Yes, a lot of my peers have done it already, so I'm hardly a trailblazer. But I just had my first experience writing a book specifically for Kindle, hiring a cover artist, an editor, and posting it for sale through the Kindle Direct Publishing platform.
You can acutally hire an expert who will do all this for you (not the writing part, but, thinking about it, I guess you can contract that out, too), but I decided to be a little more hands-on. The book is a novella, so I don't want to charge more than 99 cents, which means I'll probably wind up losing money on the whole exercise anyway. Might as well keep the costs as low as possible.
Anywayyy...I hit the "publish" button at about 9am on Sunday, Feb 19, 2012. The process is supposed to take 12 hours - we'll see. In the meantime, there were some annoying glitches. I couldn't get the inside cover to display for the longest time, and the book won't show me as the author in the preview. I'm hoping that gets worked out in Amazon's pubishing process.
In the meantime, I'm SO excited! If you're interested in self-pubbing, feel free to contact the people who helped me produce that at least looks professional (they're not to blame for the tale, mind you, just the trimmings. Don't blame them if you get too grossed out or scared by the story. That's on me.)
Cover artist: The incredibly talented and prolific Carl Graves.
Copy Editor: Literally, one of the nicest women I've ever had the pleasure with which to work. Plus, she catches everything! The lovely and talent Diana Cox.
UPDATE: Amazon underpromised and overdelivered, making the book available for a sale in about seven hours. you can find it here, and it can be yours for less than a buck!
Just finished High Price and downloaded Wild Talents. I love the different genres you're writing and that you have become so prolific and accessible. A quick click and your book is in my hand!
I see Third You Die is available for pre-order but the Kindle version is 32 cents more than the paperback. ?? I would pay the same, but more? Dunno.
High Price, the stuff I liked was the main character was likeable. He was more self-confident than Kevin and there was no rationalizing for his views or way of life, he just is, which I appreciate, even if he did make some dumb decisions, he owned them. While I do love the Kevin books, the passages where he waxes on with justifications for the gay lifestyle I found frustrating. I wanted to get back to the fantastic story, not hear arguments for gay marriage.
I am getting off topic, this could use more focus. Pest Control, an interesting concept. Enjoyed it.
SPOLIER
Unsure of what happened at the end. He had all these thoughts and plans for the box, then the guy came and picked it up. Did he go through with any of those plans? Unclear.
I like your style and will continue to buy everything you put out. Please keep writing, I'm enjoying the progression.
Finally, I noticed a couple errors which you may be able to fix for future versions, at 21%, it says "wanted to know how this things works." Also at 60% "Who are you ask around about me?" At 61% "I don' t intend"
Posted by: Dunnadam.blogspot.com | May 13, 2012 at 01:13 PM
Hi!
Just enjoyed your Wild Talents (and got it finished with the last juice my iPad had *gg*)
The story actually had a female voice for me^^ but the main charackter is a girl;-) Well maybe a girl really anoyed with her growth rate could get herself some nicnames^^ but... well...
The Part about 'speaking with the machines' was really great more background detail please in the next book ;-)
So I had fun *gg* by
Posted by: Ziska | May 22, 2012 at 11:17 AM