Mclesh's Mad Self-Publishing Diary

RLMcKeown

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I look forward to them. How hard did you find the formatting the books for create space and epub? Going through editors notes now so within the next few days I'll have to tackle that as well.

I used these tutorials by India Drummond and had no problems:
http://www.indiadrummond.com/2012/12/23/tutorial-ebook-formatting

You do have to pay for the program she uses. I know you can format for free in Calibre, though I haven't done it. I know a lot of AWers have used this guide for Calibre: http://guidohenkel.com/2010/12/take-pride-in-your-ebook-formatting
 

Lavern08

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P.S. Let Me Get This Off My Chest arrived in the mail this weekend - I'm mailing it to my friend this week. ;)
 

benluby

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Mclesh

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I just reported a "customer" review of LMGTOMC. Spam from another author advertising her book. (?!)

When I looked at her other reviews, they were all the same, except for one she obviously left for a friend's book.

*sigh*

She did give me five stars in her fake spam review.
 

LAgrunion

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I just reported a "customer" review of LMGTOMC. Spam from another author advertising her book. (?!)

When I looked at her other reviews, they were all the same, except for one she obviously left for a friend's book.

*sigh*

She did give me five stars in her fake spam review.

Spam from another author promoing her own book?! That's not cool. But I guess at least she gave you 5 stars.
 

RLMcKeown

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I just reported a "customer" review of LMGTOMC. Spam from another author advertising her book. (?!)

When I looked at her other reviews, they were all the same, except for one she obviously left for a friend's book.

*sigh*

She did give me five stars in her fake spam review.

Wow. I've never heard of that being done before, but I'm sure it happens more often than you'd think. Still... yeesh.
 

ajaye

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following with interest and high fives at the ready :)
 
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Mclesh

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following with interest and high fives at the ready :)

Cheers, ajaye!

Update: I just this minute added my book on Goodreads, so anyone who happens upon this post will be the first to see it. :D

Why is it that any time I do something like this, I practically hyperventilate?

Serenity now, serenity now...
 

Mclesh

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Time for a Mr. Katz update...

So I've been checking things off my pre-publication list, and this is what I have so far:

1. Sent ARCs off to review sites in early-to-mid July;

2. Set up my series' Twitter account where I've been goofing--I mean working hard, mostly tweeting quotes from the book and other goofy things as the main character J.D.

Thank you to Ramshackle, LustyWanderer, and ElaineA, who've been playing along. (You guys are getting the ebook when it's ready! Whether you like it or not. :D)

3. Created the book's Pinterest board.

4. Updated my website with the book information, a special author bio for the series--to distinguish it from my other books--a parent guide, and a (dumb) author Q&A;

-and-

5. Started a giveaway on Goodreads today that runs until August 30th--one autographed ARC.

So I think that's about it for now. I have to proofread the paperback CS proof, which I have in hand, and once that's done, the e-books will be created and hopefully finished in a week or two. At that time, I'll offer the e-ARCs on Netgalley and LibraryThing. (I'm hoping to get them up by mid-August, which would give the readers two months to read and review.)

What am I forgetting? I feel like I'm forgetting something. :D
 

Literateparakeet

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Thanks for the update. It is so interesting to hear what others are doing!

I LOVE your Pinterest page for your book. That is so fun. In fact you inspired me. At first, I thought it wouldn't work for me since my book is non-fiction, but then I remembered that I've been wanting to put together some images for a TED style powerpoint presentation. It was really fun to do.

I love your website. I think you should have a picture of you on there though. That is what i have read, and I know I like to see pictures of people too.

I can't think of anything else. I think you are doing great!
 

Mclesh

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Thanks for the update. It is so interesting to hear what others are doing!

I LOVE your Pinterest page for your book. That is so fun. In fact you inspired me. At first, I thought it wouldn't work for me since my book is non-fiction, but then I remembered that I've been wanting to put together some images for a TED style powerpoint presentation. It was really fun to do.

I love your website. I think you should have a picture of you on there though. That is what i have read, and I know I like to see pictures of people too.

