Here we go

Eeek! Publishing, people, freaking publishing. Indie publishing is SO much more in depth than I realized. No regrets, but damn I’m teaching myself a lot of things. So far it’s been stressful and time-consuming, but doable. Probably my biggest struggle is with marketing. If I ever become a rich author, I’m hiring someone to market for me because WOW. It’s not quite my forte. If given the option, I’d spend all my time writing and not doing any of the extra stuff. Future PA, here I come 😉

So what am I up to and why do we have to wait ’til February? Several reasons. One, I’m still in the editing process. My editor is AMAZING and the most incredible woman to work with. She keeps my morale going and has basically held my hand through this process. We’re working together, editing, revising, editing, revising, etc… After her and I are done, that’s when the next phase comes which brings me to reason two: Proofreading. This is our last line of defense for any misspellings, typos, or inconsistencies. Of course, these are all things my editor and I look for while editing, but the proofreader will be the final touch and a new set of eyes that can catch something we overlooked. All of this to bring you the most polished version of my work I can. I want people to pick it up and have it feel professional, which is why I’m going through all these processes and having as many eyes on it as possible. The more eyes on it, the less likely something slips through the cracks before publishing.

Three, but more an in-between step, I’ve hired a graphic designer to both make me a logo and also bring you a professional grade IASAD book cover! She’s amazing and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with, but none of us will know for a while. Well, I’ll know towards the end of August and at that point we’ll work through if there’s any needed revisions or tweaks or anything, and as soon as I’m able, I will release the book cover for you all to see.

So, what comes after book covers, logos, editing, and proofreading? Then I get the lovely process of working with distributors to format my documents correctly. I intend to publish as an ebook, paperback, and hardback. Each of these require individual ISBNs (something I have to purchase separately), and they also all require different formatting both for the text document and the cover image. Once I get all that uploaded, I then wait for my distributors to double check my work and verify everything is in the correct format so it looks all nice on your kindle/phone/tablet, and on your physical copies. After I hear back from them, I can request distribution so my books become available for pre-order. It does take some time once the files are uploaded before my distributor is ready to actually print the copies, so there’s another step that pushes our timeline out. Then we just hope COVID doesn’t mess us up with supply issues, something I’m doing everything in my power to get ahead on just in case, which is another reason for the February release date.

If you have questions about pre-orders, I don’t have a date yet. I will announce it as soon as possible and the very easy way for you to find out when pre-orders are open will be putting yourself on my email subscription list. I promise not to spam you or give your email away. At most, I will post an update once a week just to keep you in the loop and maybe there will be some hidden treats in there too 😉

Boring stuff aside, there’s one more key element I wanted to bring up and that is my ARC team (advance reader copy). An ARC team, for those of you not familiar, are copies sent before the release date to readers who’ve agreed to read my book for free and in exchange, leave a review. I cannot stress enough how much reviews will be so important for a successful book launch. I’m so lucky to already have an audience, which gives me a little boost, but your role for my book launch is more important than you know. The more reviews I get, the more likely other people are to pick up the book. The more reviews I get, the more free marketing Amazon does for me (seriously, this is HUGE for indie authors). Word of mouth and reviews are my biggest help right now, so if you’re in a book club or have friends that love the same books as you, please consider letting them know about my debut novel. If you buy a copy, please consider leaving a review, even if all you have to say is “good” or “cool” or “sweet”, I’ll take it. Of course I’d love to read long reviews, but not everyone is comfortable with that or with posting publicly, so the other thing you can do is simply rate the stars and not leave any comments. It doesn’t have the same effect as a written review, but it still counts in my favor. So lovely readers, let’s make this book release big so we can create enough momentum to move onto publishing the next book!

As far as ARC readers, I’m still in the early stages of figuring out how I will choose them, but I will tell you that my patrons get priority. It’s nothing against those of you that can’t or are uncomfortable with subscribing, but if not for my amazing patrons, we wouldn’t be here. Their financial support is what brought me to a point I could afford to hire an editor, graphic designer, proof-reader, and all the other things that add up costs. I will let you know if my ARC team opens up beyond Patreon, but for now, if you’re a patron of mine reading now and wondering how you can get on my team, just hang tight and wait for an update in Patreon. I’ll post one as soon as I’ve figured out how to narrow it down because as fun as it would be to have over 500 ARC readers, I do actually need people to buy the book and not just get free advanced copies, lol. That income is what makes my continued writing possible, it’s what gives me enough time to update as often as I do, and it’s the reason I’m able to jump into indie publishing at all.

That’s all I got for now. I cannot tell you how difficult it’s been to keep this to myself the last few months as I edited and prepped for this moment. I’m so excited to share it with you now, to have such wonderful people on this new journey with me, and have unending support that has meant more to me than I could ever put into words. Patron, reader, or follower on instagram, you all mean the world to me and I cannot wait to finally get a physical copy of “I Accidentally Summoned A Demon” in your hands, just in time for Galentine’s Day! In case you didn’t know what to get your fellow reader friends 😉 Or even better, read it for your Valentine date with our lovely book boyfriend Nex. Let’s be honest, he’s the best date any of us could hope for anyway, fictional men can always give you the best dates 😉