I am now an Author

This post comes a few weeks late, but I am so excited to state: I am now a published author! After about 18 years (wow that is long) LISHKA is finally published and released onto her readers.

The past few months I’ve been QA’ing the interior meticulously. In an earlier update, I mentioned how I wasn’t sure about the sizing of my first print proof. Well, after the usual agonizing over this, I went with my gut and asked my amazing designer to resize LISHKA into a smaller paperback—5.25x8—and I’m so glad I did. The proof arrived and it was a perfect, thick but still floppy, comfortable-to-hold paperback book. We also increased the font size to 11.5 and widened the interior margin. I’m so thrilled with how it turned out! The final book is what I imagined and have fantasized about for almost two decades, only even better.

My Publishing Process

I am figuring this out as I go, flying by the seat of my pants. I have no real marketing plan and decided not to do a Pre-Order. I wanted a quiet release to make sure I didn’t mess anything up. At the end of July, I received my last print proof and decided the book was ready, pending two very minor copy updates (just italicizing two words). My designer quickly turned these around and rather than waiting for another proof, I closed my eyes and pressed the big yellow ‘PUBLISH’ button on Amazon’s KDP platform.

It took a few days for the book to go live. When it finally did, I realized I had goofed on the book description. The enter block of description was all bold and biiiiig font. Apparently, you have to set the formatting in the description you enter in KDP but it actually doesn’t show you in the text viewer what the published font will look like (learnings for next time). I was able to edit it right away but then had to wait a day for the edit to get processed in Amazon.

Anxiety began to hit because, technically, I actually didn’t get a proof of the version I’d published. I had checked the digital proof of course in Amazon’s KDP preview window, but I hadn’t actually seen it printed. I mean, there were only two teeny copy updates… I figured it was pretty low-risk. But seeing it live on Amazon made my what-ifs go crazy, so I decided to order my own copy to just triple check what readers would be getting before I announced it.

Of course everything was fine, and so I finally announced LISHKA on my social media a few days after it became available on Amazon. The support from my little community has been amazing! I’ve had old friends from High School (and earlier) reaching out to say they bought a copy. So many family members have shown support and also told their friends! Two close friends I work with posted on our messaging system at work, and then so many coworkers reached out in support (it was very touching, I am exceptionally lucky to work with such amazing, supportive people). One of the leaders at my company was even offering to buy books for people to, quote, ‘boost engagement’ (oh, I work for a marketing company so they all get it ;).

What’s Next?

So far, I’ve only published paperback. That’s what the designer and I focused on first, and since it was ready I just didn’t want to wait until a month or two to figure out hardback (Amazon doesn’t provide jacketed hardbacks so that’s a whole other ordeal). Now I’m QA’ing the digital version for Kindle and E-readers—I do this by pulling up the final paperback interior and almost word for word checking against the digital copy just to make sure all formatting was pulled through, along with any of the final edits I had made to the paperback. There is a lot of QA involved in publishing. My designer is also finalizing the hard cover version, which will be a larger size (6x9).

I am also working on loading up the paperback and e-book to Ingram Sparks, which is a third party distributor from which bookstores and libraries can purchase LISHKA at a discounted rate. Once I have that set up, I will need to start pitching to my local bookstores to see if they’d be willing to take a chance on LISHKA!

Because I jump at any opportunity to avoid actually writing and editing, I also had fun creating these little reader ‘cards’ that I can stick in books when gifting them to free little libraries (pictured above). They have a QR code to my Linktree and a little message from me. I designed them in Canva and printed via 48Hour Print (who has excellent customer service and really great print quality, highly recommend them).

And now, of course, I need to turn my attention to the next book. I have the rough draft I’m painstakingly editing and taking forever to do so… but now that LISHKA is out there, I know I won’t be allowed to take 18 years to publish this one!