Hi, everyone,
With the publishing rush almost behind me (still need to fix a couple of formatting issues), I’m looking forward to the next phase – marketing and shameless promotion. On my list of things to do is a blog tour – would anyone be interested in hosting my guest blog or doing an interview? I would offer to host yours in exchange. Probably worth mentioning that I’m not interested in paid reviews, only the genuine ones.
Please let me know and thanks again for your support!
Filed under Shizzle, Inc.
Hi, everyone,
I’m so glad to hear that my little post on using an image widget to link to your Amazon book has helped so many people! I thought I would share with you how I’ve used the exact same process to make a link to the Kindle download page. Several people have asked me for a print copy of Shizzle, Inc because they don’t have a Kindle. I’m about to embark on a process of publishing a paperback, but you may not be aware that you no longer have to buy a Kindle. You can download a free Kindle app for your smartphone or tablet.
I have put a link to the above Kindle download page into my sidebar as well, right below the link to Shizzle, Inc on Amazon.
Hope this helps too!
Filed under Self-publishing and marketing
You may have noticed that at the top of this blog’s right-hand sidebar there’s now a pic of the Shizzle, Inc cover with an invitation to download. If you click on it, it will take you straight to Amazon Kindle (the American one).
You may also wonder why I haven’t done it to begin with, as soon as the novel was published. The answer is, I couldn’t. In my naivete, I assumed that there would be an easy-to-use widget like the one WordPress.com has for Goodreads, but there isn’t one. I don’t know why. Maybe WordPress and Amazon have had a falling out, Like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. All I know is that setting up this little link was a pain.
I won’t take you through everything that I had to go through – suffices to say that there’s A LOT of useless, outdated advice out there. In summary, THIS WILL NOT WORK:
JUST DO THIS:
1. Add an image of your cover to your media library (see Media in Admin sidebar).
2. Add an Image Widget (go to Appearance – Widgets in Admin sidebar). The dialog box will look like this:
3. Put a widget title in, if desired. I put in “Download Shizzle, Inc.
4. Now go back to your media library, find your cover image and double-click on it. You will see this:
See the box in the top right corner? Copy THAT url (ignore the permalink or the “shortlink”).
5. Paste the url in your Image Widget.
6. Save and move the widget up in your sidebar (if desired).
7. Go back to your website and admire the results!
Hope this has helped or will help you in the future. It will certainly help me when I get to post my second novel, cause I’m guaranteed to forget it all by then.
Filed under Self-publishing and marketing
Hi, everyone! Thank you so much for all the good wishes and support – and thank you triple to those who bought my book!!
It’s been quite a ride – the adrenaline rush of finally getting it there, the rush of checking and rechecking stats, details, replying to blog comments, and updating my family with blow-by-blow accounts of progress. I was so deep into the lala-land that going to work this morning was like waking up from a dream. And I wasn’t happy – if anything, these last few days proved to me that I want to be a writer and create comedies, not more spreadsheets and reports. It looks like Fate has the same idea, as I’ve already missed out on one of those two jobs I was so excited about, and it doesn’t look like I’m getting the second one either.
But enough about reality, let me have one more check of stats…here we go, the results of the first day or two:
I’ve also had a few issues/learned a few things:
I’m so exhausted and emotionally wiped from the effort of this last weekend, that I could not bring myself to research any of those or attempt to fix them, but it’s a project for later on this week. Another project for this week is to create an author page and add a bio and a professional headshot – I have a photoshoot on Saturday with a friend who just happens to be a professional photographer. I will also post a review of Grammarly and results of my current marketing gimmick – stay tuned 🙂
Filed under Shizzle, Inc.
I mean, live! Isa Maxwell’s come to life on Amazon Kindle
Thank you Dr. Meg for checking and letting me know, otherwise I would have been sulking for hours…
Thank you so much, everyone, it’s finally happened. Have a great day/night, I’m off to buy a lottery ticket!
Filed under Self-publishing and marketing
I have hit “Publish”! Slightly anti-climatic, because now I have to WAIT FOR 12 HOURS!!!
