Adventures in Self-Publishing

When I started publishing my work, I went the traditional route. I wanted to be published through a publisher and learn about the craft and the business. It was a great experience, and after working with three different houses and publishing four books and two stories in an anthology, I decided to try my hand at self-publishing.

I write erotica and erotic romance, and the market out there is diverse. I love to write full-length novels, but have recently discovered the fun in writing novellas. I also love to write short stories. There's something so awesome about writing a quick and sexy read where it's all about the action and the one-scene adventure of the characters. It's challenging to write a full and complete story in less than 8,000 words, but I do love a challenge.

That's where the idea for The Kink Files came from. A collection of short stories all based on kink themes. Volume 1 explores the introduction of kink into the lives of everyday women. Volume 2 explores themes of bondage and BSDM as well as kink. Volume 3 will explore the first-time encounters of couples, and the strong women who initiate things. Not many houses will publish a collection of short stories, so I decided to publish them on my own.

I thought it would be simple. Sign up for some distributor sites, make accounts, upload my info and file, and voila! My books would be ready for sale all over the world.

Yeah, that's not how it works.

I signed up for the sites, made the accounts and put in my info. Being Canadian I had to jump through hoops in order to get my tax info squared away, but once I figured that out (thank you google and Canadian authors who blog) I got the hang of it.

Then came the fun part: converting the files. I formatted my documents according to all the guidelines, but it still took me hours of tweaking to get the Kindle file ready and looking great. Then it was the epub, and that was a disaster. For some reason it wouldn't format properly, and at 3am I was about ready to pull the plug and give up. Then I went to bed and in the morning I found a site that will not only distribute my work to selling sites, but it also created awesome converted files for me. It still took me a few hours to get them right, but at least now I'm not feeling the urge to chuck my laptop across the room.

Between the editing, covers, formatting, converting, uploading and waiting for a return on investment, Indie publishing is not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of work, money and time. You're responsible for everything from content to sales numbers, and it's daunting.

I've learned one thing for sure. I'm not ready to completely turn to the the self-publishing world. I love working with editors, learning how different houses work, and I still have a lot to learn when it comes to the business aspect of things. I'm going to continue on with being a hybrid author and publishing my more eccentric works on my own.

Next up is a novella series I wrote. Four books spanning the year in the life of a woman named April, and the four men who help her discover who she really is. They'll be released in September, October, November, and December, and I'm hoping the process for them is a little easier.

I never thought being an author was going to be easy, but it seems as though the hardest part isn't the writing, it's the publishing.