What a world we live in! Just last Thursday I’ve uploaded the latest files to CreateSpace, then on Friday got the green light to order a proof for review. I paid $26 to have it express shipped to Australia and it was supposed to arrive this coming Thursday. That would have been amazing, but I was not holding my breath, what with the customs and all. So imagine my surprise when the package arrived today! Five days after uploading the files!
What a wonderful, amazing world, full of possibilities!
It’s beautiful! I was worried for some reason that it would look cheap, but it’s gorgeous – it looks just like any book in a bookstore. I chose glossy cover and cream paper and I love the result. The glossy cover makes it feel quite solid, and the pages feel great, like firm paper with a soft feel – the best way I can explain it. The cover colors look just like on my monitor, not like the crappy prints I did myself. The red leather looks very realistic, and I’m once again happy I went back to the gold leaf overlay for the title. If you are interested, I will post a few photos on the weekend – it’s impossible to photograph under artificial lights.
I spent a couple of hours reviewing the interior. They say you’re supposed to read it three times, but I just couldn’t do it. I’ve had multiple professional proofreads, and the Kindle edition has been out for three months. Surely, one of the 18 reviews would have mentioned if I had glaring errors? I also would love to continue tweaking the cover art, but at one point you just have to stop. Just stop and move on, and issue another edition in the future, if need be. Otherwise, the sequel will never get finished.
So I’ve approved it for publication. The message said that it will be available on Amazon in 2-3 days. Not bad. Then I’d decided to check Amazon. You know, in case they were just managing my expectations.
I don’t know what I was thinking. Stupid, unwarranted hope. Which sometimes leads to unexpected results:
It’s here! I mean, there, in cyberspace! It’s already available on American Amazon website and appears on UK Amazon, although not yet available to order. It doesn’t yet appear on Australian Amazon, but that’s not surprising – we are ahead of the US by about 16 hours and behind by at least 16 years. It has not yet linked to my author page, or to the Kindle edition – I would appreciate if anyone could advise how to expedite the process. I would love to get them linked in time for my upcoming 5 December promo with Bargain Booksy. That way people may read a digital edition and decide to buy a copy or two as gifts. Cause, you know, nothing beats laughs as a Christmas gift, right?
I Skyped my parents and we clicked glasses to our respective webcams. Mom cried. Dad predicted my brilliant future and tried to tell me some new jokes for the sequel. I drunk my white wine and thought about the last two-an-a-half years of writing, editing, and publishing. It was all worth it.
What a world we live in…
Ana Spoke, author 
YAY!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Annette!
LikeLike
I know how good this feels. I walk around smiling like the kid who got called in class and got all the right answers. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
An “A student”, are you Annette? 🙂 I know exactly what you mean 🙂
LikeLike
WOO HOOO!! That’s great!!!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! Feels amazing!
LikeLike
Congrats! Absolutely worthy of a grand glass-clinking.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much, Nate!
LikeLike
Congratulations Ana!!!
After two years of hardships you finally achieved your goal! I’m so glad to see your book on Amazon. I wish one day I could self-publish my novel.
Wish you the bests in the new year:)
I have many questions about self publishing books on Amazon.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, and I hope you do – it doesn’t have to take so long. Hope my posts continue to help you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations! It’s great!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well done and congrats! You enthusiasm is infectious and an inspiration to those of us starting out on the journey… Interested in your first book case study?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much, Tim! What do you mean by a case study?
LikeLike
A nice report….no, just following you experience with interest…
LikeLiked by 1 person
That would be great 🙂
LikeLike
Fantastic cover! Congrats!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much, Marty – I’ve designed it myself!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congrats!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Meghan!
LikeLike
Congratulations, Ana!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Such good news! Please do post photos, I’d really like to see how they came out.
Thanks for covering your self-publishing journey in so much detail here. I expect to self-publish next year at some point and reading about your experience is invaluable! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much, Claire! I will – and congratulations to you for making a commitment to yourself.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations! The cover looks great, and I can’t wait to read it.
