Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Finally! I Self-Published



I've mentioned this many times before... I've been working on some books I wrote for my daughters as part of Nanowrimo. I used to find the strangest things in their pockets when I would wash the laundry, and I started daydreaming about what a young girl would find so interesting about the random objects. And then, the idea was born.

I actually started this stuff way back in 2008 and I've finished writing all three books.

But I never really did anything with them.

Well, I finally got around to it and I've published the first one! It feels great to check that box on my 2013 "to do" list that's been hanging around all year. My younger daughter will be thrilled to see it up on Amazon (Kindle version here, print version coming soon) as she's been my biggest cheerleader on this project. She even got her 4th grade teacher to read a draft to her class! (and I've met some 4th graders who were in the class and they had such nice things to say, even the boys!)

Along the way I've had a lot of help. I've hired an editor (hi Cassandra!) and a cover artist (hi Heidi!). I've had lots of help from other self-published authors, especially Jason Letts and Raymond Masters. And of course lots of friends and family have put up with my requests for readthroughs and feedback.

At some point I decided I was going to publish this "just for me." And by that I mean that I'm not expecting any success. I'll be lucky (and shocked, and incredibly grateful) to sell even one copy. And that's ok. It might not even resonate with the target audience (4th - 8th grade girls, especially the smart ones) but I'm still happy to have followed through.

I am going to go into more depth on some parts of the experience in later blog posts, but for now I'm grinning ear to ear.

Now that I've gone through the whole process once, I figure book 2 should be a snap!


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