WEDNESDAY WORDS: ALMOST THERE

This is when things get a bit scary for me. I’ve been working hard on my second novel, RULE NUMBER ONE, for more than a year. Yes, if you do the math you can see it it overlapped with my first book, RETURN TO RAINBOW RIDGE, which was released September 2, 2020. RULE NUMBER ONE is almost ready to launch. And that’s where the scary part come in.

Any author will tell you that publishing a book, whether your first or your fiftieth, is a big mix of exciting and daunting, with a dash of relief in there somewhere. That’s where I am now—almost. I’m doing one last read-through for consistency, plot holes, and just plain good writing. I’ll give Grammarly one last shot at it, and then . . .

Okay, there are other things I need to do as well. I’ve got the paperback cover done and uploaded to Kindle. I also have the eBook cover done and ready. I bit the bullet and bought my own ISBN’s, so I uploaded that as well. I did keywords, series information, all the other stuff required for a paperback. All I need are the words . . .

It’s all in my hands now. My original goal was to release it by my birthday, June 29. That should be no problem. I’ll upload the paperback first, then the eBook. I may consider pre-orders for the eBook, so I can schedule the actual release date. Otherwise, you’re at the mercy of Kindle and how long it takes them to get it processed once you upload everything. For my first book, it took a few days.

It is indeed exciting and a bit scary, although not as much as last time. I know the drill now, what to expect, and what I need to do.

I neglected to include one very important part of the process, on purpose. Marketing. I don’t see me having any launch parties, either real or virtual. That’s not my style. Marketing for me isn’t about selling books, making money, and being famous or even well-known. It’s all about putting my books into the hands of readers, either for real or digitally. Everything I do—everything—is aimed at the goal.

I just need to figure out how to do that. But that’s a whole different story.