Indie Publishing: Moving Forward

Yesterday I decided to order a little swag. Some of my fellow writers have called me the queen of Never Eighteen came out I may have gone a little overboard, but I wanted to test out different types of swag to see what people liked. The favorites are bookmarks, buttons, stickers, and silicone wristbands, so those are what I'm sticking with this time. I also want to buy postcards to send out to schools, libraries and bookstores.
swag. When

So, yesterday's orders consisted of bookmarks and wristbands in black, red, and white swirl that say Dissected on one side and have my website on the other side.

My book is also officially being formatted, Lori posted about it on Facebook yesterday, SQUEE!! Once I get that back I have a little more editing to do on it. Then I upload to Createspace to create my book, look into getting my bar codes, set my price and figure out how to set up distribution.

Things are coming together. I'm hoping my release date of July 16th is still realistic. Okay, that is all. Have a great Tuesday.

Adding to Goodreads

Even though most writers have a love/hate (mostly hate, not me, doesn't bother me much) relationship with Goodreads, I've added my novel, Dissected to its list of books (it's cool to see my book up there). Why you ask? So I can get some pre-publication buzz, and so I can host a giveaway, which I will post next week. And now people can add it to their to-read list. Of course now I'll probably get requests for ARCs which I won't have, but oh well. I may send out some proof copies to bloggers I've worked with before and respected, but not very many as I'll have to pay for those copies.

I've been trying to add the book to Amazon as well, with no luck. I've sent them an email, so hopefully it will be resolved in the next couple of days.

I've also sent it in for formatting, which I'm super excited about. I can't wait to see what it looks like in book form. It's going to be about the same size as Never Eighteen. I think I'll keep all my books about the same size, unless they're just too many pages to do that, but I think Dissected will be around the same word count when I'm done with it.

That's all for today. Have a great Thursday.

ISBN Numbers

I bought them today from Bowkers. Ten of them. It's cheaper than buying just one, and each format, for instance, e-book and paperback, has to have their own number. So I bought them and started filling out the necessary information to get Dissected listed on Amazon and Goodreads. I still need to design the back cover. I wrote the jacket flap copy today, so I can do that soon and upload a cover in its entirety to Createspace, so it's ready to go when my formatting is done.

I'm still revising in Autocrit. It's a slow process and to be honest, I've been busy and tired and I've not had much time to do it, but I think it's important. I think I'm going to shoot for a release date of mid July. I'm hoping to really dig in the next couple days and get it done and get it off for formatting.

I've already designed my bookmarks, so I should send those off for printing. Just need to design postcards, buttons, bracelets, and stickers, and I have my swag done.

Then I have to purchase a barcode and set up distribution and I'm good to go. It's a lot of work, but I'm hoping in the long run, it will all be worth it.

Indie publishing: Moving forward

I just sent my book on for formatting. I'm so excited. Lori, who I mentioned...I think it was last week, blog about indie publishing. For formatting she recommends Book Design Wizard. She swears by it.

is busy for another week or so, so it's going to take a little bit, but she says once she gets to it, it will be fast. I know not everyone will have someone that can do their editing for them, and clearly, I'm not going to rely on Lori to do mine every time. I have another friend Karla, who I'm sure I've mentioned before. She has a great

If I had my Indiegogo money, there are actually things I'd be doing before the formatting, so I'm kind of going out of order. There is an editing program online I want to run my manuscript through called autocrit. It's $117 a year. It's not your everyday editing program. It helps find overused words, cliches, redundancies, repeated words and phrases, pacing and dialog problems, and more. I'm excited to try it out.

I also want to get my ISBN and distribution set up so I can get my book set up on Goodreads and the like and start some marketing. But for now, I do the formatting. My Indiegogo money is supposed to come in within days, then I can start in on the good stuff.

There you have it.

Indie publishing: The next step

Here's what's going on. I finished my line and copy edits for Dissected (I just need to find the final version, which I'm pretty sure is on my work computer, *crosses fingers*).

Then I send it to be formatted to my wonderful friend Lori.

Next I wait for my money from Indiegogo to be disbursed to I can get my ISBN numbers, set up my distribution and order swag. I've already started designing my bookmarks. Instead of getting author blurbs, I've decided to go with librarian blurbs. A couple librarians beta read for me, and I got their permission to quote them on the back of my bookmarks. Here's what they look like. Tell me what you think. I'd love your feedback. Does it need more? Less? Is there any more info you think I should have on there?

So excited. Things are coming together. I should be able to have proof copies by mid to end of this month, then have a release date set in stone. Summer is such a busy time, I may try to shoot for Mid June. If not mid June, 2nd to 3rd week July.

Happy Thursday everyone!

The Indie Process

I suppose while I'm in the midst of going indie I could keep you abreast of the process. So, I've already put the covers out there, which you've seen and weighed in on, and I've done some research on young adult covers and chosen one. I know many of you like the glass heart, but after the research, the cover needs to convey what the story is about, and young adult readers like to see a person on the cover, so this is the one I went with.

I've already done the formatting for the most part. Now I'm waiting to hear back from my beta readers. I've heard back from three of them, and here is a couple of things they had to say.

"Dissected is amazing, but it's a hard, painful read. I believe it's important because it reminds me so much of Go Ask Alice, which changed my life." ~ fellow writer

"I started reading it and well I couldn't stop until I finished it. I love the detail that you put into and it makes it seem like you are right there with Syd." ~ reader

"I liked it. I am disturbed by it. I was sucked in by it...... Your writing allows you to speak to the reader's heart, and that is a gift." ~ school librarian

Once I hear back from the others (I think there are two more), I will press on from there. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. There is definitely a learning curve to this process.