Penang, Kat and I are getting our co-written Waiting for Karl Rove up on Createspace right now, and I've also got The Wisdom of Repugnance almost ready there, too.  Both have been put up on Kindle as well.

I'm awaiting my proof copies so I can let you know what they look like when I get them.  These are both books that would be a harder sell for agent/publishers, but both 'different' and provocative enough that I think it will be easier to drum up interest on.  That's why we decided to do it.  With self-publishing, you have to do a lot of internet 'selling' of your book so it's a full time job getting the word out.


I'll keep you updated as to what I think, but really there's no way to know till you get it out there and start pounding the pavement.  I formatted it and did the cover myself, so you have to rely on yourself to make the product look professional.  I"ve bought some createspace(and other) self-pubbed books that looked HORRIBLE, so I'm hoping ours don't look like that!

Thanks Ladies! I'm going to go ahead and use Createspace and Smashwords for ebooks. I'm pretty happy with the cover I've done for the Createspace, and last night Tirz was helping me with ideas for the ebook cover. Too bad I'm so picky!! I think I've found something I want to use for the cover, but I'm not going to purchase the pic until I'm actually ready to get it up. Right now I'm doing another edit, then I'll hit it one more time before putting it up.

When I did a proof copy last year for Songbird (without publishing it) I had the formating all wrong and it was gigantic! (720 pages for a 63K word book!) So this time I'm going to be more careful.

Good luck, Jeni! I'd love to know how your experience works out.

I'll probably try and get the createspace stuff done first since I'll have to wait for the proof copy, and then work on the ebook while I wait.

I once saw a pizza advertised for ten dollars. When I reached the pizza place he said, that only includes the cheese. Everything I added was an additional two dollars. Ultimately my ten dollar pizza cost twenty dollars. Self publishing is so much like this. It's the toppings you don't purchase that will hurt the most. The two hundred dollar difference between a generic cover and a professional cover means so much to the end result. I strongly suggest you pay that painful four-hundred dollars to get a professional review (i.e Kirkus) as opposed to getting a review from your cousin who works in the library. It's a gamble, but a great review from Kirkus will sell books. Another topping is comprehensive editing. This is another layer of hurt, but well worth the pain. In my opinion, you are going to have to shell out $2,000.00, one way or another. Might as well go for the Pizza Supreme with lots of toppings. I wish you all the best in your publishing dreams.

I've paid $10 so far, and I know I'll do the $39 propian with Create Space. Right now I have a code to get a free proof copy, so no paying for that. Hopefully I won't be needing an endless number of those. Right now I'm hoping to have it ready to go this summer.

Anyone with an opinion of Fastpencil.com? I use them for their writing tools (I can get to it from anywhere online - apps for iphone/ipad etc).

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every November it is a contest to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It starts Nov1, and ends Nov30. When you've written your 50,000 words you upload a scrambled file to verify and then in December you get the goodies, which includes a free proof copy of your book.

CreateSpace has a little better binding and I find loading the covers a bit easier than Lulu but that's about it difference wise.

I have instructions on making a cover without Photoshop if anyone wants the article link.