If you are new to my blog, Welcome! You might know that I am author of My Dear Ellie, published January 2020.
One of the challenges of being a new writer I found, besides completing the book, is when you have arrived at the point of publishing. I didn’t have the resources or time to go with traditional publishing so I went with Amazon KDP self-publishing. Full disclosure here: I would have never completed or thought about writing a book if I hadn’t come across blogs which detailed all the positives of self-publishing, so thank you to helpful bloggers! I am grateful for the knowledge you shared. I am thinking of paying it forward to anyone out there with my learning experience so far.
These are the things that I learned:
Kindle Create: Many curse it but I found it oddly calming. If you are a pro at formatting, Kindle Create might be slow or infuriating. I am not so it guided me and became my safety like a training bike to a toddler.
Creating book cover: using the KDP book template, many tears, font and picture versions later I am ok with what I have now. Actually I can’t afford to change my mind again if I want to move on and write the second novel 😅
Editing: Not there yet though it haunts me. I feel a professional edit might do My Dear Ellie some good, but in my mind there is resistance and much protest.
Creating a book trailer (sort of): The trailer below is my handiwork and I am proud of it. It is a masterpiece of my limited technical skills. However it is pretty 🥰
Blogging: a side effect of trying to promote my book and perhaps share my thoughts…so here we are 😬
Social media aka black hole: twitter, goodreads, Instagram. All byproducts of finding an audience and common fellow writers for my book and for book reviews (and maybe for the photos that I take, especially on Instagram). Although they take a lot of my time, like all shiny new things, my mind will move on to my next book eventually. I hope.
File conversions: png to jpeg, jpeg to pdf, resizing pdfs, mp4 to gif…will it ever end? Luckily there are many online websites and no app downloads needed.
Self-Publishing after writing is like adding another subject area to master. I take it one day at a time. Sure there has been mistakes…like inadvertently creating multiple editions while using KDP. (Note to self: Just stay away from the publish button Aisha).
Reviews: I will be honest, I am scared of reviews especially by readers with many many wonderful books in their read pile. No..scratch that…I respect such reviewers and will consider them greatly…but I am still new at this so I will look for the good and uplifting first. Then I will focus on what could be improved. It will be a battle between my heart and my practical mind and I will listen to the best of both.
Hope you found my journey so far enlightening or at least encouraging…or I will be ok with entertaining as well. It is a learning process, if you are hesitating, be kind to yourself. We would love to one day hear your voice in the writing community too 😊💕
Aisha's Writing Corner 