Tag Archives: Ebooks

Self Publishing

Self-Publishing Ebook Update 3: Time’s Runnin’ Out!

In Update 3 of this self-publishing adventure, it’s time to tell you whether I made my own first deadline. February 14th was the day I would switch from one housesitting gig to another and I wanted the first draft finished by then.  Well, in the wee hours of February 13th, I plowed through the ending to the novella.  Hooray!

It would take me a couple days to actually read that part and figure out if it was worth a damn, though. The move to the new apartment, plus the responsibilities of walking a strong and an often-spooked golden retriever puppy in Manhattan were a lot for me to handle physically.  I was pretty much useless aside from my dootie-scooping duties for a while.

As a result, it took longer than I hoped to do content editing before handing things over to Rebecca Sutton for other types of editing. That might make my ultimate release deadline next week really tough.

In other news, I am enjoying the hell out of my crash pad/office this week.  (See main photo.) It puts every cubicle to which I’ve ever been subjected to sad, shameful shame . . . mostly because I can adjust the heat to a reasonable room temperature.

If you’re thinking of doing your own publishing, the following fine details about my progress may interest you.

  1. ISBN Purchase: Fuck that. I was considering buying one, but then saw that I would need a new one for each format (e.g., ebook, hardcover, paperback,) and knowing the ISBN for an ebook probably wouldn’t help a reader do anything. It seems to be mainly useless and I am broke, so I’m skipping that step.
  2. Grammarly Premium Subscription being seriously contemplated. Since I can’t afford a premium “I-do-this-for-a-living” editor person, and my human editor is also currently under the weather, I’ll probably pony up the $30 for a month’s worth. So far, I’ve just used the free version of Grammarly, and it’s been helpful. The free version doesn’t tell you all those finicky little fuck-ups, though. Then again, $30 is like 86 book sales. And, it would be the only part of the process I’ve had to spend money on so far. UGH.
  3. Ebook Cover: do it myself? I know for a fact the quality of cover art directly relates to sales numbers. This was one of the things I considered paying for while I winced and groaned in my soul. Then, I thought, “well I should at least try to create a cover and see how shit it turns out.” I finished it today, and . . . hey, I’ve seen a Lot Worse on best-sellers! So, I’m going with the one I made; it looks good enough not to deter potential readers, and that’s good enough for now.
  4. Presales Plans: still a go so far. Kindle’s presales rules were previously a lot harder to work with: you needed your perfected manuscript uploaded at least 10 days before your book was released for reading. That would have meant it would be damn near impossible to both do presales and release this month. However, now it’s only 72 hours or 3 days you need to have the polished copy uploaded to Amazon’s KDP. I’m hoping to start presales this week and release February 27th.  Which in turn means I need to have my shit completely together by Thursday, February 23rd. That’s tight. That’s really tight. I’m gonna aim for it nonetheless.

Hopefully, in my next post, I’ll have links for you to check out the presale! Now, if you’ll excuse me, there is a puppy I have to put to bed.

(Like, actually “put to bed”. I’m not killing the dog, FFS. Why would you think that?)

Self Publishing

Self-Publishing Ebooks Adventure – Update 2

Since my last post 4 days ago, in which I announced I’m giving self-publishing a novella a shot, a lot of progressed was made!

First off, the Capital One Spark Business checking account I applied to was somehow approved — even though I’m still waiting for the EIN (Tax ID) physical paperwork from the IRS in the snail mails.  I’m shocked.  However, I wasn’t worried that there would be anything wrong with my EIN – I applied for it almost 6 years ago, and it never expires.  I thought there might be a credit check, though, like with the last time I applied for a business checking account, but there was none.  That was the part that had me on edge, not having held a job for a year and a half…

But I haz business checking account now!  Yea!  And it’s free — no monthly fees, and no minimum amount you need in the account to keep it open.  I still opted to link it up with my personal credit union checking account and transfer in $20.  This was more — I dunno, superstition I suppose.  I felt like to leave it at zero would be bad luck like gifting someone a wallet or purse without a coin or bill inside.  So now I got a seed note in there, waiting to blossom.

After the checking account was up and running, I went into my business Amazon account — also something I started 6 years ago, and updated that.  I signed my business Amazon account up with KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) and again verified my EIN.  Somehow, it took longer to complete the EIN verification paperwork on KDP than it did for a bank account.  Ha!  That’s all up and running now, too.  So, all I have to do is finish writing and publishing that novella.

And yeah, what about the most important part, Erin?  What about writing the damn thing?

I’ve made progress there, too!  5 days ago, I reached 13,500 words.  I had to skip a writing day since then to spend it entirely thinking through some technical issues with the plot.  My technical editor helped me work through a bunch of ideas, and the next day, I was ready to write again.  Last night, I got to just under 22,000 words.  I’m officially at novella length!

There are a few more chapters to go to finish the thing.  Afterward, I need to go back and add some more spoon-fed clarifications.  My technical editor also informed me that a part of the story evoked THE EXACT OPPOSITE THING it was supposed to in the reader.  And it’s not a little thing.  It’s a big, glaring, oh shit, that can’t be allowed to be interpreted that way thing.  It has to do with the entire reason I came up with the story in the first place.  This book isn’t just something I’m slapping together to try to make some money; the topic is deeply important to me.

I was disheartened to hear that readers wouldn’t be able to draw the big picture conclusions on their own.  I hoped I wouldn’t need to spell everything out — I thought that might make things obnoxious for the reader.  Yet, considering the ironic spin frenzied readers of Orwell’s 1984 are putting on the book today, and considering that hearing George Orwell rolling in his grave keeps me awake at night, I decided it’s better to be 6 times more obvious and transparent in my meaning.  I’m really, really glad my technical editor let me know.

My first rough draft/manuscript deadline was February 14th, because I’m moving to a new house sit that day.  However, considering I won’t be able to write that day, my deadline really needs to be February 13th…or earlier.  Assuming I can figure out exactly how I want the end of the story to go, I should be on target to meet that.

I started playing around with ebook cover sketch ideas, too, last night.  I was on the fence about whether to hire someone, and there is one artist I met in particular here in New York City who I think would be amazing for the style I’d like… but I’m leaning toward doing the art myself, mostly because I’m flat broke.  I already have Clip Studio (Manga Studio), which is more than capable of producing what I need, although I’m only half comfortable with digital drawing still.  On the other hand, a black, virtual reality forest full of knobby, naked trees features prominently in the book, and there is this great view I got from this apartment… Hmmm…

Creepy Winter Queens Trees

Well, I guess I’ll just see what I come up with, and decide how shitty it is later!  See you next time for Update 3.