Finally finished with editing!
I had meant to delay a little longer, but this already took most of the summer between a wedding, several short trips, and general business. I finally had enough and just threw the book on the queue at Amazon before I could over think it and back out. Yes, it has been edited (a couple of times through others, too), so rest assured. I was mostly worried that I would get too nervous again. Even still, I had nightmares this morning of getting only a measly two-stars and numerous rants and demands for refunds.
Personal terrors aside, my general impression of the Amazon Kindle Publishing has been pretty good. For those of you seeking to self-publish through Amazon in ebook format, I would highly recommend it. They offer a 30% or 70% royalty option. The details of each are easy enough to follow, and you still retain all the rights to your book if you should seek another publisher later. The most they ask is you give them the lowest price so they can remain competitive. There are horror stories out there. In particular, "Friday Night Lights" by H.G. Bissinger was published through Amazon and the iTunes store. When he promoted the book with free copies through Starbucks, Amazon mistook the promo for a price drop and changed the price to match the freebie even though he was still receiving royalties for the promotional through Apple. It was a mistake, and Bissinger still publishes his ebook through both companies. Royalties are tricky business, but ultimately, publishing ebooks is much more rewarding, putting you at command.
In the end, I chose the 70% option, but that precluded a minimum price tag of $2.99, "moderately priced" for a digital book. Now, 70% of 2.99 is $2.09. That's not a bad deal. Better, my book came in at about 250 kb after formatting and adding a custom cover. If yours is a hefty mb or more, there is a $0.15 delivery fee. Mostly, this is to cover server costs for downloading your book and how much data it's taking up. That's really a fair deal. There is also tax withholding if you live in the states. The final cut for my commission came in at just barely $2. Had I published through a traditional venue, I would be lucky to get $1-$2 per book sold. Even still, there are promotions, hardback copies that don't sell as much, and a much more limited audience as more patrons flock to the electronic storefront. I'm not completely shut down to physical copies, and many authors who have made it online usually go through traditional means for the physical copy. "50 Shades of Gray" was nothing more than a fanfic (story written by a fan of another author's work) before hitting it big.
The business end of the deal is actually not that bad when you consider how many companies have hidden agendas entitling them to your work. Most online message boards even have an addendum that they ultimately own your work when it comes to promotions. So, reassured that my work would remain my own, I set about formatting.
This is another process that was surprisingly easy and friendly. I even made a few faux pas but was able to correct them. Within a couple hours, I had finished reformatting, and that was with my toddler hanging on my arm. The biggest mistake I made was indenting my paragraphs. I come from the old school where you had to space or tab your first sentence. These days, you can set Microsoft Word to do it for you. Amazon's e-reader doesn't recognize the tab spacing, and your whole work can become one giant paragraph in no time flat. A quick Google to find the solution rather than go through each line, and I was using the Find and Replace key like a pro. From there, it was just aesthetic changes. A quick note: remove colored text and fancy fonts. The Kindle doesn't display these even with the full-color Kindle Fire. It's part of their formatting so that the text can be read across multiple devices. If the script or color is that important to the story, consider inserting them as pictures. Read the site's instructions on how to do this so they don't get dropped.
With the book in the queue, I hit the "Save and Publish" button, but that popped up a gray text "in review." What is this nonsense? Well, lately, Kindle has been checking over the formatting, text, and rights. This is a good thing, ultimately. If someone else mysteriously got hold of my work and sent it through them, I would want to know about it, and if I had stolen another's published work, the same. A few years back, the company came under fire for publishing an instruction book for pedophiles, so all the more attention to detail is expected. On the consumer's end, this process ensures the book will be read by all devices. Unfortunately, this means a 12 hour queue. Yep, 12 hours, and that's if you don't make my silly mistake. This morning, I woke up ready to attack the bookshelf and see my book in the Amazon shelves. Nothing returned my search for "Mistaidra", so I stumbled into my queue to look. "Draft" status was written in gray beside my title. Huh? Clicking the name only turned up that I hadn't saved this and given it the okay for publishing. Because it was morning, and I am an idiot in the morning, my rationale told me to go back into the work and click "Save and Publish" again. Turns out, you have to click the check box next to the title on your shelf. Clicking as I did sent it back to the 12 hour queue. x.x;
So, "Mistaidra" is out tomorrow! :D
I'll still hit my weekend deadline, but I can't help feeling like I rushed a bit on that detail. Yes, $2.99 is more than the impulse-friendly $0.99 that we're seeing more of, but I don't think people would have to scrape the barrel for this one. Paperbacks are usually a minimum of $7 with a lot of accomplished authors shaking their cups to the tune of $8.99 and more for ebooks. If you do get the book, please review and star it. I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks again!
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