My debut novel has finished with the proofreader, and has been delivered to the formatting person. Many people format their books themselves, my experience with formatting has been a lot of frustration, I decided to save myself the headache and hire someone to take care of it.
I've had another mistep, or maybe a few. I was checking on the Barnes and Noble website to see what price I had there. I have changed the pricing multiple times. I have a bit of imposter syndrome and doubt my book is worthy of a very high price. I also found out after proofreading; my book is about 157 pages. That isn’t particularly long. My book is 74,700+ words. I thought it would be more than 157 pages. The proofreader did some formatting, shrinking it from the double-spaced over 500 pages it was before. Anyway, once I found out how many pages there are, I figured it wasn’t worth as much as when I thought it was more pages. So, I went and lowered the price in Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
When I was on the Barnes and Noble site, I realized something else I didn’t know before. They need the book file uploaded by November 13th for the book to go live on the 28th. Amazon only needs five days to check it over so it can go live. I had planned to have it ready to be uploaded by the 20th on every site. Because of the length of time needed by B & N, I had to push back my release date to the following week. That puts me into December on B & N. My date will remain the 28th on Amazon, so my release date won’t change even though B & N will lag behind. I don’t know how I missed that when I entered the book there in the first place. I’m just rolling with it, what else can I do?
Another thing that occurred was the proofreader thought my manuscript needs more editing. The proofreader wanted to provide that service for an extra fee. I wasn’t inclined to hire further editing and had to say no. This made for an awkward situation. My editor is very laid back and we get along great. She even told me how surprised she has been at how well I take her constructive criticism. She delivers it with kindness and patience. We have been able to discuss any rough spots and reasons why I wrote something a certain way vs why it should be changed. Sometimes I wholeheartedly agreed with her, other times, I argued my case and we compromised. It’s been a great experience. I think my manuscript has been greatly improved from her edits and suggestions. The proofreader gave me a small sample of suggested edits. I’m not saying it couldn’t use more edits, honestly, it probably could. Unfortunately, the delivery of those suggestions was forceful and I don’t know this person I found on the internet. It was difficult to trust they had my best interest at heart. They probably do, and maybe this will be another mistake on my part. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
One of the big reasons was that my husband predicted that this person was going to complain about my manuscript needing more edits and offer to do it for a fee. A fee that is outside my budget for this project. My husband is very skeptical of everyone and has an innate ability to read people. I am naïve and always want to believe the best of everyone. As a result, I have a long track record of being taken advantage of, he tries to watch out for me. He wanted me to believe in myself and my editor, and go ahead as is. I really couldn’t argue his point, I didn’t disagree with him.
As a result of my not agreeing to the extra edits this person took their name off of my credits. They don’t want their name associated with my book as it stands. Which is fine of course, I have no issue with that. They didn’t edit it and they don’t want their name on it and people assuming they did, even though I specifically credited them as the proofreader. It just made it awkward, for me. They were somewhat abrupt with their messages. But you can’t assume emotion in a message without knowing their actual intent behind those words, I’m trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. They did their job, and did it extremely well. I’m very happy with the proofreading they did and I think it was money well spent. They did say with additional editing my story has potential. I will take that at face value and move on.
I’m now waiting for the formatting to be completed. I hoped the formatting person would be able to complete it early (because of the B & N situation), unfortunately their schedule did not allow for that. Completely my fault, not theirs at all. I’m sitting on pins and needles as the release gets closer and closer. Time is flying by and it’s getting real, really quick. Only a very few people have read it so far and I’m very nervous about how people will like it. I have twenty some ARC readers signed up and I’m hoping for double that. I've read that only twenty percent of ARC readers actually submit their review. I hope that’s not the case. It seems like the sites and groups for ARC readers are doing their best to educate the reviewers about how necessary their reviews are, some going as far as removing readers who don’t post a review, from their group.
If they like it, that will be a huge boost to the book and more people will be likely to find it and read it. I have no intent or expectation of making a living from my writing, it would be amazing to contribute to my family, but I will be thrilled if someone reads it and enjoys it. That is my goal, I want someone to be entertained and feel transported into the world I created. I think deep down, that’s what most writers really want.
To that point, I mentioned in the PS of my last blog that my short story, Fire and Brimstone, got an honorable mention from the contest I wrote it for. I am so happy they liked it. This was a contest of a maximum of five-hundred entries and only one hundred got any award. So, I think that means I got an 80% on my work. I'll take it. Any acknowledgment is great. I plan to copyright and publish it now that it’s free. When you enter a contest, they want to have the freedom to publish the story if you win. You are required to not copyright or publish it elsewhere when you enter, until the contest is complete.
One last topic, one sheets. I didn’t know what that was either. It’s a one-page information sheet about you and your work. If you Google it, you’ll find great examples and instructions on what to include. Basically, it should contain a photo of the author and a short bio. This bio should include your contact information, email, website, cell number. A photo of the book cover and a summary. The summary should have a “hook” statement as the first line. Something to make someone want to read book. Then it should have technical information about your book. Where can they buy it? Most book stores require Ingram Spark with your own ISBN be on this list for them to purchase it. Include the ISBN for each format (Ebook, paperback, etc.), price, number of pages/words. They also would like the BISAC code. This is a unique code that describes the genre of the book. Book stores and more likely libraries, may search for books using this identifier. They may have budget restrictions based on these genre codes. Lastly, a couple of reviews or any awards the book has received. Don’t forget to update the information if you get new reviews or any awards. When you visit a bookstore to talk about placing your book on their shelves, bring this sheet and a copy of your book to leave with them!
As always, thanks so much for reading about my journey. When I started this blog, my intent was to share valuable information as I learn it. I had no idea how many mistakes I would be making and that I would become a cautionary tale. This is your warning not to make my mistakes!