Timescales

Dona St Columb

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Hi everyone. I'm planning to self publish my debut novel next year (eek!) and I was hoping some of you might be able to share some wisdom with me, around timescales for actually putting the book out there?

I'm currently making some very drastic edits (read: totally rewriting vast sections of the book :rolleyes:). I have a cover designer booked, and depending on how many revisions we go through, I should have a finished cover sometime in January. I'm trying to set myself a realistic timescale beyond that, so that I'm not tempted to faff around changing words here and there forever, but at the same time I don't want to be panicking and rushing it out either...

I suppose I'm just wondering- once the book is done, finished, edited and polished, how long do you then allow yourself for formatting, promotion, marketing etc?

Any advice or experiences you can share would be gratefully received :)
 

Dona St Columb

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A few questions... Ebook only, or print and ebook? Are you going to do your own formatting and uploading to vendors? Is it for an adult or children's audience?

Sorry, I didn't give much away there did I?!

So yes, ebook only at this stage, I've been looking into formatting and think I could manage it (famous last words!) and it's an adult romance.
 

ironmikezero

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Everything in the publishing game (self-pub and trade) takes longer than you'd think--seriously, everything!
Learn the merits of patience and creative distraction skills; these will help to keep your sanity on an even keel.
 

indianroads

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IMO formatting isn’t very difficult, the first time you do it takes a bit longer than it will once you’re practiced at it. KDP has standard templates for word you can download.
 

Al X.

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Actually formatting a text only ebook in Word is dirt simple, but, you have to follow the rules. No tabs - indentation by style settings or the ruler, chapter headings strictly defined by styles. KDP posts the formatting requirements, plus the Smashwords style guide is useful, except you don't use Smashwords funky manual TOC generation process.
 

cool pop

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It takes me two seconds to format and right before I upload the book. I put my books up for pre-order, sometimes months in advance. I do minor promotion while the book is on pre-order and do the major, heavy promo for a month after release and depending on how good the book is selling I'll continue to promote it heavily and then naturally things taper off. You should keep promoting a book on and off forever to get sales. Once you have a large enough back list you don't have to promote as much because the back list sells itself. I have over 50 books published and having a big back list allows me to not have to promote as much as I used to. I run discounts and sales often. For example, I am doing a Black Friday sale right now for a box set.

If you are a new author I suggest you start mingling with readers and authors now if you haven't already. You can do this through social media. Getting acquainted with other authors in your genre is golden because cross promotion is the best promotional option there is. Also, start a mailing list the second you release your book because the longer you wait, the harder it will be to gather subscribers. A mailing list is going to be the most important way you connect with your readers. You might want to start a web site too.

All of these things are forms of promotion.

As for time, I usually have a certain month in mind when I wanna release a book but I am not super strict with it. To me, the beauty of self-publishing is being able to publish whenever you want and not have to be tied to a deadline.
 
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Dona St Columb

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Thanks so much for all your replies. It was particularly interesting to hear how you handle promotion, cool pop. I'd imagined needing to do the majority of it in the run-up to release rather than after (which is why I was worrying if I'd left myself enough time), but it sounds as though I might be on track for the original release date I had in mind after all :)

I am a brand new author, but yes I'm already on social media. I've only got a modest number of followers but I do enjoy that side of things- mingling and chatting, so hopefully that will come across when it's time to promote my book too and I won't end up annoying people! The only thing I haven't got yet is a website / mailing list, but it's on my agenda!

Thanks again. I'll keep you all posted!
 

cool pop

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Thanks so much for all your replies. It was particularly interesting to hear how you handle promotion, cool pop. I'd imagined needing to do the majority of it in the run-up to release rather than after (which is why I was worrying if I'd left myself enough time), but it sounds as though I might be on track for the original release date I had in mind after all :)

I am a brand new author, but yes I'm already on social media. I've only got a modest number of followers but I do enjoy that side of things- mingling and chatting, so hopefully that will come across when it's time to promote my book too and I won't end up annoying people! The only thing I haven't got yet is a website / mailing list, but it's on my agenda!

Thanks again. I'll keep you all posted!

You're welcome and sounds like you're well prepared. Good luck to you!