self publishing – mexi minnesotana

Hello WordPress writers and readers!

How goes your December? What fun things do you have planned?

*This is the placeholder cover, and I love the art by my friend Heather, but I don’t love the design. That will be changing in the next 10 days or so!*

I spoke with graphic designer yesterday who will make my book cover way prettier and more professional than it looks now. Yay! I have a different idea of eBooks versus actual books in terms of how they operate and what readers expect.

Since I’m not personally fond of eBooks, I’m not devoting a ton of attention to the formatting for that this time around. I wanted to get it “up and out” but to focus more on the paperback, since that’s what I tend to idolize on my own shelves.

That said, it is fun to mark the milestone of completing the Draft2Digital launch, opening the distribution of my eBook to plaforms outside of Amazon. If you’re curious, I’m pricing these pretty low and there’s a 20% first week launch deal on D2D. Books for the cost of a latte. Don’t you love the digital era?

The indie publishing journey is proving to be fascinating, challenging and invigorating. To make a product from start to finish, hiring editors, artists, and cover designers along with recruiting an advance reader team… it’s an accomplishment worth celebrating.

So off I go for an annual “bonfire of the brushpile” trip with hubby for the weekend. Where I may take a few pages of the last draft as kindling for the fire.

Be well and enjoy whatever projects are brewing for you!

Cristy

P.S. If you are curious about the book and want a $3 pdf version, you can get it directly from my website. Thank you for supporting indie authors!

Hello Friends,

I am not sure how many of you are in the Self-Publishing space or consider yourselves “indie” authors. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the Self-Publishing Advice Podcast from ALLi. For a reasonable annual fee that works out to be less than the cost of paperback book per month (at least the trade paperbacks), they have a treasure trove of resources for their members.

Free 3-day pass if you become a member of ALLi.

Since I’ve been working away at my first book, I have delighted in the idea of being my own book publisher. While I realize the final product will be different from something that Penguin Random House or HarperCollins would produce, I hope any neurodiverse folks like me (or anyone who feels like “cover” some aspect of their identity at work) receive it as an offering of love.

Though I realize the knowledge sphere (and the blogosphere) is a crowded and noisy space, but it excites me that past gatekeepers are so much less relevant than they used to be. I won’t give up reading the authors I love (of course) and enjoying books that are produced in a high quality way. I squeal with delight when Liz Gilbert, Martha Beck, Glennon Doyle or Celeste Ng publish anything new. And yet, how many undiscovered voices become discoverable when the (largely) white, male, neurotypical, ableist gatekeepers no longer get to bar the doors ?

I realize there is potential for right-wing scary types of people to publish as well. Hate speech is also increasing in this time of algorithms and weird amplifications of dangerous ideas (maybe that’s what led to the January 6th debacle at the U.S. Capitol). To me that makes it even more imperative that marginalized voices, whether they are BIPOC sisters and brothers, disabled, neurodiverse, non-binary or LGBTQ+, or any other flavor of human can connect and form communities.

Self-publishing is one of those means, and I think it holds the potential to amplify voices that publishers have scoffed at in the past: “There’s no market for that!”

Just because they cannot “see” or acknowledge our market does not mean we do not exist. And as the marketplace of ideas allows for more perspectives, it excites me to imagine the possibilities for the more sensitive and imaginative folks in the world to find their voice.

Okay, rant over. Anyone else joining me for this one? Or will I be alone at 4am central time with my coffee and in my pjs?

Cheers, happy writing & happy weekend, whatever is ahead for you!

cristy@wedefydefinition.com