Yesterday began the not-hard but totally tedious and slightly irritating process of listing my books with Draft2Digital. I started out with what I figured would be easiest - a single title novel rather than a series.
Most of the process is pretty simple. But I knew that from the last time I went with D2D. Unfortunately, they changed something. Now, they make you pick one of their pre-set formats. Which is probably awesome for people who haven't already formatted their books and don't have an idea of how to do it. For me? Well, let's just say things didn't go exactly as they'd gone before.
Oh, the manuscript itself seems fine. It's the front and back matter that gave me a headache today. Their theme thingies were giving me weird spacing. Like the pre-formatted list on my Other Books page suddenly had a BIG LETTER at the beginning of the list and was hard left-aligned while the other books were normal and tabbed over. You know, like you want for the story part. And I couldn't find a way to force it to recognize those first and last chunks as NOT BOOK.
Although, now that I think about it, maybe a section break would work. I'll try that with the next book.
Anyway, I went with the simplest theme I could, unchecked some thingies, and ended up with everything looking pretty much like I want it to look. And since this is Blink of an I, I don't think anyone's really going to get themselves in a tizzy over the slight differences. :shrug: I could be wrong. Time will tell.
Anyway, it's a learning process I'm happy to get through. It's just tedious. And if tedious bothered me, I wouldn't have made it this far in the self-publishing thing.
Since it's a learning process, I made a spreadsheet. Shocking, I know. But this way, I'll be able to keep track of where I'm at in the process with the 15 other books, as they drop. I have a page with all my books and where they're at in the process, then another page with which outlets they'relisted and when go live. And of course, a page showing what they're listed at and how much I'll make from each. And what sold where. And probably a tab each with links to the outlets themselves. It's all very tabiful. Do you hate me yet? You know me and spreadsheets. (Or if you're new here, you don't, but you'll learn.)
Someone mentioned that I might be able to get Amazon to let my books free sooner than the end of their contracts, but I'm happy to let them ride along and fall out naturally. It'll give me time to work with the books as they come out without having all 16 dropped on my head at once. And I can still utilize the free days and countdown deals until that happens. Can't hurt, eh?
Okay, so Blink is out to a variety of outlets. Six of them are already showing published. Two of them are foreign, so unless you read in German (the link's not ready yet) or French, they're not for you. Two of them are for borrowing from libraries, so I can't post the links because I don't have the apps for that. But it's also now at B&N and Kobo, which I can actually see. I'm waiting on Apple, two services I've never heard of, and Hoopla (another library service). Hoopla is supposed to take a while, so don't jump right over there.
Today, barring acts of payjob and any minor apocalypses, I'll begin work on getting the A Model Curse series loaded and ready for bear. SU doesn't drop out of Amazon until Wednesday, so I've got some time to work on the formatting for those. I'd like them to publish together, if at all possible. Fingers crossed.
And I'll be adding Universal Links to the Pages here once I get those finalized. You know, because D2D provides universal links and junk. Here's the one for Blink, btw, All sorts of interesting things D2D didn't have back in 2016. Weeee.
Unfortunately, dealing with all this now is distracting me from editing. Derp. I'll pull me head out soon. Promise. What I can't promise is when this next book will be ready for people to read. :shrug: If I could split myself into three people, that would help. Busy busy busy. Which reminds me I need to do something for the payjob before I forget.
On that note, I'll let you go. Stay tuned.
Don't forget to add Amazon to the universal link page since you're already published there. D2D will publish to Amazon as well, but I always uncheck them since I just upload them myself. Did you not have a section or page break between front and back matter and the book? On Kindle, I normally don't do a page break after the end of the book--I use a logo and then go right to the back matter for more KU reads but since I'm pulling mine out of KU too, I'll need to pay attention there. LOL Thanks for the heads up.
ReplyDeleteI hope you find lots of new readers with the wider distribution and there are ways (I think) that D2D can help you get into Apple and Kobo promotions.
Not much going on here. Up at five. Ugh, but since I slept through presetting today's blog, I was only 30 minutes past normal post time. I may need another nap today. LOL
NaNo. I really need to get some new words. I guess that's next on my agenda since I'm back from Wallyworld. Or I will after I go feed the office window birds. They're lined up on the windowsill looking all pitiful. There's a little seed still in the two feeders but you'd think the cubbard was bare out there!
Hang in there. And yeah, here's to a productive week for us all, no matter what we get done. Later, tater.
You are far braver and energetic than I am.
ReplyDeleteI hope you sell 1M books on the new venues!