The big day has arrived and we’ve finally released my first novel on Amazon.
Now its up to all you avid Kindle readers to go to Amazon and let me know what you think. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated and if you submit a review then apparently that helps to push my book up the rankings. So thanks in advance!
I’d also like to thank all the friends and family who have supported me to get this far, and also to the dedicated professionals who have helped me with their knowledge and advice:
Special thanks go to my wife Catherine who has worked incredibly hard to learn about e-publishing, to make the important contacts, and create the visual design of Spores. Most importantly, Catherine has become my marketing and social media guru, which lets me focus on my day job, and my writing of course!*
It took a lot of work to get to this point, and a lot of research (thanks again to Catherine). If you’re thinking of self-publishing I recommend taking the time to find out for yourself what’s needed. If you’re going to publish on Amazon they have some useful pages but make sure to look elsewhere also. There’s plenty of pitfalls and the more educated you are before you start, the more smoothly it will go.
I’ve also been happy to rely on professionals where I needed to. That’s where the day job comes in handy. Spending a bit of money on advice can save a lot of time and avoid mistakes. Do make sure though to check anyone thoroughly before you hand them your hard earned dollars. Get personal references where you can and try to always use someone you can meet face to face.
The process of actually uploading a book to Amazon is one area where a bit of research paid off. If you’re registering for the first time you’ll need to have all your tax information ready. Then when its time to upload the book you’ll need the formatted book file, a separate cover file, a synopsis, acknowledgements, two categories and a list of keywords.
I though I had everything I needed and the process was going well until one of the last questions came up – did I want to use Digital Rights Management or not? Somehow both Catherine and I had missed this one and its important. You need to decide before uploading and the choice can not be changed (ever).
Some hurried googling revealed two opposing schools of thought but it really seems to come down to personal opinion. I didn’t find any hard research on whether DRM is worth it for the author or not. So do your own research and good luck with that one!
Anyway, with that hurdle jumped (I went without DRM), the book was uploaded and it appeared on Amazon less than 12 hour later! Catherine insisted on taking this snap of me with the Amazon page…
* If you’re going to be a writer, don’t quit your day job!