Monday, December 13, 2010

Changes Done

All right, so I've made a few changes to the paperback formatting and uploaded the new files. Now I have to wait for the proof and then sign off on it before they'll show up for sale on Amazon, maybe in another week.

In the end, after the advice of other authors on the kindleboards forum, I opted for cream paper. And stuck with Garamond font, 11pt., with a light blue back cover. I mention these things only because as a writer you don't usually think about things like this. Writers who sign with an agent and get a publishing deal pretty much only have to write. Self-published authors like myself have to be sort of Jacks (or Jills) of all trades. A writer with a publishing deal has an agent, an editor, a design department, a marketing department, and perhaps a lawyer, all working on different aspects of getting a book out. An "indie" on the other hand must do all of their own editing and revising, format the book for multiple outlets, typeset and choose fonts for the paperback, write their own bio, design their cover and then, when all that is done, try to figure out a way to market it. All is for naught if nobody ever hears about it.

All of this is a definite learning process. Just on formatting alone, the book needed to be set up completely differently for Kindle, paperback, Smashwords, Google, and Barnes and Noble. Ah well, it keeps me busy! :-) I've heard it said that the key to happiness is to set small goals and then achieve them. Well, there are a lot of pieces to this puzzle. New small goals to conquer every day. What more could a writer want?

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