Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Writing a book Step Five: Destination

Step One: Dream
Step Two: Desire
Step Three: Discipline
Step Four: Determination
Step Five:  Destination

Everything, up to this point, has been for this final step.  You've dreamed, wanted it to come true, made sure you worked at it every day, and determined you were going to be successful.

Now, you decide what your destination is by taking the next (scarier) step in the world of Indie publishing.  Where are you going to publish your work? 

My personal preferences and why I chose them: 

Amazon for Ebook - they have name recognition and are International.  Their upload system is easy (and free) for Ebook. 
Problem:  sometimes their uploads have issues.  I use the same format, font, and 'formula' for each of my books.  However, sometimes the work I've done shows up as a combination of large and small fonts or the spacing is wrong.  I'm not HTML oriented.  Is this a scheme to get you to buy their services so everything will be perfect?  I have no idea.  I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt in spite of the fact there is one book they have never gotten right.
UPDATE:  They have fixed this issue

Lulu.com for my POD (Print on demand) - biggest reason I chose them:  it's free.  If you want to purchase professional services, they are available.  I've had a few problems with the printing machinery creasing or misprinting pages, but as long as I took a picture of the problem and emailed them, they have been good to replace the damaged books.    However, lately, I've had a problem with my soft covers showing on Amazon.  Lulu was supposed to take care of that when I 'purchased' their extended reach program.  They have Live Chat where you can 'speak' to a rep who then helps you with your problem.  I found Live Chat a MUCH better way to go rather than email. 

Now there is another issue:  Lulu sends the information about the soft covers to Amazon, but Amazon is backlogged - REALLY backlogged.  My last three books of the 12 I've written - Storm, Walking in Lightning, and Pic Jump, were published in May and June.  They are not showing and this is October.  I contacted Lulu and Amazon and the problem is on Amazon's end.  It should not take them 4 and 5 months to list a product.
There may be something else going on.  I guess I'll find out soon.

18 Oct 2011: Pic is now showing as a softcover but it will 'take longer' for the other two which were uploaded first - no reason given.

24 Oct 2011:  All books with both formats are now showing (insert big sigh of relief)

2013:  New issue:  old cover instead of new on paperback version of Chest of Souls Book One and Two.  Sigh...

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