Having finally made the decision to publish my own books, I found myself being overwhelmed by the options to the point where I wondered if this was such a good idea after all. I can’t work and write and be a publisher; my days only have 24 hours and I have to sleep through some of them.
It could take most of a calendar year to figure out “the best” way to do this and learn enough new skills to do it well. That would be another year that The Breast of Everything wouldn’t see print (yes “print”; I’m determined to have a print on demand paper version as well as epub and mobi digital books). At the end of that time, would all that work have mattered? Not really. I don’t expect this particular book to sell more than a couple of dozen copies; in this case, the old “vanity press” label is pretty accurate. So I took a deep breath and made another decision. I was going to get The Breast of Everything out the easiest way I could and I was going to do it NOW. I chose a full-service publishing/distribution provider and created an account on Bowker to purchase the ISBN. Most important, I did a single small thing that made this book seem real: I used my chosen provider’s online (free) app to make a mock-up of the cover. Now that I know what it’s going to look like, surely it’s going to happen. Right? Not so fast! You see, I’d decided to go with Createspace, but with all the buzz about retailers refusing to stock books published by Amazon, I’ve had to rethink this.
I’m back to, well, let’s call it square two. Looking for another printer/distributor who delivers services for those who are time- and publishing-challenged. I’ve been networking to collect recommendations (so much thanks to all the generous people of the VC Linked In group), but it still is likely to take another couple of months (argh!) to find an easy, good quality solution that I can sell anywhere.
Meanwhile, I’ve been focusing on this website. I am proud — a little dazzled, too — to announce that this post marks the official completion of a two-stage website migration away from iWeb (which is being sunset by Apple) and into my new domain and WordPress. I’ve taught myself just enough WordPress to be dangerous, so if there are glitches on the site, oops!