New Year... New Mission - Self Publish Mental Pause!

This image courtesy of suphakit73 at freedigitalphotos.net

What a wonderful day yesterday with family gathered together reminiscing about 2012 and talking about what's in store for 2013.  The next generation of my family are just the type of young adults who are going to change the world!  Really... I'm not biased... they're brilliant!  Okay, maybe just a little but I'm allowed to be a proud auntie, especially since I don't have children of my own.

Anyway... During the past year, I had some great projects to work on, including assisting in the launch of the corporate division of 'embers of the world' as well as working with the Dubai office of DBM as they merged with Lee Hecht Harrison (as of January they will be LHH Gulf).

I also started on my journey to find an agent for my for my first novel, Mental Pause and it's been a year now.  I've had a little interest, many asking for the first few chapters and one NY agent who actually asked to see the full manuscript... three months ago.  My follow up seems to have fallen on deaf ears.  I do have several more on a spreadsheet that I've targeted but I had an epiphany the other day and decided that I would publish it myself.  I've been studying the options for about two years now and tested the Kindle Direct Publishing process with a simple e-book so I've decided to take the plunge (with lots of encouragement from family and friends who have already read, and enjoyed, my first attempt at fiction).  I will do both electronic and print versions and will use Create Space.

So, I've taken the following steps so far:

1. Hired a designer to start working on cover (Graham Booth at Creation Booth who also designed the covers for @Home in Dubai and 10 Steps to a Successful PR Campaign for me.  He has done many fiction covers too so I expect great things from him)... :)  As soon as it's ready, I'll share it here.

2.  Have asked yet another professional writer to edit it.  This is critical!  Even though I've been writing professionally for years, you can NEVER edit your own work.

And...

3.  Chosen a launch date, which means the editing will have to end soon as I've targeted March 8th - International Women's Day... thanks to my friend Alison Delory (a fellow author and blogger) who made that suggestion as sometimes I just can't see the forest for the trees.  I thought it was perfect.  Thanks Alison!

Stay tuned as the launch plan comes together!