Obsessive Rep Point Checkers Club (Volume IV)

[DeleyanLee]

I'm tweeting the link, just because I want to be able to say the words "fab facebook author and 'foo bat' owner " in a sentence

Dankers! I don't tweet, but I am now tweeted!

 

[parumpdragon]

LOL - yes, you are now tweeted.

 

[DeleyanLee]

And Housemate just got word that we're upgraded to "premium" on Smashwords (meaning, Flamechild is available beyond Smashwords), and we're also good on Draft2Digital, which means we'll be on Kindle, Nook and in POD press ere long.

 

[parumpdragon]

That's awesome Del!

 

[DeleyanLee]

Yeah. Seems the problem with D2D was that Housemate has Office 13 and they hadn't quite upgraded to the new Word yet. She showed them all kinds of glitches in their software. It's been an interesting week, listening to how all that goes down. But D2D was very professional, very friendly, and got the job done pretty quickly, all told. She's highly impressed with them.

Should really get something useful done before heading off to work tonight. Just don't feel like it.

 

[parumpdragon]

I know that 'not' wanting to do anything productive part. I am contemplating it myself lately.

 

[DeleyanLee]

Yeah. Too bad we can't just give in to it, eh?

 

[parumpdragon]

I know, right?

Oh, and apparently my FooBat friend request was accepted just now. Yay

 

[DeleyanLee]

LOL! Yeah. We get to it as often as we can. When did you send it? I didn't see it when I was on 2 days ago.

 

[parumpdragon]

LOL! Yeah. We get to it as often as we can. When did you send it? I didn't see it when I was on 2 days ago.

I think I sent it yesterday afternoon. I meant to earlier, and I kept forgetting to send the friend request. When I saw Vince was already ahead of me, I thought dang I should get my behind in gear

 

[DeleyanLee]

LOL! Well, that explains why I didn't see it over the weekend. I was just wondering if FB was a little lax in sending such things along.

 

[parumpdragon]

LOL! Well, that explains why I didn't see it over the weekend. I was just wondering if FB was a little lax in sending such things along.

Nope - it was me, between painting my MC and finishing up a round of edits (I'm in line edits - woohoo ), I was dragging my behind on other stuff

 

[DeleyanLee]

Oh, I don't do my own line edits. I'm not skilled enough at grammar for that. My daughter does that for me. She LOVES that kind of stuff. I'd rather have an appendectomy done through my nostril.

 

[parumpdragon]

I don't do my own line edits either, the publisher has people.

They're telling me my release date for book #1 will be early in October this year. Yay. Lol.

Kinda nervous.

 

[DeleyanLee]

What's to be nervous about?

Or is that nervous-excited?

 

[parumpdragon]

What's to be nervous about?

Or is that nervous-excited?

A little of both.

It could not be well received. Though authors tell me that even bad publicity is publicity. *shrug* LOL

 

[DeleyanLee]

Depends on the bad publicity, but yeah. I know the main reason I ever picked up DaVinci Code was because the Catholic Church was up in arms about it. LOL!

I'm in a different boat with COTV & Flamechild. All our research says that this is the "down" part of the cycle for ebook buying, so we're not expecting any great number of downloads or purchases. We're basically establishing something of a backlist for the things we're planning on getting out during the "up" part of the cycle.

But, then, we also know that COTV is only going to be a niche market (most likely) and those can take months or years to finally get settled in. So patience is the best option for what we're doing.

The one good thing about epubs--it has the chance to catch readers' attention because there's no "3 weeks out and that's the mark" attitude, y'know?

 

[Myrealana]

Self-publishing just seems like more work every time I look at it.

It's hard enough to write a book. How do you make yourself do all the rest of it on your own? I just don't think I have the endurance.

 

[parumpdragon]

Depends on the bad publicity, but yeah. ...
The one good thing about epubs--it has the chance to catch readers' attention because there's no "3 weeks out and that's the mark" attitude, y'know?

Yeah, I know. Still nervous though.

Self-publishing just seems like more work every time I look at it.

It's hard enough to write a book. How do you make yourself do all the rest of it on your own? I just don't think I have the endurance.

Yeah, I'd have no idea how to go about it.

 

[DeleyanLee]

Self-publishing just seems like more work every time I look at it.

It's hard enough to write a book. How do you make yourself do all the rest of it on your own? I just don't think I have the endurance.

I did it the extremely easy way--my BFF is willing to do all the work and research. LOL!

So, I guess I'm not technically self-published, since I'm not doing the work, etc, but as I still have to deal with her while she does all the work, it still feels like I am. If that makes sense.

And, actually, the publishing part isn't that hard. Pick which publishing site(s) you're going with, format your Word doc to that style, upload and go. (Covers are more of a challenge (though there's reasonably priced artists who'll do it for you), but still, not that hard if you can't do it yourself.) However, Smashwords and Draft2Digital will take care of getting you onto Amazon, B&N, the iPhone store, even set up with a POD printer.

That's the easy part.

The hard part (IMO) is hard no matter where you publish--all the promotional stuff. As a standard newbie author, you're not going to have any kind of ad budget from even an NYC publisher, so you're still on your own for it all anyway.

 

[parumpdragon]

I did it the extremely easy way--my BFF is willing to do all the work and research. LOL!
...

LOL, you are much braver than I am.

 

[DeleyanLee]

Not bravery, m'dear. Experience.

My first self-published venture was Star Trek fanfiction from 1978-81 (it was the only way fanfic was produced back then). I printed up 100 copies (and tossed about 80 of them after 20 years of holding on to them).

Then I was the editor of a large Pern fan club for 2-3 years in the 1990's, where I edited 25 fanfic stories every 6 weeks and did all the publishing and distribution for them (for members only, mind you. And, again, it was all hard copy).

Then there was the original COTV run from 1998-2000, which was self-published (again, 100 print copies of each of the issues--most of which got trashed when we moved to Pgh 7 years ago).

This is so super easy in comparison. No storage issue, no hauling stuff around. Just upload and DONE! Amazingly simple--and so very much cheaper.

 

[Vince524]

Getting emails today to organize the cover reveal for Vision of Shadows!

 

[DeleyanLee]

Cool beans, Vince! Housemate will be updating the website later this week, so include me in the list, 'kay?

 

[Vince524]

Cool beans, Vince! Housemate will be updating the website later this week, so include me in the list, 'kay?

Yeppers.

I'll post the sign up sheet here and let my publicist know.

Isn't that cool? I've got a publicist!