-->
 |
| Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net by Bill Longshaw |
It’s a good thing I have a curious mind
because the deeper I get into the self-publishing realm the more there is to
learn. Some days it gets just a little overwhelming but then I either go for
a walk, do some yoga or read one of the startling 5-star reviews that have been
posted on Amazon already! It motivates me to keep plugging along.
“There’s so much to learn, such as how to do
(or hire) cover art, how to format for all the many types of eBooks, how to format
for print, blogging, social media, interviews, distribution, marketing, getting
reviews, how to choose effective paid advertising, how to choose the most
effective price point… it goes on and on. We have a lot of freedom, but every
aspect of publishing comes down to us,” said India Drummond on her video blog that
I watched yesterday on formatting for CreateSpace.
Formatting the print layout for CreateSpace
was one of the things I actually paid really good money for because I thought
it was a critical piece of the puzzle and one of the most finicky and
frustrating. I saw India’s post and thought I’d take a look. After watching her
35-minute step-by-step video do I think I could do it? Sure! Will I? Um, not
likely. I think I’ll let Graham at Creation Booth do it again next time. He’s a
pro and I only have two hands!
Lessons
Learned
Lesson #1
There’s no end. As long as your book is in
print there’s more to do! You are the publisher. Accept it. Embrace it. Move on
to the next item on the checklist.
Lesson #2
Some of it is really easy, common sense,
no-brainer type stuff and some of it is, well, yank your fingernails out tough.
So, here are a few of my experiences thus
far I’d like to share:
Easy-Peasy
In my opinion, the easy part of the whole
process is getting the book written. Do I hear a collective gasp? Now, I admit
some days are ribbons and rainbows and others are like walking on hot coals.
But, the main point is that writing is our forté, right? In the grand scheme
of things, it’s naturally going to be the easy part of self-publishing a book,
which I had never done before unless you count the short eBook on doing your own PR that I wrote to test out the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) piece of the
process.
When I launched the mission, the parts of
the process that involved writing copy were also easy for me. The profiles,
press releases, pitches, blurbs, newsletters, announcements and blogs, for
example. I've been doing that for years!
The social media part was not so bad… time
consuming but not difficult. I already had a profile on Facebook and an Anne the Writer page so I just added a book page for Mental Pause, invited everyone to
join and promoted it on my other social media (like Twitter and LinkedIn).
Fair
to Middlin’
Okay… so now comes the finicky part. Setting
up on KDP is pretty straightforward once you have your manuscript properly
formatted for Kindle upload. However, when doing a print version using
CreateSpace for print on demand (POD) as I did, the finer details of setting up
your account are a little more daunting, but not insurmountable. They break it
down into phases and pretty much walk you through each phase with helpful
articles, handholding and a 24/7 helpline to boot. Selecting price points and
distribution channels as India alluded to above, had me pulling out my hair and
I had to walk away a few times, but I eventually wrestled that gnarly troll. I did pay the extra $25 for expanded distribution so I'll let you know if it's worth it. They say it can take 6-8 weeks before it appears in the Ingrams and Baker and Taylor retail catalogs.
Here’s a warning!
Once the print proof on
CreateSpace is approved, it can take 5-7 business days before it’s live. I
just about had a heart attack when I saw that because I assumed it was immediate
and waited until the day before launch day thinking I was being smart allowing
myself a whole day in case it was a little convoluted! I took a deep breath,
realized it wasn’t the end of the world (and that I was a moron not having
checked that out in advance but made a mental note for the next one… and a big
bold note in my timeline), heaved a sigh of relief that the Kindle version was
already up and crossed my fingers that the print version would appear sooner
rather than later… then prayed. The angels were definitely on my side this time
as the print version did actually go up the very next day in time for the launch. Hooah!
Another lesson I learned was that after the
struggle to get the print version done and all the right forms filled and
information submitted, CreateSpace will do the Kindle conversion for you! It
would probably have eliminated the ‘few minor formatting issues’ that reviewers have
mentioned.
Navigating
Amazon
As a global nomad with friends spread all
over the world, I'd love to make their purchase of my books as
painless as possible. There’s a lot that happens automatically with Amazon but
there were also issues that cropped up that I naively assumed would have happened
and didn’t. For example, they don’t automatically link the print and Kindle
versions unless you ask them to. And, if you go to Amazon.ca, it only shows the
Kindle version. So someone in Canada has to go to Amazon.com to order the print
version, which is shipped from the US. However, Amazon.co.uk does have both. Go
figure!
Those are just a few of the lessons I’ve
learned so far but it’s only a little over a week since Mental Pause launched so
I’m sure there will be more to come… like eBook conversions. I did promise I would
cover that issue this time but I’m still grappling with it so don’t have much
helpful information to share just yet, but I will when I do.
If you have any 'lessons learned' that you'd like to add, please feel free to comment below!
Comments