It’s been a little hectic in my writer’s brain lately. I had a massive crisis of confidence which put me on hold for a while. Then there was Christmas and I got two different colds. So, nothing much has been happening. However, as a result of my massive freak-out, I did re-write the ending of The Gates of Nottingham. This cut 20 pages from the book, which is good because it was too long anyway.
Long story short, last night I uploaded to Smashwords. I made up my mind that I’m at a fish or cut bait place right now. Either I should quit talking about publishing and decide that I’m a horrible writer or I should just do it and see what happens. I need to trust my own opinions, and my opinion is that this is a good book. Is it absolutely the best book ever? No. I worked very hard on it though, and it is better than probably 80% of the professionally published slush I read on a daily basis. Of course everyone will have different tastes. Some people will love it and some people will hate it. Some people will be in between. I need to get it out there for my own sake, though.
I would do things differently now, but I think that, in a way, our writing is a time capsule. I was in a different place in my life when I wrote The Gates of Nottingham. My feelings were different and so was my writing style. I am a hyper-critical person and if I don’t just say enough is enough, this will never happen for me.
So it’s out there now. It is available on Smashwords here and has already had 10 samples downloaded since last night which is exciting. It is still sitting in the vetting process, so it isn’t available through any of Smashword’s distributers yet, but in a month’s time it ought to be available from Sony, Apple, Barnes and Noble, etc. I just finished uploading to Kindle and that should take 2-3 days before I get the green light. Then it will be available on Amazon.
At the moment, I am struggling to figure out what to do for a PDF for the CreateSpace version. I really don’t want to buy Adobe, but I’m not finding a way out of it.
Congratulations! Good for you - that's a BIG step. Celebrate your courage. Think I'll go over to Smashwords and download that sample...
ReplyDelete@Melissa Ann Goodwin
ReplyDeleteThanks Melissa. It is a LONG sample because I didn't stop to think that the recomended 20% is 100 pages. Oh well. More to hook you. Let me know what you think.
Congratulations! What a wonderful huge step for you to take. Do keep us informed when it's available through retailers!
ReplyDelete@Louise Bates
ReplyDeleteThank you. It is now available on Amazon Kindle. I'm still working on the print version, but I've figured out my PDF problem. Now I just need to wait on the Smashwords Premium approval.
Congratulations Olene! That's fantastic. I've just bought it for my Kindle and it's on my to-read list.
ReplyDelete@Paul Anthony Shortt
ReplyDeleteThanks, Paul. Eager to hear what you think.
I had to have someone format my MS for CreateSpace for my last book. She's with a writers group I'm in and fortunately did it for free. Its a challenge. Maybe you know someone who can help. Good luck to you!
ReplyDelete