The Life of a Self-Publisher

It’s been a crazy month. After we got back from our trip down south, Hubby got a pinched nerved in his neck. For two weeks, he was completely incapacitated. I waited on him hand and foot and did all our chores and errands. I felt sorry for him because he was in a tremendous amount of pain. Gradually, he’s gotten better and is having less pain. He’s finally almost back to where he was before this thing hit, but I’m making him take it easy.

At the same time that Hubby was down, I felt the pressure of getting my book released before Christmas. My original goal was for October, but I didn’t meet that. Then I thought by Thanksgiving. That went by in a flash while I was taking care of Hubby. For the last couple of weeks, getting it finished has been a crushing weight that was on my mind every waking minute. I wanted the book out. I had to get out from under it.

I know when I’m rushed, it causes me problems. I get worked up and miss seeing errors and make a lot of them. Self-inflicted frustration, it is. I hate correcting errors a second and third time. I know that’s what happens when I’m in a time crunch, but do you think I learn from past experiences? NO! I forget to step back and take a deep breath and calm down. This time was no different.

After hours and hours of incorporating my editor’s comments and suggestions, after hours and hours of proofreading and having it read to me, I finished it. It was The End (what beautiful words!). But for a self-publisher, it’s not really the end.

After finishing the book, I emailed it to myself so I could open it on my Apple computer where my formatting program works. The program took my Word document and let me add a title page, dedication, table of contents, and all the other necessary components. It sized the manuscript to the proper print size., then generated files for Kindle and Amazon. it can also format for Apple, Kobo, and a lot of other Ereader formats; it’s a sweet program called Vellum. Then I emailed those files back to myself for posting on Amazon from my PC.

I felt I had to get it done. It couldn’t wait another minute. At 11 p.m., I loaded the print book file in Amazon, and all worked fine. When I loaded the Kindle file, it said there was a misspelling. What? I checked it multiple times. The print version didn’t say anything about a misspelling. So, I’m back to square one. I spellchecked until I found it. Why didn’t it catch it the first time? No idea, but oh well, it’s done and it’s only 1 in the morning. I emailed it back to myself, generated the appropriate files on my Apple computer, emailed them back to my PC, reloaded both, got the message that there were no spelling errors, and rejoiced on the way to bed.

The next morning, I bought my book on Kindle, and what do I see? It’s got an extra chapter! At the end of the book, Vellum or Word or some computer gremlin had put in Chapter 38 that nothing but a blank page. That will never do. So, it’s back to emailing myself, et cetera.

I was so tired of this book at that moment. I was ready to trash the whole thing. Instead, I ate a good breakfast, read the paper, checked Facebook, and then went back to the ornery book. I tried to remain calm. I took the time to recheck everything before loading it into Amazon. This time, I think I was successful. No misspellings and no Chapter 38.

Consequently, I’m announcing the release of my new book, Finding Love in the Snow, about two people who meet in a weird way and can’t understand why each is drawn to the other. Only catch, one of them will destroy the dreams of the other. I think this new book is my best one so far. I’m back to being excited about sharing it and having it out in the world for all to read. It’s a sweet holiday romance, although it has more kissing in it than my other books. I hope you enjoy it!