I can't think of anything else. I think you are doing great!

Ah, thank you! I don't know if any of this extra stuff will amount to anything as far as future sales, but it can't hurt; right? And it's fun. :D

I have read, though, that having a Pinterest page for your book is good in that it's another place for your book's info to show up on searches. (This reminds me, I've got to put links to Pinterest and Twitter on the website.)

Tks!
 

Literateparakeet

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I think having fun is the most important. Because success is never a guarantee. :)

That said-- I love your twitter for your book and it did actually make me think, "Hey I think my son would get a kick out of this book!" So it worked for me. :)

I've been on Pinterest for awhile, but I am only now starting to get the hang of it and enjoy it. I followed you and realized you have a page for LMGTOMC too. I enjoyed that one also.

You are full of great ideas!
 

Mclesh

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I think having fun is the most important. Because success is never a guarantee. :)

That said-- I love your twitter for your book and it did actually make me think, "Hey I think my son would get a kick out of this book!" So it worked for me. :)

I've been on Pinterest for awhile, but I am only now starting to get the hang of it and enjoy it. I followed you and realized you have a page for LMGTOMC too. I enjoyed that one also.

You are full of great ideas!

Oh, thank you so much! I'm glad I have a potential customer. :D

Btw, I wanted to tell you, I started reading the sample on Smashwords of Touching His Robe. Wow. I will be downloading my copy soon. :Hug2:
 

ElaineA

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MC, I LOVE your Pinterest page. So fun!

You better threaten to infect us with the zombie virus if we're messing with your twitter feed the wrong way! You know how we can get... :D Congrats on all of your progress! I can't wait to read about JD's adventures.
 

Mclesh

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Now it's my turn to thank you! Thanks so much! :)

I see you helping a lot of people with your book, Leslie. You are so welcome!

ElaineA said:
MC, I LOVE your Pinterest page. So fun!

You better threaten to infect us with the zombie virus if we're messing with your twitter feed the wrong way! You know how we can get... Congrats on all of your progress! I can't wait to read about JD's adventures.

Aw, you guys are the best! You're making it fun. AND you encourage me to take my dork side to its fullest capacity. Kinda scary! :D

Tks! :Hug2:
 

Mclesh

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Update: I'm mostly on schedule for my October 14th planned release of MKIAZ. A little late with the ebook because the proof process has gone a little slower than I thought. And life has intervened. You know how that goes. I *think* the last batch of proofs ordered from Createspace (third set) will be the last. Then the ebook will be created from that final version.

:rant: ***Rant alert*** (Rant Note: This rant may not make as much sense to anyone who's not on Facebook.)

Since this is my diary, I do have a bit of a rant that is totally unrelated to my self-publishing journey but more about being an indie author surrounded by other indie authors trying to get noticed. An author friend of mine (we share the same e-publisher) is driving me crazy on Facebook with her incessant promotion. For the past couple of months, she's gone into overdrive and has sent out event invitations at the rate of one new event per week. She is like a promotion machine--I don't know how she has time to write anymore. She's been setting up different appearances at bookstores and cons, and each time she has a new appearance, she creates an event. Then I get the invitation. I've accepted several of them to be nice, but then when I do that, I get endless notifications of things I don't care about.

I turned off her regular day-to-day notifications a long time ago so I don't have to hear about every little thing. She requests shares for every promo post and, basically, wants everyone to help her all of the time. She does reciprocate, but ninety-nine percent of the time, it's all about her.

I don't want to defriend her because I don't want to be a mean person. But she is driving me crazy.

On the flip side, in her case, after completely plugging away on promoting the first book of her three-book series for a couple of years, she finally did gain some traction and the first two books of her series are selling well--a few thousand, at least. I have also seen another author--who is not my friend but has been talked about here on this board for behaving badly--constantly promote his book, and it's done well as far as sales go (not so much reviews). So I guess it is possible to bludgeon people over the head enough times, and they will buy your book? Ugh.

I guess I just don't want to be them. I don't want to wear people down so that they buy my books because they want to shut me up.

Don't be them.

Rant over.

Smiley face. :D