only a week out from launch day

It won't be long before Chester and the Sex Robot vs the Woke Mind Virus is out there in the world. I have been pursuing traditional publishing for some time now, with this book (my third) as well as my second. I've submitted over 400 queries to agents and independent publishers, but have not found any success. And so, it's time to try self-publishing! I hope to be proven right that there really is a largely untapped market for this kind of material.

The many hundreds of hours I've spent on the submission process hasn't been a complete waste of time; I've gained much experience in crafting query letters and writing first pages that have a good chance of hooking in a reader. I feel like I could run a seminar on submissions at this point with minimal preparation. Despite these efforts, I only received a full manuscript request for Sex Robot from one independent publisher. That was last October, and I haven't heard back. I did receive my first full request for book #2 just over a week ago, which was a bit of a surprise. Here's hoping.

I've learned a couple of things about publishing that I do not like. For example, it often seems like it's just as important (or even more important) for an agent or publisher to sell the author as it is their actual writing. Many of them mention in their submission guidelines that the author must build, or already have, a large following on social media. None of that stuff is going to work in my favor. I'm only interested in showcasing my work. The stories can speak for themselves.

The self-publishing process has been an interesting one as well. I didn't imagine it would involve submitting tax forms to Barnes & Noble to prevent my being taxed 30% on royalties by the US government. I did correctly foresee having formatting issues on each of the platforms I will be selling on, especially the e-book versions. Good gravy. I must've made two dozen versions on Kindle Create before I realized that I should just use B&N's and Kobo's own docx to epub converters.

I'm also glad I ordered a print proof from Amazon, because I spotted an error that I never would've noticed otherwise. There was a random blank page before one of the chapters, and I could not figure out why they would've inserted it, as it was not there in the manuscript. But eventually I figured it out - the page number on the page previous to the new chapter was the same as the new chapter page. Amazon was putting in the blank page to maintain the proper left/right formatting. And so, I just had to go to every new chapter page and configure the footer to continue from the previous section. These are the exciting stories of self-publishing.

After a few months of work and preparation, here I am, making a journal post and putting up my website. I'll set up my Facebook author page this coming weekend, and I'll be all set for release day. September 1 is almost here.