The Travails Of Publishing

Writing is great, but in order to get people to see my work, I also have to publish, and that’s where things get challenging(and expensive).  The travails of publishing keep me more occupied than writing, and I went into writing to write, not to pour over minute details of publishing(I think every writer feels this way, which is why traditional publishing remains so hard to dislodge).

For starters, uploading the documents and covers themselves isn’t as easy as some would suggest.  The slightest error, especially in ebooks, creates a long hassle to figure out how to correct it.  It’d be fine if I understood how to create ebooks myself, but that’s beyond my technical expertise.  Then there are the covers that have to be a certain size(I know how old I sound right now).

As a book is brought out, careful attention must be paid to how it is set up.  For example, Ingram Spark has an option that allows retailers to buy your book and then return the unsold copies.  The problem is that printing the book still costs money, so if a retailer returns unsold work, you’re on the hook for it.  So you need to be real careful top select the option that does not allow for returns…which, of course, means fewer retailers will take a chance on your book(why would they accept losing money any more than you?).

Going to KDP, there are issues such as enrollment in KDP Select.  In theory, selecting this will get Amazon to publicize your work more prominently, but I’ve seen little data that shows it works unless you’re already a fairly well known name.  Moreover, as long as you’re enrolled in KDP Select, you can’t put your book out on other platforms(like Apple).  That limits your potential audience.

Bottom line is that all those who think that a book is published and just magically appears on shelves should understand how much goes into getting it there, especially for indie authors.  So maybe all of this sniveling is just a plea to get you to buy my books so I can see benefit from doing this.  😉