Unfortunately, there is no way to expedite the process of the ebook showing up on Amazon.au, or any other Amazon outlet. They process them as fast as they can, so the U.S. version goes first, then all other English-speaking markets (UK, Canada, Australia, NZ), then Europe and so on. I don’t think any of our books ever took the full three days to reach all marketplaces, but I can’t be sure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much! What about expediting the “linking” of US Kindle with US paperback?
LikeLike
That’s another Amazon-internal function (Amazon owns CreateSpace), so you can’t affect that either. I’ve been frustrated by that a time or two, but it really doesn’t take that long. I think it’s about 3 days from the time the ebook is live in all of the Amazon marketplaces. The good thing is that you won’t have to wait different amounts of time for it to link in each marketplace…it links to all at the same time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you again 🙂
Someone else suggested contacting help – I will try that and will let everyone know how long it takes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations! The cover looks amazing! CreateSpace and the global postal services do surprise — but only special people!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, James! That’s very sweet of you 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations, Ana. I gotta pick this up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much! If you do, please let me know what you think!
LikeLike
Can I post what I think on mu blog or should I check first with you?
LikeLike
I meant on my blog… lol anyway even if I don’t, post it on my blog, I will let you know know.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That would be awesome, of course! I don’t attempt to censor anyone, so whatever you decide to post is up to you 🙂
LikeLike
Wow…I will pass it onto you first. Expect honest over anything else. That would be best. I think the best policy in any type of art or life is to expect nothing because only then can you evaluate a piece of art without the pain of being disappointed since disappointment is the result of expectations not being met. Nevertheless I am looking forward to the read.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks again! Just please don’t expect “art” per se – it’s intended to be entertainment 🙂
LikeLike
Art can be anything. I’m pretty fluid on what I think art is. Don’t worry. I don’t think art is necessarily some super literary or elitist thing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great 🙂 whew…
LikeLike
send me an email here so I will be able to pass it on to you first, sandymasia@ymail.com on the email you will be using. All the best!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Is it ymail or gmail? In any case, you can email me: ana.spoke(AT)yahoo.com (replace (AT) with @ sign)
Be careful about posting your email straight up – the robot spammers will get you 🙂
LikeLike
Oh.,thanks for the tip. it is ymail
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh man, face palm, forgive my mistakes…
LikeLiked by 1 person
No probs! 🙂
LikeLike
I’m just happy you are interested 🙂
LikeLike
Congratulations, Ana! What an exciting milestone for you! (BTW, I’m about halfway through the Kindle version, and no glaring errors so far.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, thank god! Thank you so much! Would love to hear what you think!
LikeLike
Congratulations Ana! I didn’t go to half the trouble you did,but it was still a real ‘buzz’ actually seeing a physical, finished product. I hope the sales go well …. interestingly, I’ve sold more than twice as many paperback versions than Kindle. Hopefully you’ll find the same. (Though, that said, I’m about half way through the Kindle version of ‘Shizzle’ myself!)
I’ll update my blog with the weekend’s Personal Appearance stuff tonight / tomorrow. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Cee Tee! Congrats to you – I can’t wait to do one of those myself 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wonderful news! Congratulations!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Dr Meg! Just woke up and have to hug it again 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations, Ana!
. Enjoy the moment!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Tim!
LikeLike
Oh My God!!!! I am so happy for you! This is such an important milestone for you in your writing career. What a dream come true. I’m going to buy it when I do some Christmas shopping in the future and I love to read a real book. Can’t wait to see the cover, especially! Lucky you!!! Great things are headed your way. Congrats!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Olivia! It does feel different to hold it, instead of looking at the screen. I’m not lucky, though – just tenaciously persistent 🙂
LikeLike
The Kindle and Print editions are supposed to automatically link to each other, but it never happened for me. And it’s REALLY SUPER IMPORTANT that you get them to do it, for a whole mess of reasons. I would recommend not even waiting the 48 hours they suggest, and just go ahead and contact KDP support right away. They fixed it for me instantly.
