Joining the self-pub fray

I just want to mark this space for my SP experience and to get advice on some areas I might have missed.

Today I finalized the cover. Happy dance! I'm so excited to get this project off the ground. I snagged an editor who's top in the genre and a cover artist who did an amazing job of making my idea come to life.

Now I gotta figure out when and how to do a cover reveal. And how to set up some reviews.

Should I release in December to get in before the holiday rush? Should I wait until March when people have recovered from holiday overspending? I was thinking March, but everything is ready now. Except setting up the reviews. I'm leaning towards releasing in December and trying to get in on the holiday buying season.

Also, after five days of trial and error, I figured out how to convert a MS to e-book. Now I need non-Kindle folk to test out how it looks on phones, tablets, etc.

The goal from all this is to make enough for me and my husband to enjoy dinner at the chef's table at Brooklyn Fare. It's an indulgence that I want to treat him to for sticking by me through this whole publishing process.

Yeah, sooner is better than later. I think I got scared! Actually, terrified would be a better word. Now to submit to review sites and gnaw off my fingernails!

Oh, and for anyone out there struggling, I didn't have to pay a dime for e-book conversion. It's time consuming, but soooo worth it to learn how to do it myself. Tools I used: Open Office, Google Docs, Sigil and Calibre.

The Goodreads part is covered. I haven't been very active in the past year, but have been a member since 2010 and still post reviews every few months. I'll have to get back to participating in my groups though.

So I turned the first three chapters into a ebook to give to a friend and his co-worker to check out on their various devices. It looks great on my Kindle Paperwhite. Fingers crossed it will work on a couple of phones and a tablet.

Good news! I uploaded through Draft 2 Digital and my book has already been accepted by Kobo.

Just set up a Goodreads author page. Hopefully they'll merge it with my old profile soon.

Now to finalize some promo banners.

This SP thing is overwhelming, but somehow sets my little control freak heart at peace.

Last week was very busy. I sent out review requests to ten bloggers. One has already gotten back with an R, but I'm not discouraged.

Two people have added my book on GR to their TBR list. As far as I know they aren't friends so woo hoo to that. I've gotten active on two GR groups that I joined ages ago. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to fool around with readers and not think about author stuff. I've also posted Ebook giveaways in those two groups. No takers yet, but a couple of people have viewed the thread at least. It's only been up a few days. I might post another excerpt later this week. It's hard to tell when you're venturing into overkill. I think as long as I keep participating in the group threads I'll be ok.

Twitter is the only other social media I use besides GR, and I'm pleased with how that's growing. I'm starting to get retweets to my original content. Engagements and Impressions are dismal, but growing. I'm going to capitalize on the whole NaNoWriMo thing and hopefully grow my followers.

Oh! I almost forgot. I think I have one pre-order on Amazon. I'm still not sure how their reporting system works, but I'm putting on my optimist's hat and saying it's a real thing. Speaking of Amazon. How do I get the Look Inside feature up and running? So far it's only giving people the cover.

Oh, you say such nice things *blush*. The lovely Najla Qamber Designs did all the hard work. She's a delight to work with. The main thing I learned from creating a cover is that stock photos for WOC is in a sad state. Book two will be easy because she's pale-skinned and a vampire, but book three is going to be a nightmare because she's plus-sized and Chinese-Cuban.

Thanks for the heads up on links in my siggie. I had a total brain fart about that.

For now, I can only handle Twitter and GR. I like the brevity of Twitter and with GR it's cool to just hang out with readers. I've given away seven copies for review, so hopefully those will get some attention.

I hate my website sooo much! Everytime I go in to try to fix something it seems to come out worse. It's why I'm procrastinating on finishing the damn blog post on creating an e-book. Time to give it the ole heave-ho and start from scratch. Damn you Wordpress! *shakes fist*

I'm thousands of words behind with NaNo, but everything else is falling into place.

The book is now available on ARe. There are eight review copies running around. No response from blogs yet. No reviews or ratings on GR. The website is somewhat functional. The front page is an excerpt and I've added buy links. I have a couple more reviewers to hit, but they want the book to already be on sale.

Not really worried about the lack of responses. I'm about to go on vacation, and come release day I'll be on a beach sipping umbrella drinks. Yes, I did all of this early so I could enjoy my vacation. I don't know how reliable the wi-fi is at my destination. Exactly the way I like it!

The next few weeks I'll finish the rough draft of Book Two. While it goes through crit, beta, editor, etc. I'd like to put out a novella by Valentine's Day.

I'm pricing AA at 3.99. It's 64k words. There's a lot of books out there that are longer for 2.99. I'm not totally comfortable with the pricing, but I don't have to sell an insane amount of books to regain what I put out at that price point. Also, if after a month it's not working I can always change it! Ahhh...the power!

I didn't expect to enjoy the journey so much. I was one of those who was really attached to getting published by someone, yet picky enough that it couldn't be just anyone. Then Ellora's Cave happened and I had to rethink everything. My inner control freak lost her damn mind, threw her hands up and not so quietly suggested I go it alone.

Two weeks left to release day! About two dozen review copies floating about. Three reviews up on GR. Four stars baby! It makes me blush to see complete strangers enjoy the world I've built.

I've become obsessive about checking GR to see who's reading, rating, reviewing, etc. I have to stop reading reviews because I can already tell it's messing with how I write book two.

Anyone have some advice on how to beat that part of yourself into submission?

Naj got my cover model from The Reed Files. They have a nice selection of WOC. I don't think they have any young girls though.