John Locke Told Me Too

   When I started on my journey to having my novel published, I decided to follow the traditional publishing route. I wrote query letters with multiple revisions trying to entice (ok beg) any prospective literary agent to take a chance on an unknown author. Needless to say, it didn’t work out very well. With a mailbox full of thanks, but no thanks letters, I decided to research if I would be able to self-publish my novel.

   Lucky for me, the internet provided a vast amount of knowledge. I felt as if I were a kid in a candy store, with all of the information I could ever hope to find, and use in order to help with my book publishing dream. Then I came across a now well-known self-published author, John Locke. I read everything I could find on him (ok, I know what you’re thinking, and no, I am not a stalker.) I found his website, and read directly from his hand to my computer screen. And of course, I bought his book.

   To me, John Locke is the epitome of what a self-published author should be. I have followed his advice, and plan. With my second book nearing completion, I am getting closer to having an even better opening than I had for the first. So do I want to be like John Locke? You bet I do. And I will keep on churning out words and novels, just to see how far I can ride this wave. It has been a great experience so far.

   Even more important that my slight obsession over what has made John Locke so successful is the wonderful world of self-published authors I have been fortunate enough to ‘meet’ via the internet. By connecting via Twitter, Goodreads and Facebook. I have ‘met’ over 1000 people in the past month!

One particular person has made a HUGE impression on me. Her name is Shelly, and this is her blog: http://shellynice.wordpress.com/ She is hosting a contest on her blog to help other self-pub. authors find success. She didn’t know me from anyone, I was nothing special, just another Indie Author trying to get my book out there. She didn’t ask what I had to offer her in return for all of her generous assistance, and never once has asked “What’s in it for me?”

What an asset to have, and meeting her through her website purely by chance when following someone on Twitter, because John Locke told me too.

   It makes me think of all of the other people out there who are hoping to publish, wanting to take that chance and share their work with the world. I wonder how many of those hopeful authors are just as stuck as I was? (Come on, there has to be at least one person?!? Maybe? Hopefully?) I try and put little bits of information here to help those who might stumble across it, in order to help them out.

And having been on the receiving end of that help, I want to share what I know with others as well. Just imagine what we could do, all of the Indie authors band together, helping each other to improve our writing, making each story the very best it could be simply by helping.

   So even though I looked to John Locke for his secrets, and help to promote the best book I could, I found so much more. I have found out what a great community self-published authors are, and how they seem to be very willing to help their own. (Unlike veteran nurses, they seem to eat their own, sorry nurses, but you know it’s true!)

Check out Shelly’s blog, I think you’ll like what she has to say.

And thank you to John Locke, for telling me what to do!

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!