Third time lucky - not quite!

Never let it be said that taking the self publishing route is an easy one.  After years of trying to get  my book 'Red Kite' published with a proper book publisher and getting so many rejections, I decided to go down this route instead with Lulu Self Publishing

The trouble is, unless you are confident with all the technical side of self publishing, it can be very daunting, as it has been for me.  I am not too hot on the I.T side of things and despite help from many wonderful writing friends, I am still alone when I come to actually doing it.  I have to click on all the right things to get my book looking like it's worth reading.

I found  that  producing it as an ebook was not so difficult for some reason but when I started to get the hard copy published, I was met with so many problems and that was only because I didn't read  ALL the instructions given. I have learned this after receiving my third copy which is nearly there - but still not good enough.

The first copy was a crazy attempt as I just pressed every button due to the shear excitement of publishing something on the same day as I released my ebook. I loved having an actual copy of it but it was dreadful and as you can see by the photo on the left it had double titles, looked very odd, the font was tiny and it had no page numbers.

The second copy was slightly better as I managed to sort out the front and back cover. It was at this point that I found out that if you don't choose the correct size for your book it will still keep coming out with a reduced font so you get tiny words throughout your book resulting in a very thin spine. If I had bothered to read  all this information from the start, maybe I would have my paperback right now to sell but I didn't.

Today I received the third copy and it's much better.  The page numbers are there, the font is ok but I still need to so some tweeking with the margins.

So, maybe number four copy which is on it's way to me right now to view before releasing it maybe the one that finally gets out there for sale.

We are all different, some people are just able to read instructions first before plunging in. I admit I got caught up with the excitement of publishing my book after such a long time. I would definatley reccomend to anyone who is embarking on a future project similar to mine, if you are not that hot on I.T, read as much as you can, ask whoever you can, be patient and make sure that everything is right before you press the publish button and eventually you will get that book out there.

'Red Kite' Book Launch

I finally launched my children's novel ' Red Kite' this week on Amazon Kindle.  It's been a long time but I am so glad that now it's out there and doing something positive.  I hope to have a hard copy soon too as I am working on the Lulu self publishing site to get it printed and ready for sale.

I started writing it ten years ago and tried desperately to get it published in the conventional way, or at least get an agent but it was so difficult.  Most of the places I sent it to took around six months to reply and only wanted it in isolation, so I couldn't send it anywhere else. Then finally after months of waiting it would come back rejected.  There is so much competition out there and it seems in Children's fiction, unless you are already very famous or destined to be the next J K Rowling, it will be very hard to get published in this way.

I did have many good comments though from major publishing houses which is rare as many only send a standard response, I think that is why I refused to give up as some of the comments were very encouraging.

The story is about a teenager who is trying to cope with the death of his identical twin brother, it shows his journey through bereavement, while trying to cope with being bullied at school, his only pleasure is Birdwatching.  I will not say anymore, just in case you wish to download it and read it at the very reasonable price of  £0.77 pence.  (Well I had to get a plug in somewhere)

It will probably never be a best seller but at least I did something with it and now I can concentrate on other projects like the sequel and I want to do some more article writing.  I got fresh inspiration for writing magazine articles just this week when one of my articles was published in the December issue of Dogs Monthly.

So, it may have taken ten years but at last 'Red Kite' has flown the nest and I can move on to other things.