Self-Publishing— Project Update: Moving forward

I decided to arrange these updates into categories, because more than anything else, I think the challenge of self-publishing is being able to keep all the balls in the air at the same time. A self-publisher has to perform the tasks of a writer, editor/publisher, business manager, and marketing director.

Writer

The large portion of the past month has been spent in rewriting Dancing in Heaven to omit family members who so requested. This involved cutting three large sections out, rearranging the flashbacks or vignettes that appear in the second part of each chapter, and writing a new section. Then I had to comb through the entire manuscript to remove any reference to, or inference of, additional siblings. I did this twice. I also had to remove photos. In some cases I cropped or Photoshopped individuals out. In other cases I selected new photos to replace the ones I had to remove.

I also edited and revised the extra pages that are located at the beginning of the book: the title page/s, copyright, dedication, acknowledgements, table of contents, and author bio.

I sent all of this to my graphic designer (and daughter) who will hopefully work her magic on it and make it all shiny again.

Editor/Publisher

I am very excited about the early draft of the book cover that my daughter is designing and can’t wait to show it to you when it is finished, which I hope will be soon. It’s better than I had hoped for and actually brought tears to my eyes.

I haven’t assigned an ISBN to the book yet and am going to wait until I know that we are close to publishing it. I think this is a simple matter of going into my account at Bowkers and giving them the title information. I decided not to register the copyright or get a Library of Congress listing. I don’t think it is that critical, and quite frankly, I’m starting to weary of all the red tape.

I have an account on Createspace, the print on demand provider I intend to use. I will have to navigate my way through their site when I have a final document and cover to upload.

I still need to finish the copy for the back of the cover. I have two short blurbs that I may use and am waiting on a third. I have a book summary written. I think Createspace will generate the barcode for me, but I need to verify that.

Once I get Createspace up and running, I will look into what is needed for the e-book, which I hope and suspect will be a simple matter.

Business Manager

Grote Ink, LLC is a registered company, with a checking (and savings) account and a debit card. I opted out of the credit card. I have been trying to collect receipts for all expenses up to date which include editing costs, workshop fees, legal fees for company registration, and ISBN purchase. I decided to apply for a Delivery Vendor’s License which will allow me to hand sell books at events, if I so choose, throughout the state of Ohio.

I plan to keep the business financial records on paper as well as on our copy of QuickBooks. I’ve used this computer program for my husband’s company with questionable success at times. (The accountant has had to bail me out on more than one occasion.) It’s one of those programs that thinks it knows what you want to do and at times whisks numbers away from you, which never reappear, ergo, I’m keeping paper records as well.

As far as the business goes, I think it is just a matter of keeping financial records from this point forward.

Marketing Director

I need a plan.

I have a vague notion of announcing the availability of Dancing in Heaven on my blog and social media sites, sending out a few free copies, and creating bookmarks, otherwise I’m pretty much stuck at the starting gate.

I also need a website, which I hope to create in the coming weeks.

I know I will need book reviews. I know there are other things I can do to promote Dancing in Heaven. I just have to sit down and figure it all out to come up with a plan. Since the business set-up, and hopefully writing, work is done, once I get the publishing activities behind me, I should be able to devote all of my time to figuring out marketing.

As always, I am open to any helpful suggestions you may have.

Have a restful weekend.