My Writing Process- Publishing

We are almost at the end now!!!

Our next step was publishing, and who knew it could be so complicated? As an self-published author, it was my job to find where I could publish and what the best places and methods were to rack up the most revenue- who am I kidding, we all know it was my dad who found most of this. We watched videos together and did research, before settling on Kindle Direct Publishing- KDP. KDP is super beginner-friendly and has simple steps, easily accessible help, and the best royalties an indie author could hope for. We set up the eBook version first, since it was simpler, and within the night, the first version of Moonbound had gone online, both under Kindle Unlimited and regular eBook.

After this, things got a bit more complicated. We tried to put the paperback online the same night, but we hit a roadblock- the page size I had chosen because Barnes and Noble Press supported it was not listed as available here. The problem was, I had a trip out of state the next morning, and for a week, it would be very difficult for me to reformat it. The pain of being so close, and not being able to make it, was exhausting.

In any case, my dad set up remote access so I could continue formatting from my laptop while I visited Kenzie- remember my best friend?- for a week, and I finished setting up the new page size- just a few annoying decimals off from the old one, at 5.5x8.5- pretty quickly. At the same time, my dad reached out to one of the artists we worked with and asked if she could reformat the cover for us too, which took a couple of days. When I finally got home again, I thought we could finally put it online-

And then I got Covid. Again.

Full loop moment right there! It's funny how all this started and ended the same way. I'm starting to think that having Covid is really just code for Doing Great Things- except that's not how it feels at all when you have Covid, so maybe coincidences really do exist. In any case, it really is wild to me to sit here writing this now, having these weird flashbacks to younger me, and feeling a sense of fondness for everything that happened since around this time last year. I can only hope this means I'm now setting off on a path as fruitful as the first one.

We put the paperback version online, and ordered a few proofing copies for one last check through formatting. After I was sure of that, I finally began marketing- which, to be 100% honest, I had no motivation to do. But, the road just seemed to keep getting longer, and I had no choice but to follow it. My next step was to create an accounts on TikTok and work on some marketing to gain an audience that will hopefully be the ones reading this blog.

So that means this one is at its end, and I just want to leave this off by saying that writing is not linear. Writing does not have a timeline. Writing can never be right or wrong. It is only ever what you want it to be, because that is the essence of a story. All you need is to believe in it yourself, and the rest of the world will follow :)

With my story shared, I just want to say, happy writing!!!