I published my book; now what?
My life as a writer is here and there. It is not a consistent practice, unfortunately. I have, at last count, 12 projects in various states of completion, dating back to the early 80’s. Some exist on old floppy discs and are saved on thumb drives, some only in my head. Some are on my computer, ready and willing to go! Others are print outs that need to be retyped.
Only one project, a memoir about a year of travel as a woman “of a certain age” has made it to completion. (see note at end of post to learn more!)
The process was a steep learning curve. I wrote about my trip as I traveled, a sort of journaling meander through faces and places. I later tamed over 130,000 words down to a mere 110,000. It doesn’t sound like much of a trim, but YOU try it! I had help (paid for) from a wonderful book editor who really shaped the story with me by asking questions, pointing out inconsistencies or confusing stream of consciousness meanders that lost the reader (maybe like that one right there!) That is called a developmental edit. For me, it was the first set of eyes on a garbled mess that I knew held a uniting thread of story, if only I could find it!
Then I workshopped the entire book, twice, through two different writing groups in two different states. In between times, I applied the suggested changes and tweaks (or sometimes ignored them.) I alternated between thinking I had an engaging story to tell or it sucked, I’m boring. I was pathetic. No, I was wry and funny! I was a real writer. Nah, you Wish, honey…
I turned to some friends who had indie published a book or two. I picked their brains, trying to glean from other’s experiences. Meanwhile, technology advances, a moving target. Some advice was no longer valid.
I bought a batch of ISBN numbers and began to ready my book to upload. Remember in the 80’s and 90’s when we learned to type by adding two spaces at the end of a sentence? It’s a hard habit to break! I combed through every sentence, removing spaces, re-reading for clarity, checking for typos. (Spoiler alert – I did miss a few!) I found the “read aloud” feature in Word and had the robot voice read my entire book to me. A lot of my editing was done in various dog sitting locations, where my own house’s detritus and chores could not distract me from my work.
I made a vow to publish by my 60th birthday in February of 2023.
I designed a cover on Canva, using a photo from my trip. I played with fonts, got quotes for the back cover, made a logo for my publishing mark. What held me back was the formatting. Sure, I could upload files. I could even resize them for the 6×9 book. I could add photos. But it didn’t look right on the page.
It took months of trying, giving up, going back to it, crying, making phone calls, and beating my head against the wall. I considered spending thousands more dollars on a small vanity press so I could get it right, but I was so close already! People did this all the time; why couldn’t I conquer it? I asked a hundred questions in my self-publishing Facebook Groups, getting loads of solicitations from freelancers who would help me, for a fee. One of the group members told me to go to Fiverr, check reviews, and find a good format person.
And it was that easy. Vivien from Fiverr formatted the book for Amazon, Kindle, and Ingram. She added cute little birds at the chapter heads. She even helped reformat my cover when it got rejected.
I hit “publish” on September 23, exactly seven months past my actual birthday.
I haven’t promoted the book much. A few friends have bought it and praised it, which makes me feel amazing. For me, it was enough to just have it done. Finally! I’m grateful for the ability to self-publish and avoid the query letters to agents and the rejections, or worse – the silence! (And I did query about 60 agents before I gave up.) As authors I feel we have a responsibility to publish work that has been edited and workshopped until it is our best effort. Unfortunately, a lot of authors do not do this, or they are (let’s face it) just bad writers. The glut of awful self-published books floating around out there gives the process a bad name. Still, it’s there for us and I am profoundly thankful.
I thought that putting one book out into the universe, Amazon, and book stores would make me feel legit and inspire me to double down and work on the next one. I’m still hoping for that.
Among my cast of temporarily abandoned characters are a pregnant single mom in 90’s San Francisco, a married couple on the verge of a break-up, another couple agreeing to a mutual infidelity, an 80’s era out of work New York teacher with a subway solicitation gig, a Jamaican Lothario, and Elvis. To name a few. One of these stories will be the next to be released out into the world.
I hope this time it won’t take me eleven years to finish!
Gap Year: How an Empty Nest Led Me to Grow Wings https://a.co/d/4jFHpRM
available at the link above on Amazon, or better yet, order from your favorite small local bookstore
Pre-Existing Condition 