Everyone says the best thing we can do is release the next book, and that is coming soon. While I spent a year and change trying to decide how to publish, I was busy working on the sequel. As a result, the second book is currently with the test readers and, barring any extensive re-writes, should be ready to start editing by October.
I know I have a VERY long road ahead, and any advise or suggestions are always welcome! We are all in this together and I hope that I can continue to learn from those who are ahead of me in this journey, and also reach out a hand to those behind me as well.
Sales: Now that you know about my adventure, here are the initial sales. I will post sales monthly, good or bad.
Next Exit, Three Miles
August: (15-end of month)
Kindle – 22
CreateSpace – 8
Hand-Sold – 1
Total – 31
September has slowed down. I've only sold 2 so far, 1 Kindle and 1 CreateSpace. Clearly, the initial rush has passed. I am running a Goodreads Giveaway this month, so we'll see what that brings. I've been blessed enough to have all 5-star reviews so far on Amazon, which is so surreal to me, so here's hoping the sales pick up again!!
Quick background: While I have written several novels over the years, I never had the confidence to polish them and send them out into the world. The few people I did allow to read some of my early work tried to convince me to pursue writing seriously, but the confidence and courage just weren't there. About six years ago, however, I looked around at my life and realized that no matter what career I pursued, I wouldn't be happy or content because none of them were what I really loved doing. I love writing. And so, I sat down to draft a book with the sole intention that this would be The One. I wanted to create something that would appeal to a wide range of readers and something that I felt was current and marketable. March of last year, I finally finished it. I polished it. I edited it. I sent it to a few select readers to test it, and then I polished it some more.
Then, heart in throat and shaking like a leaf, I started sending out the query letters to the literary agents I thought would be the best fits. It was probably the hardest thing I had ever done up to that point. I expected rejections. I was prepared. And they came, one after another.
Conflict: In the meantime, I was also researching and reading about self-publishing versus trade publishing. I started weighing the pros and cons of each, and I really started to examine what I wanted from my career. What, exactly, were my goals? How would each road address those goals? What was important to me?
These were questions I asked myself while faithfully sending out query – synopsis – first 50 pages to the gatekeepers of the industry. These were questions I continued to ask myself as I received feedback (some helpful, some not) from the agents in the industry. In the end, those questions were what led me to the start of my adventure this past July.
Really, it all came down to control. I decided, in the end, I wasn't willing to give up even a little bit of the immense control that I have over my work through self-publishing. The catalyst was in June, when I received my last letter of feedback from an agent on a partial request of my manuscript. That agent enjoyed it, but wanted to see changes of A, B and C – all of which were key elements of the plot and character development. I felt the changes they wanted to see would take the passion right out of my story. I finished reading the email, sat back, and made my decision. It was the last week of June.
Decision: On July 3rd, I contacted an artist that I am lucky enough to know and asked if she would be willing to try cover art. With the holiday, I didn't expect to hear back for days. She answered on July 4th. Guess what? She loves doing cover art and would be thrilled to work with me on a cover. Wow. Ok. That was fast. I sent her the manuscript. A week later, I had the first draft of a cover that I LOVED.
Everything just fell into place after that. Everything. The cover, the formatting, the editing, even the head shot for Amazon...all just happened. A process I was fully expecting to take months was taking off at a pace I never expected and I published the Kindle edition of Next Exit, Three Miles on August 15. The CreateSpace POD went live on August 20.
Holy Moly, what a ride it has been! I have been so blessed and I can now say, this was the best decision I could have made for myself. Yes, I know the road is long. Yes, I know it will be very slow. And yes, I am already struggling with promotion and marketing. BUT I am loving every minute of this adventure. I truly am.
I've had a website for almost two years now, and that has been a great tool to chronicle the craziness and blog about anything that pops into my head. I have a Twitter account that, admittedly, has very few followers, and an author Facebook account. I also have a personal Facebook that I have had for years. And that, my friends, is the extent of my promotion and marketing. I work full-time in a very stressful job and this is all I can manage at the moment for promotional purposes. However, I think that these are the basics and a good start. Everyone says the best thing we can do is release the next book, and that is coming soon. While I spent a year and change trying to decide how to publish, I was busy working on the sequel. As a result, the second book is currently with the test readers and, barring any extensive re-writes, should be ready to start editing by October.
I know I have a VERY long road ahead, and any advise or suggestions are always welcome! We are all in this together and I hope that I can continue to learn from those who are ahead of me in this journey, and also reach out a hand to those behind me as well.
Sales: Now that you know about my adventure, here are the initial sales. I will post sales monthly, good or bad.
Next Exit, Three Miles
August: (15-end of month)
Kindle – 22
CreateSpace – 8
Hand-Sold – 1
Total – 31
September has slowed down. I've only sold 2 so far, 1 Kindle and 1 CreateSpace. Clearly, the initial rush has passed. I am running a Goodreads Giveaway this month, so we'll see what that brings. I've been blessed enough to have all 5-star reviews so far on Amazon, which is so surreal to me, so here's hoping the sales pick up again!!
If you ever want an author interview or do a guest post on my blog, just let me know