I think I’ve read about it before, but chose to forget that the title does not appear in Amazon instantly. They’re probably checking it for profanities (check!), drug use (check!), and smut (not really, but certainly sex references). Not sure why, considering the stuff that gets published these days. I would probably give it a PG-13 rating.
At least I get to show you my slightly improved (I think) cover:
I have given up on adding color to my name – every single one I’ve tried made my last name completely disappear from the thumbnail. Finally I decided to go with “simpler is better” and made it all white. I’ve played with the whole thing for a couple of hours, but the only other change that’s happened is the title font. I’ve ended up printing the cover, and then tracing the name with a flat-tip marker, hopefully giving it a bit more “handwritten” look. Then it was a matter of scanning it in and changing color to white, and bam! My own font 🙂
Ok, so it’s once again “T-minus 12 hours and counting.” Damn it!
Filed under Self-publishing and marketing, Shizzle, Inc.
Today I’ve uploaded Shizzle, Inc text to Amazon. My whole body was shaking as I did it. About half a dozen times.
Turns out that my premonitions about formatting mishaps were true. There were not that many, and I resolved everything in a space of a couple of hours, but here’s what I’ve learned in the process:
First, the good news:
The not so good news:
The most amazing news:
The text has been uploaded! No more editing! (Unless of course one of you points out a really stupid mistake and I fix it, but let’s just keep it between friends, okay?). This is what it will look like on a Kindle device:
I could have published it already, but I just have to have one more fiddle with the cover image. I’m going to bed now, along with all other Australians, but will be up bright and early to finish it up. That’s if I can sleep at all 🙂
Filed under Self-publishing and marketing
First of all, thank you, everyone, for your advice and thoughts on whether I should buy my own ISBN and/or set up my own publishing company. After coming off a major adrenalin rush, reading your comments, and making a call to my local Australian Bowker, I had a plan.
I’ve decided not to bother with a publishing company, because, as someone pointed out, people “in the know” will know right away. Several comments even stated that self-published authors may get more support, or that some readers may even seek fresh, new books by indie publishers. All that, plus I really can’t handle more “unwriting” work right now. My little engine is sputtering as it is.
I did, however, buy a block of 10 ISBNs. One of the reasons was vague concern that I will be stuck with Amazon and Amazon only (to be honest, I’m not at all clear on this yet, information overload). Another one was that it turned out Australian-purchased ISBNs are cheap as chips! This will be probably the one and only product that costs significantly less in Australia (I still can’t get used to the price of shampoo and houses. Or food. Or cars. Oh, America, how I miss your cheap prices…). Anyway, if you go to the American Bowker site, you have to shell out a cool $299 USD for a block of 10 ISBNs. But go to MyIdentifiers AU and you can get the same exact ISBNs for just $84 AUS, which is about fifty American (plus a one-off first-time publisher registration of $55 AUS). I’ve called them up and asked if I can use the numbers to sell in the US and they said yes, the key being “International” SBNs. I’ve already assigned one of the numbers to Shizzle, Inc as a forthcoming novel!
The ISBNs allowed me to register Ana Spoke as the publisher, so I’m all set there and even added the two numbers (ISBN-10 and ISBN-13, whatever they are) to my copyright page.
I’ve also been busy with the very last, definitely final, absolutely, positively final text polish. It’s amazing that after at least a dozen self-edits and three professional edits, I can still find things to tweak and improve. Today I’m about to buy a year’s subscription to Grammarly. At first I was all like “I’m not paying $139 after $3K of professional edits”, but after installing the free version for my browser, I’m sold. Grammarly is checking this post as I’m typing it, and I can’t help but think that it’s doing a better job than sometimes-retarded Word. I may decide to get just a trial month, but then I was thinking of how many documents I have to write for work, including constant job applications. Grammarly very well may make me a better writer.
Speaking of polishing, I’ve also finished (I hope) formatting the text. Here is the “before” shot:
And here is the same one with hair and makeup:
I’ve done just a few things:
Thank you once again for all your help. I will try to stick to my self-imposed deadline of this upcoming weekend. Look out for a buzzing, over-exuberant, tear-stained email in your inbox!
Filed under Shizzle, Inc.
Ana Spoke, author 