Here we are, 7 days out from the big day. Release day.
For the last 10 months I have poured my heart and soul into this book. There were many nights spent screaming at my computer or simply staring at a blank page. You know, just your average author things. I spent more time than I would like to admit crying and stressing over all of the details and how exactly I was going to pull this off.
Looking back, I would say the easy part was actually writing the book. Which is saying something because it was a STRUGGLE. Still, as a self-published author with no clue what I was doing, I faced a lot of challenges along the way. One of the biggest being how in the world I was ACTUALLY going to publish this thing.
There were times where I spent hours upon hours just watching youtube videos and reading blogs, trying to find some magical answer to all my problems. The biggest mystery being how I was going to format my book, let alone distribute it. At first, everything was in a google doc, then I converted it into a word doc which was a HUGE mistake to say the least. Then I tried adobe inDesign (which I had prior experience with) and thought I was done, that it was perfect. And for the most part it was. It looked like a book, flowed like a book, and seemed easy enough to turn into a real book. However... that was not the case. Simply put, the formatting absolutely did not transfer well no matter how I saved the document. I tried exporting as a word doc (again), I tried a PDF, I even tried to keep things as an inDesign file, all of which led to frustration and failure. Then, I discovered something that changed the game.
While in the midst of another total mental breakdown I stumbled upon Kindle Create. I had zero knowledge on what it was but at this point I was ready to try anything. And boy was that a great decision. I once again returned to my google doc and this time I exported it as a PDF, then, I uploaded it into the Kindle Create software. OH. MY. LORD. I swear it was like magic. One second I had a PDF and the next I had a book. The software allowed me to add my front matter and my end matter with ease, it gave me options and choices on how exactly I wanted everything to look. All of which was completely free! Now, I'm in no way a spokesperson for Kindle Create and I certainly do not know everything about it, but what I do know is that from the moment I imported my document to the moment I was exporting the final project was at max 1.5 hours. In comparison to the 10+ hours I had spent on other platforms/software. This changed everything.
I think it is also important to note that this was all happening within the final 2 weeks of publication. Talk about stressful. Still, I am grateful for finding this as it removed a lot of the pressure and made me feel confident and proud of the final product. There were still many hurdles to jump through; ISBNs to be bought, pricing to be decided, marketing to create, and through it all I just kept counting down the days.
Now, we're exactly 1 week out from the release day and for the most part I feel ready, excited, and yeah pretty terrified. But ultimately I have found this process to be extremely rewarding... even if it did send me into more than a few spirals. I am so excited to share this book with everyone and to FINALLY see a physical copy in person.
For now, all I can do is wait... 7 more days.
Teanna Lynne
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