I did a thing.
And it is not great. I don’t feel good about it. But that was the whole point. And I’m proud of myself for doing a not great thing.
I published an ebook. The first thing I’ve ever put out into the world that people will have to pay for.
I’d say it is pretty typical as far as first attempts go, in that it’s mostly rubbish.
As my brother always says, the first step to getting good at something, is being crap at something.
So yay! I’ve taken the first step in self-publishing!
(For those who missed the post from a few weeks ago: I decided to write a novella (a trilogy of novellas, actually) just for my EOM readers. Original fiction that will hopefully be enough like EOM to get and keep their interest, but different—quite different— in that they will be shorter and sweeter. A modern fantasy novella (series) with a guaranteed happy ending. With any luck, this can be a stepping stone from my fan fiction to my original fiction? An experiment to see if this is something I can actually do.)
And as far as experiments go, it wasn’t a total failure. I wanted to see if I could write a novella in 10 days. And I found that I could! It just took another 18 days to get my act together and get it up on Amazon. There is definitely room for improvement–of course in writing–but also in formatting and navigating rigmarole involved in e-publishing. I kept dragging my feet on learning how to put it up. In the end, I put in the minimal effort required because the more frustrated I became, the more I wanted to just forget the whole thing and not bother with it at all. Terrible, I know. So, we’re going with the logic that a bad book is better than no book? That’s probably not true. But, it’s what I need to tell myself in order for me to actually start making a career of writing.
I write this Thursday evening. When you read this, the ebook will be available, and I will be off in the woods, putting a roof on my tiny cabin, far away from the internet or any kind of cell service, so I cannot check the stats and be immediately disappointed that no one has seen it or bought it yet.
Rather than look at amazon obsessively when I get home from building, I will make some tea, read some poetry, and refuse to open my computer until the weekend when I publish another EOM chapter. Wish me luck in not looking at my KDP account for at least three weeks. (Well that failed. It is not even three pm on the same day and I am on my computer, posting EOM and checking stats and doing other things. Sigh… so weak.)
That being said, if you do read and like it, please review. That would help me out bunches. You can get it here.
(But look at his lovely cover my brother did. Quite possibly the part of the book with which I am most pleased.)