Last Monday something amazing happened.
I released my first ever self published book.
Check me out.
THE CLIMB
It's been a tough journey and, if I'm totally honest, it's been mostly my own fault that it's taken this long.
I've wanted to be a writer for many, many years. I wrote stories as a kid. I wrote screenplays while in college. And finally, in February 2014 I put it all out there and started a blog that would follow my process from zero to getting a book self published.
So many projects have been labelled 'the one' over the last forty three months. So many projects were talked about, promoted, started, restarted, all before finally being binned.
And then, as I mentioned in the last post, I realised that three years of Flash Fiction had given me a lot of material to work with without worrying about plot and characters across a 100k word count.
THE FIRST TIME ACROSS THE LINE
The release of BRISK WORLDS ended up satisfying two goals. The first was having a finished book out the in the wild with my name on, all a solo project. The second was to learn the process of self publishing.
Putting an e-book up on Amazon is equal parts simple and horrifically daunting. When I was growing up, I always knew that it was a tough door to get through and thus very few people did.
And then e-books appeared, and Amazon called to all of us wannabes and showed us that there would be no gate keepers. The readers would be the ones that decided.
The only difference was that now a writers journey didn't stop at handing in that final draft word doc and signing off on the cover a few months later. Now, the author was on the train all the way until the final station.
NEW SKILLS
I spent a good couple of weeks going over my draft with a fine toothed comb (though I still missed a few spelling errors).
I was starting to get sick of the words on the page.
I was hating all of my stupid stories.
The deadline I'd given myself was unrealistic.
The cover was rubbish.
I was going to fail.
It was all a little . . .
And then one Saturday afternoon, things unexpectedly snowballed. In a good way.
Frustrated with the project, I had popped over to Amazon just to have a look. To get away from the cover and the manuscript I thought I'd just see what the next step in the process was, get a little heads up, maybe see how bad the next part was going to be.
Suddenly I found myself creating a KDP profile. It was all very exciting. I was just window shopping. I thought that I'd just go as far as I could without putting the book up.
But before I knew it I had uploaded the manuscript and was checking it in the Kindle viewer (it's exciting seeing it on a mock up Kindle device). I clicked next page, and next page, and next page, all the way to the end. This thing I had created actually looked pretty damned good. And complete.
Later that afternoon I jumped ahead further. I'd given KDP my bank details and Tax info. I'd set a price and entered a PreOrder date. Before I could put on the brakes I was waiting for confirmation from Amazon to say my book was available.
I was buzzing (while the wife was getting sick of words like 'book', 'kindle', and 'I did it!'). It was early evening by then and time for my son to have a bath and go to bed. I left the laptop alone and headed upstairs.
SO MUCH TO DO
A little over an hour later my phone alert went off; fellow author Liz Hedgecock (who I had been bothering all afternoon with KDP chat) had sent me a link; my book was available to PreOrder on Amazon!
I may have let out a little scream.
I was over the moon. It was such a good feeling that something I had created was available for people to read. I'd finally done it.
I should have closed down the laptop and stuck a movie on. I mean, I'd worked my butt off all afternoon. I'd earned a break, right?
Instead, I spent the next couple of hours doing more to prepare my books launch by setting up a couple of other things.
My Amazon Author's Page - here.
The books Goodreads page - here.
And I may even have popped over to CreateSpace. Because, let's be honest, a paperback version would be nice too.
Sure, the work of writing and editing and cover design are time intensive if you want to get it right. But once you have a product, I was so impressed at how simple it was to release it into the wild.
Now we have to see if people read it and, more importantly if they like it.
And of course, my next book is snarling in it's cage, wanting to be released too.
FIRST JOURNEY COMPLETE
Thank you to anyone who has picked up a copy (hello mum). If you haven't had a chance yet, the links are below. And if you could leave a review, that would be equally appreciated.
And let me know what you think of BRISK WORLDS in the comments or on twitter @BrianSCreek (or use #BriskWorlds).
Next post I'm hoping to have an interview with an awesome Indie author.
