Sunday, February 12, 2017

Lots Of Learning

As you may have read, I'm off and running towards my first release later this year.  As such, there's a whole lotta learnin' going on around here.  Even as prepared as I thought I was, I've found that there's so much I just didn't anticipate.

The biggest thing I needed to understand was time.  Despite the long lead time I have, getting with a good cover artist has been eye-opening.  A few I contacted were booked several months out, and although I'm sure they'd have done great work, all were beyond my release date.  I finally found a great cover artist who was able to help me realize the vision of the book I was striving for.  As an aside, I plan to do a cover reveal by the end of the month - one of the first physical indicators I have that this is real.

With time as a lesson, I've also learned that you can't just do a few point and clicks and expect a book to magically pop out.  There's formatting, ISBNs, legal agreements, applying for status, applying for copyright, and so many more things that I understood on a surface level but never really put in the context of time.  Quite daunting.

So, what's the purpose of this post?  Is it just to play a song for sympathy and ask you to feel sorry for me?  Nope - it's to help any other indie authors understand the process isn't an easy one, and there's a steep learning curve.  Know what you're getting into.  I don't want to discourage anyone, for one of the greatest feelings on this journey I've had was when I got to see my cover for the first time, but context is important.

I'm still looking through Ingram's Lightning Source and Create Space for final distribution, and I'll make that decision by March 1st.  It may come down to ease versus quality, so stay tuned!

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