State of the Author: October 2023 edition

October

The state of this author is frazzled.

The only thing I’ve really self-published before were ebooks; the print collection Memory of Stone came later, and there wasn’t necessarily a ton of excitement about it; it wasn’t new per se.

Hunter’s Redoubt is entirely new. And I have discovered that while uploading ebooks is simple and clean, uploading files for print books is … not. