I pressed the button

The button in question is the Publish button, two in fact. One to publish the paperback and one to publish the Kindle version. I have to tell you, that was one of the hardest things I have done in a while. 

My first novel is now 'IN REVIEW' as you can see from this image. I could have spent the next year editing, revising and rereading but at some point you have to say "enough is enough" and let it go out into the world to fend for itself.

I have a wait of up to three days before I know if the book is on the market or back on my desk for further editing. That is, if the review turns up some formatting issue that Amazon objects to, it will bounce it back to me to fix. While I am waiting I am learning all I can about Amazon Ads. That is not as easy as it sounds, but also a lot more interesting that it sounds.

The problem with self-publishing is that you also have to do self-marketing, not so easy. As a first step, I need you all to follow me on my author page on Amazon. Apart from making me feel good, it will mean that as my books are released for sale, you will hear about it. I promise I will not spam you, but I need to get some hype going.

The sum total of the marketing I did for Peeling the Onion was to leave a copy sitting on my desk at work. Even then, if anyone showed an interest in it, I let them borrow that copy, so no sale there. That was not the only reason I never considered marketing as a career, but definitely a good one. I suck at it.

Once Caitlin's Escape Route is approved and out there, I hope that at least some of you will purchase it, and if you do, and if you manage to read it, please return to Amazon and leave a review. I don't mind if it is an honest one, in fact I would prefer if it were, any review is better than no reviews at all. Plus, I want to get better at this and an honest review, good or bad, will help me do that.

I actually got a few reviews for Peeling the Onion, despite no marketing. One was bad enough that I blogged about it here. As I said in that post, the reviewer bought the book, read it, and took the trouble to return and leave a review. That was something I had to be grateful for.

As soon as the book is available, I will purchasae author copies and send one to each of my beta readers. I will also leave one on my desk, this time of course, as I am retired, I will be the only one to see it. I can't begin to explain what an amazing feeling it is to hold in your hands, a book that you created. As for the 72 hour wait, my guess is we are waiting for internal data to be moved into an external facing database. With the amount of data that Amazon moves along that pipeline, I am not surprised it will take three days.

Meanwhile, the second in the series is with beta readers, while the third is beginning to form in my head. And I need to get back to my studies, figuring out how Amazon Ads will best work for me.

PS: I have received notification that my book passed the review, so I guess it is now in the pipeline heading to the external world.

Caitlin's Escape Route - a sneak peak

My first novel is, I believe, ready to publish. I went through the painful and tedious work of trying to find an agent. After sending out over one hundred queries, I received thirty rejections and the rest were no response. My research tells me this is normal. 

I sent the last of my queries out just before Christmas and made the decision to self-publish, also known as 'indie publish' which sounds better, at the end of January if I had received no offers or interest. In preparation, I started getting my manuscript ready for KDP, Amazon's self publishing platform. I also created a cover, which I already posted about here. One of my grandsons, a talented artist, offered to create the artwork for the cover, but he is in the throes of studying for his own future career, and when I discovered KDP has a very simple, free software to create book covers, I went with that, using one of my own photographs. 

Since I decided to self-publish, I have been listening to as much advice as I can find about self-publishing and marketing my book. I found a wealth of information on YouTube, of course, and a very useful course on my favorite website, The Writing Mastery Academy. 

Oh yes, I did self publish a book before, a memoir, but that was back in 2013,  KDP's site has changed a lot since then and while it is very much better, it is also a bit more complicated  When I published Peeling the Onion, I had no intention of actually marketing it. To be honest, I don't expect to do a lot of marketing in the real sense for my first novel. I will do some. Once the second novel is ready to publish, I will expand my marketing efforts. 

The two novels are part of a series. Number two in the series is at the beta readers stage and number three is starting to form in my head. Number one is Caitlin's Escape Route.

The story follows sisters Caitlin and Terri. They are both survivors of domestic violence. Keith, Terri’s husband, attacks her and leaves her unconscious in their home, which he sets fire to. Caitlin convinces Terri to move from California to Texas, as she believes Keith will try to silence her.

Once settled in Texas, they work with the local battered women’s shelter. They set up an escape route, helping victims get away from their abusers. Meanwhile, in the background, Keith is closing in.

Of course, there is more to the story than just the villain and the two sisters. We meet some of the victims Caitlin helps. Women and men, straight and gay. Each one giving Caitlin a reason to rethink her belief that only straight men are potential batterers.

The second book, currently titled Sally's Story, and I don't expect that to change, but it might, is well underway. It follows one of the victims who takes advantage of the Escape Route. More will be revealed about that as we get nearer to the release date. As my beta readers are doing their magic, I am working on a design for the cover. I also have my first proof copy of the first book. I need to study this and submit any edits.

All this has convinced me that self-publishing is way more fun than traditional publishing, and faster, even if it is a lot more work. The agent querying process is time consuming, tedious and no fun at all; and the biggest disadvantage is that from finding an agent to actual publication could take up to two years! I am way too old for that!

I will let you know when Caitlin's Escape Route is available to purchase on Amazon. It will be in both paperback and Kindle format.