Indie Life With the Indelibles

Wednesday, February 13, 2013



The Indelibles have started the year by hosting a monthly feature surrounding the indie life.  Posts go up on the second Wednesday of each month and indie authors are invited to share their experience, so here goes.

Lately, I’ve started taking my writing career seriously. Well, more seriously than I have since I started writing. After having three books traditionally published, I hit the road with a collection of short stories in 2011 and haven’t looked back since.

In March, I plan to launch a young adult series and I’ve laid the groundwork to be able to do that. I had planned to have the first in the series out by December 2012, but that didn’t happen.

It was a wakeup call and a reminder that proper planning is key when there are a limited 
number of persons working on a project. And boy did I learn how important it is to set realistic time frames. I did a loose schedule, which I’ll have to revisit, but I’m learning not to stress too much over missed deadlines.

I’ll never stop learning and so my latest task is how to format ebooks.  Susan Kaye Quinn made some interesting points in this article. When I first read the Smashwords manual, the thought of formatting anything made me want to tear my hair out, but I believe in learning new things and this seems to be stuff I can wrap my head around, so onward I go…

What new and challenging thing are you learning to do as it pertains to self-publishing?  
Thanks for sharing and do visit the other indie writers on the list below. 

P.S. I’m off to Mass this morning, so I’ll ‘see’ you when I get back. 



On another note – I’m hosting a blogfest to celebrate the release of Retribution. Details are here. If you write romance, or would like to try your hand at it, bring your best piece of writing (it can be something you’ve written already) and you could win a $10.00 Amazon Gift Card. Entries close tomorrow at day’s end.


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12 comments:

  1. Laura PaulingFebruary 13, 2013 at 7:25 AM

    Yes, planning but being flexible too! I love Sue's posts on formatting!

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  2. Alex J. CavanaughFebruary 13, 2013 at 9:53 AM

    I bet you can master it!
    Good luck with the young adult series.

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  3. AnonymousFebruary 13, 2013 at 10:20 AM

    It seems like a high learning curve, one I haven't crossed yet. All the best to you as you launch your book!

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  4. michelleFebruary 13, 2013 at 10:24 AM

    I hyperventilate at the thought of self-publishing... and it's probably the route I'd take...
    It's not the hard work that scares me, it's the techno aspect!

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  5. James PaillyFebruary 13, 2013 at 10:50 AM

    Thanks for that link to the Susan Kaye Quinn article. Looks very helpful.

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  6. Emily R. KingFebruary 13, 2013 at 11:04 AM

    I agree that missed deadlines shouldn't get you done. Focus on what you did, not what you have yet to do!

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  7. Sandra Ulbrich AlmazanFebruary 13, 2013 at 1:09 PM

    When I set schedules, I always try to plan for more time than I think I need, so I have some padding in case of unforeseen issues.

    As for formatting--I personally find eBooks easier to format than paper ones. The Smashwords guide is very helpful. Programs like Calibre and Scrivner are supposed to do the formatting automatically, but I haven't tried them yet.

    Best of luck to you!

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  8. J.L. CampbellFebruary 13, 2013 at 2:34 PM

    Thanks to everybody for dropping in.

    Laura, I have printed Susan’s post for reference. Really good articles.

    Thanks, Alex. I’ll be wading in soon. Wish I was as confident, but we’ll see. The YA is a good story, so I hope it does well.

    Julie, yup. High learning curve is correct. We’ll see what happens.

    Michelle, take it in small steps. I realized that the technical aspects wouldn’t be fun for me, so I opted to save up and pay for that part.

    Definitely some helpful articles, James.

    Good words, Emily. Looking at the mountain ahead can cause a twinge or two of discomfort.

    Sandra, adding more time is wise. As Murphy’s Law states, whatever can go wrong, will.
    If Calibre can do paper book formatting, that’s way cool. So many great tools priced at free. Thanks for the good wishes.

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  9. heidigarrettFebruary 14, 2013 at 1:45 AM

    I have to agree, I'll never stop learning…this whole self-publishing stuff: one big huge learning curve!

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  10. E. ArroyoFebruary 15, 2013 at 7:52 AM

    Deadlines...I hate those. =) But they keep me moving which is a good thing. I learned, and forgot, how to format a manuscript to MOBI and EPUB and was able to read it on my kindle. I wanted to use it to do revisions, and it looked nice. =) I'm pretty sure you'll be able to too.

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