My Ups and Downs of Publishing My First Book

   My poor neglected blog! I have spent the past week on vacation from my day job. Which is great, I have been able to pretend for the last week that my job is that of a writer. I get up, make some coffee and after all the animals and children are fed, I get to sit at my computer and write. This week has been so much fun, and I have been able to use my mind (well part of it anyways, I don’t get full use of it with teenagers drivers in the house!) to focus on my characters and creating some new ones, delving into my plot for the second book.

But while I was “playing”’ writer, my blog was being neglected. (sorry blog) Not so much my entire blog, just where I try to come up with something witty and charming to say that makes my readers break out in song, and all of the problems of the world are solved…..I digress…..

But seriously this week has been a great time to let my mind wander. I have been searching blogs like crazy devouring as much information as I can about publishing and marketing. And even though I haven’t quite gotten all of the kinks out of it, I have been able to get my book published, and it is up on Amazon and Smashwords for now, and as soon as Smashwords goes over it with a fine tooth comb (again, but the third time’s the charm!) Then it should be available at Sony and Apple as well. I was able to learn a massive amount about formatting thanks to The Smashwords Style Guide.

I’m not sure if you remember, but back a month ago when I first started this little blog, I was so excited that I found BookBaby.com. It seemed great with them, they would walk me through the entire publishing process, acting as my “publisher.” They have so many bells and whistles that they offer, I thought this was the best choice for me. Mainly because I was intimidated by the concept of formatting, and didn’t think I would be able to do any of the submission stuff on my own. It has been over two weeks since I signed up with Bookbaby, and after I sent my book, and my money they sent me a generic e-mail letting me know it could take up to 10 days to get the book back to me, to make sure I approved it. I thought I could be patient, but I’m not. Plus, I am a HUGE fan of communication. I like to know what is going on, especially with something like this. This book is like a child to me. I would like to know how things are going, what they are thinking, blah, blah, blah, you get the idea.

I got nervous not hearing anything from Bookbaby, so I went to Smashwords to see if I could do it myself. And guess what, I did! I am not saying this to bash bookbaby, I guess I am just offering it as a public service announcement. Just because it wasn’t a right fit for me, doesn’t mean it won’t work well for you. However, if you are like me, and you are reading this blog because you would like a less expensive way to publish, or maybe to spend your money on something else, like your cover for example, go to Smashwords first. The style guide at Smashwords will help you with any formatting problem you may have. They can also get you an ISBN for your book for free. Believe me, if I can do it anyone can do it.

Thanks to the wonderful people at Smashwords and their no nonsense guide I was able to upload my book, and within 24 hours, it was up for sale. So far my book is available on Amazon and Smashwords. And even though I had it for free for about 24 hours, people downloaded it. Sure it would be great to be paid for it, but it’s my first book, and just knowing that my book is on someone’s kindle is one of the top 10 feelings. Pretty cool to know someone is reading my story, I sure hope they like it!