Publishing update
So....
I'm not going to make my original goal of being published on Kindle by Christmas.
But I am feeling pretty good about why. I've been concentrating more on the business side of things, and all the trappings that come with being an author: namely, a website and whatnot.
And I chose a pen name. And I actually kind of like it, which is good, since I'm probably going to be wearing it for a bit. (Well, sort of. About as much as anyone wears a pen name online.)
Today has mostly been about convincing Charlie that yes, he really does want to go to sleep, so that Mommy can set up her website. I wasn't so successful with the first, but the website's up and running and doesn't look half bad. It still needs some work before it goes live, though - for one thing, I sort of need a header that isn't a stock image of an open book, and I still need to figure out how to put in a newsletter feed, and I kind of need a first blog post.
But I have a bio (even if I'm pretty sure it's kind of stupid-sounding) and I have a page set up for "all about my books" which actually isn't even empty, because I have two mocked-up covers for the two parts of the story that I've written/am writing, although I do actually have to purchase the images so they don't have the "iStock Getty Images" watermark on them. (Details. No worries; according to the site I can do mock-ups for 30 days before I start infinging on rights; I plan to do that as soon as I get a couple opinions on them.)
(Anyone who wants to offer an opinion is welcome to apply.)
So the current goal is mid-January, which I think is doable. That gives me time to (a) deal with the fact that Andrew does not have school for the next two weeks, (b) make sure the website is working properly, and (c) final edits and all the other stupid stuff that go into making the book pretty.
(Incidentally, I now have a healthy respect for the publishing industry. This part is super boring. And picking out a pen name was totally new levels of horrible.)
I'm not going to make my original goal of being published on Kindle by Christmas.
But I am feeling pretty good about why. I've been concentrating more on the business side of things, and all the trappings that come with being an author: namely, a website and whatnot.
And I chose a pen name. And I actually kind of like it, which is good, since I'm probably going to be wearing it for a bit. (Well, sort of. About as much as anyone wears a pen name online.)
Today has mostly been about convincing Charlie that yes, he really does want to go to sleep, so that Mommy can set up her website. I wasn't so successful with the first, but the website's up and running and doesn't look half bad. It still needs some work before it goes live, though - for one thing, I sort of need a header that isn't a stock image of an open book, and I still need to figure out how to put in a newsletter feed, and I kind of need a first blog post.
But I have a bio (even if I'm pretty sure it's kind of stupid-sounding) and I have a page set up for "all about my books" which actually isn't even empty, because I have two mocked-up covers for the two parts of the story that I've written/am writing, although I do actually have to purchase the images so they don't have the "iStock Getty Images" watermark on them. (Details. No worries; according to the site I can do mock-ups for 30 days before I start infinging on rights; I plan to do that as soon as I get a couple opinions on them.)
(Anyone who wants to offer an opinion is welcome to apply.)
So the current goal is mid-January, which I think is doable. That gives me time to (a) deal with the fact that Andrew does not have school for the next two weeks, (b) make sure the website is working properly, and (c) final edits and all the other stupid stuff that go into making the book pretty.
(Incidentally, I now have a healthy respect for the publishing industry. This part is super boring. And picking out a pen name was totally new levels of horrible.)