Here’s the help article you need to read: https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A33G45HCUNE6YF
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perfect! Thank you heaps!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, and another hard-earned lesson: You need to set up a “geo linker” for your book. When people go to the link to the US store from another country, Amazon might say the book is unavailable, but not say why. This is true for both Kindle and Print editions. I’m using mybook.to which is free and super easy to set up. You just give people the mybook.to link and it looks at where they are clicking from and magically takes them to the right store. I set up two links for my book mybook.to/entropy goes to the print version, and mybook.to/ent goes to the kindle. I usually send people to the print one because the print version is so delicious (aren’t CreateSpace covers wonderful?!). But if I’m promoting something kindle specific I’ll use the kindle link.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Omg, that has been a problem – thank you once again! This would be invaluable for other authors/readers of this blog, too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Let me know when you have the linker set up, and I’ll use it to update my blog post where I mention your book.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you – will do!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is awesome! I’m trying to self publish my novel as well. It seems really overwhelming and I don’t even know where to start. I know I’m at the stage where I should get an editor, but I don’t even know where to start with that. Were there any books or sites that you followed that really got in depth with the self publication process?
Congrats!
TA
https://accidentallyadulting.wordpress.com/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Lisa! And congratulations on deciding to publish yourself – it’s empowering. There are lots of sites, I mostly did Google research on the topic. I got an editor by requesting quotes from a list of editors on an Australian editorial society website, don’t know about American. Can someone from the US she’s some light? I need that advice myself – will choose an American editor for the sequel.
Self-publishing feels overwhelming, so I personally started with a Kindle version, just to get my feet wet. I would suggest making sure your cover is the best you can get – many people have told me they’ve bought my book solely based on the cover. I’m currently running a contest for a free cover design – see the tab at the top menu on my page.
LikeLike
Congratulations. You’re my hero.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, thank you!
LikeLike
Congratulations!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Kristina!
LikeLike
Awesome. That moment is so special, hold on to that feeling.
Congratulations xxx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much, Steph! Hopefully many more to come 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
So so proud of you, my dear. You’re a shining light that is inspiring to others. And incredibly humble. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, baby 🙂
LikeLike
Congrats Ana!! I can’t imagine how you must feel 🙂 I hope it’ll eventually be in stores so I can hold it myself. I am very happy for you 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Part of the plan is to pitch it to stores, which will be an adventure in itself!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’ll be tough I bet! I know you’ll succeed 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations, Ana! All the best to you and Shizzle! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much 🙂
LikeLike
A huge congratulations to you!! This is quite impressive! Not surprising that your parents are super proud of their daughter. 👏🏼👏🏼
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! Oh, they are just besides themselves 🙂 very cute to watch 🙂
LikeLike
I’m very near this stage and am so excited for you (and me!) while I read this post 🙂 I can’t wait to experience holding my first novel in my hands! Great post, and congratulations!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much, Katie 🙂
LikeLike
Congratulations!! It looks great!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much, Karen!
LikeLiked by 1 person
If the book is already in Amazon, you can claim it from your Amazon author central page as yours. (You always have to remember to do that). It’s true that Create Space are supposed to link the two versions together but Amazon themselves (although it’s the same company, they don’t work the same) are always faster if you inform them.
And congratulations… (The issue with paper copies that’s not the same and might not be picked up when proofreading as usual are things like page numbers, lines, gaps….If you’d already printed it and looked at it before it shouldn’t be a problem)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Olga! The paper copy looks good, although there are a couple of instances where I’ve put a point outside of “”””. Oh, well…
LikeLike
Congratulations, Ana!!! What an exciting time for you!!
LikeLike
Thank you so much, Dorinda! I’m taking 5 months off work in the new year to concentrate on writing sequels, now THAT will be exciting!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That really is exciting!! The best of luck to you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks again, Dorinda 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: This is what a Create Space paperback looks like | AnaSpoke.com
Congratulations!! How lovely! And all the best for writing Books 2 and 3, which you’ve talked about in another post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much 🙂 already started on #2…
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s so awesome! You deserve it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much 🙂
LikeLike