Publishing Project #1

Almost a year since I’ve written a blog post! Shame on me. I even missed my usual year-end wrap-up. I confess that I have been writing other things on weekends — work on Perceval’s Shadow as well as essays — and that writing has taken priority the last year. And now I’m about to scale the publishing mountain again, the reason for the title of this post. I want to keep a “diary” of the publication process with all its joys and frustrations. Most people have no idea what’s involved, especially after making the choice to self-publish. I am hoping that by committing to this blog diary, it will keep me on track to publish the second novel in the Perceval series this year. I know, about time. It’s been 10 years since I self-published Perceval’s Secret as an e-book. About time for another to burst into the world.

Preliminary Thinking in Preparation

As I typed the final sentences of Perceval’s Shadow, I was already thinking about next steps. Did I want to work on the second draft of the third novel? Or did I want to publish this year? It’s been 10 years since the first novel entered the world. That’s a long time, I guess, in publishing. During those years, I was drafting three novels, writing essays that were published in various places, finding fulltime employment and recovering from two separate surgeries and an encounter with autoimmune ITP brought on as a response to a medication.

What is my goal for publication this year? In the last three months, I’ve decided to publish Perceval’s Shadow in two formats — POD paperback and e-book. In addition, I decided to return to Perceval’s Secret and publish that in POD paperback. My goal then is to have two novels on sale by the end of the year, each novel in paperback and e-book, for a total of 4 books on sale. I hope that this will satisfy all the people who’ve told me over the years that they don’t like e-books and would rather have a physical copy to hold in their hands.

First Steps

Step 1: Type a list of tasks that I know will need to be done. This step includes going through my files and pulling out everything I saved from my self-publication experience in 2014 — names of people, companies, fonts, my budget, etc. DONE

Step 2: Create a full copy of Perceval’s Shadow including title page, front pages, and all the chapters. The author’s note/acknowledgement and discussion questions can come later when I’m ready for the formatting. DONE

Step 3: Research professional editors. I began work on this step yesterday. I have already found 2–3 possibilities, and I’ve been somewhat surprised by the 100% increase in the cost from 10 years ago. I’ll continue with this research for another week or so.

Step 4: List and contact Beta Readers. I have the list of people to ask to be Beta Readers. I need to send them invitations after I decide how many I want this time around.

The Budget

As I’ve been working on the first steps, I’ve realized that I need to create a budget, i.e. a production budget. It will include the cost of a professional editor, book cover design, and book formatting. Then I’ll need to look at the advertising and promotion I did 10 years ago and the budget for it. I’ll need to create a marketing plan and budget as well. So there are two separate budgets for a publication project: the production budget and the marketing budget for advertising and promotion. I am thinking, based on what I was seeing yesterday as I researched editors, that I will need to set aside a lot more money this time than I did 10 years ago when self-publishing was considered to be an inexpensive way to break into the book market. I went into debt at that time, and it took me six years to pay it all off. I don’t particularly want to go into debt this time.

Question for You:

Have any of you self-published? Do you know of a good book cover designer with whom you worked and were satisfied?

To-Do’s for the Next Week

• Send out Beta Readers Invitations
• Continue researching professional editors and cost
• Research POD providers