For the next few months, I’m taking several steps to prepare for self-publishing, hopefully in the fall.
First, I’m continuing my listening and reading about self-publishing, absorbing what I can to improve my odds of success. There are a lot of great resources available for the aspiring self-published author. Blogs, podcasts, books, etc. At the moment, I’m digging into The Book Marketing Show podcasts by Dave Chesson, the guy who runs the Kindlepreneur site.
Second, I’m writing a novella. My goal is for it to be approximately 20-25,000 words covering the back story of one largely unexplored but central character from my novel. Once done, I’ll use the novella as a giveaway for two reasons. Most importantly for my potential future fans, I’d like to give readers a chance to try before they buy. Maybe they will like my writing, maybe they won’t. But wouldn’t you feel 100x better shelling out some cash if you are confident in your purchase?
The second reason is to start building an email list of readers. As I write more books, it would be nice to have a group of readers who like me AND who I can reach out to occasionally, maybe to distribute advance review copies or get help with cover selection, etc.
Website Changes
Soon I’ll also need to pick a new theme for my site and/or build a new homepage that will best exhibit both my novel and my novella, with the added benefit of facilitating the acquisition of the novella by readers. Currently this site is all about the blog, what there is of it. I can’t be much of a published author if I don’t exhibit my work!
I’ve also chosen to adhere to a weekly publishing schedule going forward. The multi-post weeks were OK when I was in the middle of writing, but without a disciplined schedule I let the blog production slip.
Revealing the Book
But before I finish all of that stuff, I have to take a leap. The novel is written. It is ready for publishing with the exception of the cover and the front and back matter. One of these days I need to start talking about it here using specifics, not generalities. All these posts over the last 18 months and I’ve never once discussed the plot, the characters, shared the premise.
That needs to change; yet of all the steps identified above, I’m hesitant to take that one…. If you read this post and have advice for a starting point, I’m all ears.