Self-Publishing, here I come!

So yeah, I’m going self-pub! It’s been looooong enough of a wait to get the sequel to When Love is Not Enough published. Really what I SHOULD have done is self-pub’ed this last year when it was rejected the first time. I regret that. Actually, what I regret is WAITING on the release of WLINE until The Cost of Loving was finished.

Originally… and I am saying all this to help those after me LEARN from MY mistakes… Originally I was asked if I wanted to wait until the spring of 2012 to possibly release WLINE and TCOL back to back. (Spring because by then I’d have the sequel finished and Dreamspinner could look at them both together.) I was eager to be published and said no, I’ll go with what I got and finish TCOL as soon as I can. For the future author’s out there—when a publisher asks if you want to wait and release two together, SAY YES!

But hind sight is 20/20. I have to live in the now. I have also learned some things about publishers and what probably sells and what doesn’t. (My stuff being in the category of “doesn’t”.) But, I know I’ve said this before, I’m writing for ME. I’m writing what I think is important to put out there. I am writing what I think people need to hear. My subject-matter is not always popular. Suicide: not popular! And the “bittersweet” tag on When Love is Not Enough: Not popular! Will I stop writing that for the sake of popularity? No. At least I hope not.

I DID however write a fun book last spring. My Roommate’s a Jock? Well, Crap! Is fun and sarcastic and “poplar” by some of the standards I’ve come across. I didn’t write it that way JUST to get some books published (at least not completely,) I wrote it because it was the story that popped into my head one day. I SHOULD come out this winter. December-ish. I haven’t heard anything from the editors or anything but I’ll keep you up dated!

I have an editor! The Cost of Loving is with him for now. I hope that he doesn’t find too much wrong with it. Mainly because it has gone through me, and two other people to be at the stage it is at so I would hope we’d catch most things. I also have a graphic designer who is reading TCOL too to help her come up with a cover design. I’m excited!

I also set up and AUTHOR PAGE on Amazon. I didn’t realize I didn’t have one. Oops. One thing that I am concerned with and maybe you all can help me with, AMAZON doesn’t have many “ratings” or “reviews” for my book. It takes time to write a review and when you the readers normally review on Goodreads then it is redundant to put one on Amazon. Can you please be redundant? Not everyone goes to Goodreads. Maybe I can put something on my Author profile to direct reader attention there. Some people like to read reviews. (I don’t normally read too many before I pick a book, but some people do!) OR they look at the star rating. As for me, if a book always gets 2-stars I am probably not going to bother. But 5-stars, 4-stars (even 3-stars) sure! I’ll pick it up.

Latest updates are: me entering the self pub realm! But I have options…

Create Space? Smashwords? Others? Do you have a preference as a reader? Does one offer something over another that makes them better in your view? I was looking at Create space yesterday. I like that one mainly because it’s associated with Amazon. I like Amazon and I buy a lot from them. But does that matter? I was looking at the rules and terms of service etc… Do you know that the royalty rate is still not all that much? Here I was thinking, “oh cool I can get more because I am not giving up most of the cost of the book to the publisher. Well, yes I am. Create Space is handled by a publishing company too and get their share! The difference is thatI can set up the price of the book. (I set up an account and I was looking at the info.) So I can charge $2.99 for an eBook or $8.99 etc… My royalty is based off of a formula they have based on # of pages and the dimensions of the book (3x5, 6x9…) and the base price of the book that I ask. Whew… I read a lot yesterday. I now need to look at Smashwords but I think I looked into that last year and it seemed like it was the same.

This is why I went to a few publishers in hopes they would just publish it for me. I didn’t want the hassle. I SHOULD have taken on the hassle. I’m sorry. I apologize to my public, my fans, & my readers, for being lazy and wanting a publisher to do the work for me. But I am not delaying the inevitable any longer!!! I am moving forward!

I hope to get The Cost of Loving published in the next couple months. (September or October) If it is later than that so be it. Keep your fingers crossed though, every good wish counts!

Side note: Thank you for all the well wishing for my college friend ‘K’. He is going to write a letter soon. I promise! School started this week and he has had some other “issues” but I can’t speak for him. I think he needs to speak about his life for himself, hence the need for a letter. I’ll get one soon. But thank you also for the continued donations. It amazes me that after some time, people still donate! It’s been weeks since I really said much about it yet I got a donation yesterday! Thank you. I try not to bug people and I don’t want to whine but he does still need help. (We all do, don’t we?) Everyone needs help paying bills and getting on their feet when something bad comes along so I want to say thank you to all those who are still thinking of him and helping in monetary ways. YES, I will not forget those who help in spiritual ways too. Prayer is important. Sending notes are important! So thank you. Here is the link again for ways to give. Either through WePay at GoFundMe (http://www.gofundme.com/helpgaystudent) or through MY PayPal account: writerwadekelly@gmail.com, either way, ‘K’ will get the money you send!

Thanks,

Have a rad day! ;)