I've managed to maneuver my way through Amazon's self-publishing platform, which, after the week I've just had, feels like a hard-won victory. (First week at work, steep learning curves, and a pretty nasty cold with persistent cough and inflamed facial cavities--no fun, but I'm through the worst.)
Regarding the job--it's a good company with good people. I have an interesting challenge, and I'm getting paid decent money. I expect to stick around. Of course, I wrote exactly 0 words all week.
Tomorrow, I'll do my damned best to wrap a co-project with Lori--if I can stay focused long enough to co-write 10-20k, it should be easily done. Sunday, I'm meeting a friend to write for a few hours, and maybe I'll get another massage session in, though the massage qualification is incompatible with what I'm currently doing. There's no way I can log 80 hrs of massage in the next two months--that's more than an hour a day, and I find doing more than three hours a day a challenge. Regardless, being able to do a massage is a nice trick to add to the playbook, so I don't regret the money I spent on it. If anything, I'll be able to write a convincing massage therapist now.
And yeah, Return on Investment is ready to go. Today I spent a few hours checking the MOBI file, and it comes up clear. The converter did a very good job, as far as I can tell. And luckily, the cover artist had time to resize the cover for Amazon. I've also settled on a price for the book across all Amazon platforms, and placed it in categories (Gay/General Thriller)--there's not enough romance in it to justify any placement anywhere near that category. Upon closer inspection, the "Coming of Age" category was half porn, half Young Adult books, so it didn't feel right, though Martin's personal story is very much about growing up.
I'll also make this a "soft launch"--I'll tweet it, I'll Facebook it, I'll announce it on the blog, and then I'll step the hell away and let the book sink or swim on its own. Bottom line--this is a book I largely wrote for myself, a deeply personal book in ways likely only I will ever fully recognize. I put it out there because it's a good book, and because I think some people will get a kick out of it.
But I won't be reading reviews or running myself ragged "promoting" it. For me, it's done its job--it's one of those books where I told myself a story to not lose my mind, to explore something that kept nagging me. Basically, beyond that, I don't care. My care went into writing it and trying to achieve a good polished end product, one I'm not ashamed charging for. Getting reviewed will feel just too fucking weird on this one--I did this one for the love, yo. The metaphor that comes to mind is having sex with somebody you love--getting rated on that by other people is very weird. This book's not a performance, this book just is, and I know it'll leave people scratching their heads and some people will think I've finally lost it, but it's just a very different kind of book. And that's really all.
Tomorrow, I'll dig up some piece of bank account information that I need to get paid royalties into my company bank account, and then I'll press the "publish" button. And then I'll try to forget the book and do something else. I got to edit the Skybound translation, and organize my research for my historical, which may or may not be another self-publishing book. Then I need to make a judgment call on a cover concept, and before all of that is nearly done, I'll spend the week getting my magazine to press and coming up with a value proposition/complete revamp of the same magazine. So, yeah, keeping busy.
Regarding the job--it's a good company with good people. I have an interesting challenge, and I'm getting paid decent money. I expect to stick around. Of course, I wrote exactly 0 words all week.
Tomorrow, I'll do my damned best to wrap a co-project with Lori--if I can stay focused long enough to co-write 10-20k, it should be easily done. Sunday, I'm meeting a friend to write for a few hours, and maybe I'll get another massage session in, though the massage qualification is incompatible with what I'm currently doing. There's no way I can log 80 hrs of massage in the next two months--that's more than an hour a day, and I find doing more than three hours a day a challenge. Regardless, being able to do a massage is a nice trick to add to the playbook, so I don't regret the money I spent on it. If anything, I'll be able to write a convincing massage therapist now.
And yeah, Return on Investment is ready to go. Today I spent a few hours checking the MOBI file, and it comes up clear. The converter did a very good job, as far as I can tell. And luckily, the cover artist had time to resize the cover for Amazon. I've also settled on a price for the book across all Amazon platforms, and placed it in categories (Gay/General Thriller)--there's not enough romance in it to justify any placement anywhere near that category. Upon closer inspection, the "Coming of Age" category was half porn, half Young Adult books, so it didn't feel right, though Martin's personal story is very much about growing up.
I'll also make this a "soft launch"--I'll tweet it, I'll Facebook it, I'll announce it on the blog, and then I'll step the hell away and let the book sink or swim on its own. Bottom line--this is a book I largely wrote for myself, a deeply personal book in ways likely only I will ever fully recognize. I put it out there because it's a good book, and because I think some people will get a kick out of it.
But I won't be reading reviews or running myself ragged "promoting" it. For me, it's done its job--it's one of those books where I told myself a story to not lose my mind, to explore something that kept nagging me. Basically, beyond that, I don't care. My care went into writing it and trying to achieve a good polished end product, one I'm not ashamed charging for. Getting reviewed will feel just too fucking weird on this one--I did this one for the love, yo. The metaphor that comes to mind is having sex with somebody you love--getting rated on that by other people is very weird. This book's not a performance, this book just is, and I know it'll leave people scratching their heads and some people will think I've finally lost it, but it's just a very different kind of book. And that's really all.
Tomorrow, I'll dig up some piece of bank account information that I need to get paid royalties into my company bank account, and then I'll press the "publish" button. And then I'll try to forget the book and do something else. I got to edit the Skybound translation, and organize my research for my historical, which may or may not be another self-publishing book. Then I need to make a judgment call on a cover concept, and before all of that is nearly done, I'll spend the week getting my magazine to press and coming up with a value proposition/complete revamp of the same magazine. So, yeah, keeping busy.
Any Epub availability?
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