Confessions of a Self-Published Author

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LadyDae

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This has been a long time coming. I've been writing for a long time, did a little self-publishing in the past, learned a lot from my mistakes and most importantly, graduated from college. Instead of putting on a suit, getting a 9-5 for a five figure salary and a lifetime of misery and shattered dreams, I decided to give this self-publishing thing one more shot. At the very least, it won't be said that I didn't put up a good fight. So born from this last ditch effort before my dad puts his foot down and tells me to get a job is...

Coming October 16th 2014
Confessions of a Teenage Rape Survivor​


It's a little out my comfort zone. Okay, it's a lot out of my comfort zone. Probably something I would write on fanfiction.net under a secret pen-name, but people in my writing group gave it a thumbs up and told me I should go for it since I have nothing to lose. Here's what I've done so far:

  • Made up a Sign up for ARC's until 9/14/2014
  • Signed up for Itching for Books Blog Blitz Tour
  • Redesigned and Updates My Website
  • Made it Available for Pre-Order on Amazon Kindle Store
  • Prayed... A lot.

What I'm not doing (or at least trying not to)
  • Stressing to Much
  • Spamming my Twitter Feed
  • Did I mention Stressing?

I have no idea how people will take this novel. I know rape and the issues I write about in this novel are a sensitive subject, even taboo, and these type of novels are either good or bad, with no in between, but I hope I was able to do it justice and it falls on the side of good. Wish me luck.
 
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morrighan

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Congratulations! I'm glad you persevered - I love the list you made of things that you've done and the things you are not doing (stress to much - which is a good plan!).

Good luck!
 

GigiBee

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I've heard of this on Goodreads! And good on you for tackling such a controversial topic; doing that takes a lot of courage. Congrats on what you've done so far.
 

LadyDae

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I'm back with a couple of updates. I would have updated sooner, but there wasn't much to update.

  • In the last four weeks or so I've queried a few key YA bloggers to see if they'll be interested in reviewing the book.
  • After much thought and internal debate, I also decided I won't be taking advantage of Amazon's KDP select, at least not at first. I want to see how much traction I can get without it.
  • Since I'm not enrolling in KDP select, I used Draft2Digital to distribute to Barnes and Noble, Apple, and Kobo. I could have gone direct with all these publishers, but with Draft2Digital it was so easy. The site formatted everything perfectly, I have the option for pre-order, and I can use my pen name on Apple.
  • The first ARC rating has trickled in. 5 STARS! The actual review is coming later and I'll post the link when it's been posted. At least three more reviews are coming by Sunday, while one for sure will be in after Sunday. Two of my readers haven't replied to my reminder email but I'm not too concerned about it. People have lives.

So a lot has happened while at the same time a lot hasn't. In effort to get my mind off everything, I'm trying to work on my next book. Honestly, it's not working too well. I probably won't be able to really focus on another book until after Confessions of a Teenage Rape Survivor launches. Not to mention after all the ARC reviews come in, I plan on going through one more round of proofreading and copy-editing (where I'll undoubtedly put back and then take out all the "that's," "of's," and do other nitpick things) but that shouldn't take too long. When I skimmed back through the manuscript while looking for an excerpt for my blog tour, I didn't see any glaring mistakes or typos.

After the last read through, I'll upload the final draft to Amazon and Draft2Digital, won't touch it again, and begin to play the waiting-for-launch-day game. Won't that be fun?

All in all, I'm excited, but surprisingly not too anxious or nervous. Everything appears to be going smoothly so far.
 

Norman D Gutter

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Congratulation, LadyDae, at getting to this point. I hope you have many sales, and positively impact people.

NDG
 

LadyDae

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Here's the link to the first review of Confessions of a Teenage Rape Survivor. I'm so excited that this was my first review!

First ARC Review
 

Kristenlee83

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Congratulations! I think I saw one of your posts a while back on Goodreads, but I'll make sure I've got your book on my "To Be Read" list as well. I think your launch will go very well and I wish you the best of luck. :)
 
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