Until then, go write.
I released my first ever self published book.
Check me out.
THE CLIMB
It's been a tough journey and, if I'm totally honest, it's been mostly my own fault that it's taken this long.
I've wanted to be a writer for many, many years. I wrote stories as a kid. I wrote screenplays while in college. And finally, in February 2014 I put it all out there and started a blog that would follow my process from zero to getting a book self published.
So many projects have been labelled 'the one' over the last forty three months. So many projects were talked about, promoted, started, restarted, all before finally being binned.
And then, as I mentioned in the last post, I realised that three years of Flash Fiction had given me a lot of material to work with without worrying about plot and characters across a 100k word count.
THE FIRST TIME ACROSS THE LINE
The release of BRISK WORLDS ended up satisfying two goals. The first was having a finished book out the in the wild with my name on, all a solo project. The second was to learn the process of self publishing.
Putting an e-book up on Amazon is equal parts simple and horrifically daunting. When I was growing up, I always knew that it was a tough door to get through and thus very few people did.
And then e-books appeared, and Amazon called to all of us wannabes and showed us that there would be no gate keepers. The readers would be the ones that decided.
The only difference was that now a writers journey didn't stop at handing in that final draft word doc and signing off on the cover a few months later. Now, the author was on the train all the way until the final station.
NEW SKILLS
I spent a good couple of weeks going over my draft with a fine toothed comb (though I still missed a few spelling errors).
I was starting to get sick of the words on the page.
I was hating all of my stupid stories.
The deadline I'd given myself was unrealistic.
The cover was rubbish.
I was going to fail.
It was all a little . . .
And then one Saturday afternoon, things unexpectedly snowballed. In a good way.
Frustrated with the project, I had popped over to Amazon just to have a look. To get away from the cover and the manuscript I thought I'd just see what the next step in the process was, get a little heads up, maybe see how bad the next part was going to be.
Suddenly I found myself creating a KDP profile. It was all very exciting. I was just window shopping. I thought that I'd just go as far as I could without putting the book up.
But before I knew it I had uploaded the manuscript and was checking it in the Kindle viewer (it's exciting seeing it on a mock up Kindle device). I clicked next page, and next page, and next page, all the way to the end. This thing I had created actually looked pretty damned good. And complete.
Later that afternoon I jumped ahead further. I'd given KDP my bank details and Tax info. I'd set a price and entered a PreOrder date. Before I could put on the brakes I was waiting for confirmation from Amazon to say my book was available.
I was buzzing (while the wife was getting sick of words like 'book', 'kindle', and 'I did it!'). It was early evening by then and time for my son to have a bath and go to bed. I left the laptop alone and headed upstairs.
SO MUCH TO DO
A little over an hour later my phone alert went off; fellow author Liz Hedgecock (who I had been bothering all afternoon with KDP chat) had sent me a link; my book was available to PreOrder on Amazon!
I may have let out a little scream.
I was over the moon. It was such a good feeling that something I had created was available for people to read. I'd finally done it.
I should have closed down the laptop and stuck a movie on. I mean, I'd worked my butt off all afternoon. I'd earned a break, right?
Instead, I spent the next couple of hours doing more to prepare my books launch by setting up a couple of other things.
My Amazon Author's Page - here.
The books Goodreads page - here.
And I may even have popped over to CreateSpace. Because, let's be honest, a paperback version would be nice too.
Sure, the work of writing and editing and cover design are time intensive if you want to get it right. But once you have a product, I was so impressed at how simple it was to release it into the wild.
Now we have to see if people read it and, more importantly if they like it.
And of course, my next book is snarling in it's cage, wanting to be released too.
FIRST JOURNEY COMPLETE
Thank you to anyone who has picked up a copy (hello mum). If you haven't had a chance yet, the links are below. And if you could leave a review, that would be equally appreciated.
And let me know what you think of BRISK WORLDS in the comments or on twitter @BrianSCreek (or use #BriskWorlds).
Next post I'm hoping to have an interview with an awesome Indie author.
Until then, go write.
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