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William VanDerNoord

Thoguhts #5

12/13/24

Hey y'all,


It's been a week since my last blog. Figured I should post again. This is less of a "Thoughts" blog and more of an update.


I have recieved the edits back for Origins and I have finished going through them. The formatting of the book is nearly finished, just need to cross referrence with Foundations for finalized results. (This is mostly in the case of the e-book.)


Lastly, I have recieved my cover art and filed for ISBNs. The final steps are underway now.


To keep this in line with other "Thoughts" posts, I'll discuss more than simple updates.


Publishing is confusing.


It's easier now that I've done it before, and it'll probably be even easier next time I do it. (Hopefully in four months...) But that doesn't make the process simple.


I'll draw out the timeline from the day I finish writing the book to the day it gets published, forgive me if I miss a step or don't explain it too well.


Your book is finished, yay! Now you have to go in and self-edit. It has to be "perfect" before sending it to an editor to make it even more "perfect". (Mistakes will still make it through in the end.) To complete self-editing, you have to retrace the story, making sure all story elements have a reason. Of course, you'll check grammar and spelling all the while. You also need to track tone and character's speech through the story. Does anything change or do plot-holes open up because a lapse in memory between scenes? (Sometimes this process is easy, other times it's complicated and takes weeks on its own.)


Let's say it goes smoothly, your book is good by your standards and it's ready for another set of eyes. You send it to an editor, which will cost a pretty penny. (I just do this through Fiverr. Perhaps I'll share my editor's name in the future, as I quite like the work she's done. But I'll keep it annonymous for now, who knows if she'd appreciate that anyway.) So, you send it to them and they take 4-6 days to edit it through. (That's a lot of mindless waiting, so I've typically started charting out my next book and reassuring myself of my previous plot twists and decisions.)


A few days pass, you get your edit back! Your bank account is hurting, but it's not finished yet. Yay! "I'm almost finished, right? The book is good, right?"


No.


Next is cover art. You can't do any of the legal stuff without this. (Funnily enough, filing for ISBN's require cover art and not the actual text. Copyright is basically the opposite.) So you go back on Fiverr and look through the sea of cover artists. They all blend together after a while, and it's hard to keep track of all the minor difference between each one. (I've used different cover artists for both books, but I think Origins' cover artist may be a keeper.)


So you found a cover artist, fingers crossed they don't lie and stay clear from AI art. (I've used it plenty of times before, but I don't want them to use it if they can avoid it. It causes some legal confusion. My first cover artist said he wouldn't use it then did. I've used AI art enough to recognize it.) You submit your requests and wait. This too takes a few days, but it can be a bit more fun. They'll typically come back after a few days with their work in progess. You get to look it over, show it to friends and family, and offer your opinions. Then they'll add those changes. (Did you know Foundations cover art was originally quite different. That island in the middle was all steampunk-y and mechanical. I hated it...)


You wait and wait and wait, and now you have everything you need, right?


No, there's still plenty of waiting ahead. (The first time I published, I somehow speed-ran the process in only 12 days...) Now that all the "art" is finished, the legal stuff is up.


With the cover art, you submit for ISBNs. This is pretty easy. You can buy these in bulk. (It was like 10 for $300 or so.) So you file for ISBNs, one for each medium. That means the e-book must have a different ISBN than the paperback. If/when you ever publish hardcover versions, those need different ISBNs too. It takes a few days for approval.


Now you could go one of two ways. (Foundations and Origins differed here.) You can file for copyright ($65) now or go ahead and submit to Amazon. (That's how I self-publish.) If you do Amazon first, you'll still need the copyright before it goes live. But you can give your wallet a rest for a few days by waiting this out.


Let's say you submit for copyright first, this will take up to 48 hours. (Typically it's sometime that second day.)


Then there's publishing on Amazon. You can submit your book for a set publishing date up to 6 days out. (This is how I'm doing Origins. But Foundations was published and uploaded the same date, so order of operations had to be different.) Either way, Amazon can take 72 hours to review your submission. (Don't try to publish the same day you upload, most people won't be able to order until 3 days out...)


Obviously there's a lot more to this, like all the info you have to submit along the way. But, that's a general overview. It's a lot. (Imagine figuring this out on your own...It was a nightmare my first time.)


So, now a sigh of relief. You've done all these steps and your book is done. Right?


Right?


Not exactly.


It may be out there for people to see, but no one is buying it. What's the problem?


First go back in and assess your writing again. Simple self-edits are still fine, but it'll take Amazon a few days to approve each update. (Better to do many in bulk.)


Great, you don't spot any errors when you glance through. What now?


Marketing. Market the crap out of your book!


I must be honest here. I don't know much past here. A friend of mine gave me an idea just after I published Foundations. He said, most books he finds there's already several sequels out. Better to wait for marketing until you have more under you. So I'm planning on following this route, it allows me to focus on my books and publishing for a little while too.


Don't expect people to find your book without this. It doesn't matter what your title is. (Foundations is buried under pages upon pages of make-up, I wonder why!) Whether it's one word or a whole slew of them, people will still need to know your book title to seek it out at this stage. Unlikely someone will be typing in the exact title of your book without directly seeking it out.


So, this is the murky deep ocean I have yet to dive down. Marketing is it's own nightmare. (I studied it for years in college, and even still I'm dreading this stage. Though publishing was also scary until I jumped in.)


If you're looking to publish your own book, I hope this break-down helps. This is just the tip of the iceberg. But the process isn't as daunting as it may seem. Please just push through, you can do it!


Whatever you do, be set in it. Have confidence in yourself and your work. Confidence is key.


Good luck, I look forward to the future of storytelling!


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