Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet – Roger Miller
Well, it never rains but it pours and those words are certainly true around our house. We’ve come through a week of truly, tremendous downpours. And, as to managing the many hats of a self-published author, I am currently in a deluge.
All good things, all good things, as snowman Olaf from the Disney film, Frozen, would say.
One of my top priorities right now is the line-by-line editing of Chasing Down the Night. Exhilarating is how I would describe this process. When one has found a good editor, one has found treasure indeed.
The deluge feeling came about the other day when I received an email from the assisted self-publisher who handles distribution for Disappearing in Plain Sight. As stated in my contract – and I must have been aware of this because when I looked back at the contract, I had highlighted this bit – after two years the company will begin to charge a nominal fee in order to continue handling distribution. Well, those two years are nearly up. Despite my prior knowledge – as evidenced by that pesky highlighting – the whole thing came as a surprise. How the time flies when we are having fun.
Nominal fee is a subjective term. It amounts to $30.00 per ISBN, per year and Disappearing in Plain Sight has three ISBNs. Since I always planned to take the first book in the Crater Lake Series back from the assisted self-publisher and republish it under the Huckleberry Haven Publishing imprint, the time quite suddenly became now.
The process has me going back to the final Word document and tuning it up for my e-formatter, redoing the cover – those of you who love the original, don’t worry, we plan to get as close as possible – and eventually formatting the softcover for loading up to CreateSpace. The softcover formatting is the biggest hurdle for me as I handle that work myself. Bruce may have another opinion as he wrestles with the cover design for Chasing Down the Night and redoing Disappearing in Plain Sight.
There is a possibility I will lose my Amazon reviews when I put up the new version of Disappearing in Plain Sight. The idea of that makes me want to weep. Feedback on this issue is mixed. Some people tell me they’ve gone through three different publishing imprints with different ISBNs and their reviews always followed them. Others say the reviews will be lost. We’ll see.
This whole experience leads me to a valuable insight and some words from the wise – or at least someone who is struggling down the path. It is a huge amount of work to put a book out on your own, the learning curve is steep and it’s easy to be lured by the assisted self-publishing route. If I had to do it all again, I would bite the bullet and climb that steep curve from the start.
When all is said and done, I know I will be glad I am forced now to get on with the work of taking back my first novel. In this updated version of Disappearing in Plain Sight, I’ll be able to make clearer the connection to the rest of the books in the Crater Lake series. I can add chapter one of The Light Never Lies at the end of the e-book as a sneak peak. I will have control of all distribution.
As I said earlier, all good things, all good things. It’s raining, it’s pouring and I am far from snoring.
disappearinginplainsight 
I’m so glad that you write about these various stages of editing and publishing – I’ve learned so much.
I’m also going to have “King of the Road” going through my head all morning thanks to your beginning quotation. Not a bad way to start a Saturday, actually.
King of the Road – that got me laughing and started a cascade of memories for me. We used to run around singing that song when we were kids – I smoke old stogies I have found, short but not to big around, I’m a man of means by no means, King of the Road. Love that memory lane. I’m so glad that what I’ve experienced is helpful to others.
How exciting, and you’re learning so much in the process Fran. I am delighted to pay for editing, proofreading, cover design, even formatting for CreateSpace etc. as I haven’t a clue, time or patience. I do enjoy having control over the end product though.
That is the ultimate goal – control over the end product in all ways. I like the model of pay for what you need. If you can afford to do it, there are so many talented people out there who do a great job at all the tasks mentioned and you pay them once for their service and move on. If you need to, you can pick and choose which service to employ. I like choice and being in control at the end of the process.
Reblogged this on evelynralph and commented:
Fascinating insights.
Thanks so much for the reblog Evelyn.
Thanks for blogging this, Fran. It sounds like our “great minds” are running on the same track. I’m so frustrated with the constant changing of the amazon prices on our first two assisted self-publisher books and the measly sum we get in royalties no matter how amazon’s prices change. However, we are pleased with how things are shaping up with our third book, Jake, Little Jimmy & Big Louie, which I did myself through our newly-named Moomor Publishing with printing and distribution through CreateSpace. We are busy now with organizing two book launches at our house next Sunday and a book reading the following Saturday at a children’s store in Vernon: Teach and Learn. If I didn’t have the sequels to Ian’s first two books on my computer for editing, I would re-publish the first two books in new editions on CreateSpace, as you have decided to do with your first books. There just isn’t enough time to re-layout our first ones until I get the editing pile down for the other ones. Ian’s age and physical problems leave him unable to do anything more than copyread what I produce. I’m just grateful he wrote so much while he was able. So we plug along as best we can. I guess my motto at the moment is “Slow and Steady Wins the Race!” I’ll be anxious to hear how everything progresses with you on the republishing new volumes. Best wishes, Gayle
Thanks, Gayle. As always, hindsight is 20-20. The process is coming along fine and I hope to do a seamless up with the new edition and down with the old kind of thing. What happens with the reviews remains to be seen. Rest assured, I will keep everyone updated.
Fran,
I would love to hear more about this whole process. Keep us posted as you work your way through all of this. It’s all good for us self-pubbers out here! 🙂
As I was just commenting to Gayle (above), the only thing that remains to be seen is the hopeful movement of the reviews from one edition to the next. I should have another post on the whole process next week.
Wow–so many bits and pieces to learn on the self-publishing road! Thanks for sharing your journey with all of us.
You’re most welcome, Erin. Thanks for stopping by and commenting. When it comes to self-publishing, I do wonder if the learning curve every evens out.
Learning how to self-publish is, as you say, a steep learning curve. I used a self-publishing company: Dog Ear Publishing. I don’t know what I’ll do next time. There are so many ways to go about it … It makes my head spin.
What seems most important to me now is having my own ISBN and controlling all distribution sites – that means I log on to the various sites (Kobo, Smashwords and Amazon) and any changes or monitoring is my responsibility. But this has involved obtaining the ISBNs, contacting and working with an e-formatter, creating our own book covers, setting up the accounts with the various distributors and probably a number of other things I’m forgetting at this moment. I used the one-step-at-a-time method and it seems to all fall into place.
That’s what I’ve been using, the one-step-at-a-time method. It’s all I can keep in my head at one time.