Another Week of Juggling Multiple Self-Publishing Tasks

Personal Writing Achievements

• I'm making some final edits on the novel I hope to publish next month - Five Cats and Five Movements. A fair amount of ambivalence was involved in regard to whether I'm nitpicking the novel or making noticeable improvements. I decided to go through it one more time and suffice with the results (hopefully).

• I also completed Chapter 10 in the first draft of another yet untitled novel. The story involves an alcoholic Ethiopian's struggle to prevent apocalyptic events in Africa and the Americas. I've been kicking out between 2,000 and 3,000 words every two weeks. I hope to at least double that after finishing the final edit on Five Cats. I want to thank my writing group, The Saturday Scribes, for the feedback they've provided on the first nine chapters.

• As a result of the first two efforts, I might need to postpone the re-write of Mind of Goddess, but I remain hopeful about publishing it next year.

Software Related to Self-Publishing

• I now have a decent grasp on the Calibre and Roxy ePub converter tools. It took a few days (frustrating days) to figure out the coding in their editing functions. I had to do that in order to fix formatting problems with the initial Word-to-ePub conversions. Things should go much faster with my next novel.

• My proficiency with Photoshop is also progressing. I've learned enough tricks to convert a grayscale picture to a color picture using layers and filters. By the way, I decided to take a crack at creating my own book covers after two unsatisfactory attempts with artists at Fiverr. I'm still no Michaelangelo, but I've learned enough for a decent cover.

  
  

  

Financial and Marketing

• I still have a lot of work to do on the business side of self-publishing. I've received the first run of the paperback version of The Last Shadow and completed test buys of both the paperback and the eBooks (pdf and epub) through my website and through PayPal. This was no small feat. As a prerequisite, I had to register as an LLC, get an Employer Identification Number (EIN), set up a business account, get a copyright on the novel, and obtain an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and associated bar codes. I used a Wix cellphone app for the test purchase of the paperback, which worked without any glitches. So, hopefully, no additional POS equipment will be needed.

• I set up a Facebook page for my self-publishing company, and I'm investigating what they offer in regard to advertisements. I'm also looking at what Google and some other venues offer in that regard.

• I'm also considering Amazon Kindle. I've been a bit discouraged by their apportionment of royalties. I discovered that their percentage of royalties on paperbacks is calculated after their printing costs are subtracted. So, for example, when selling a book for $15.00 with a cost of $6.00 to print, Amazon gets 50% to 60% of the remaining revenue, which leaves me with a return on investment of between $3.60 and $4.50 on each sale. I've found that consignment agreements with local bookstores include similar apportionments. I'm giving my own marketing and sales a first try as a result.

• I'm keeping an eye out for any conferences or festivals where I might set up a table to advertise and sell my novels.

  
  

Reflections

• Overall, I think the past two weeks have been very productive. I hope to focus more on marketing next week and give you feedback on that effort.

• Despite facing the difficult business realities of publishing a novel, writing remains a labor of love for me, something I find profitable in and of itself. I encourage you to use this page to share your own adventures in creativity.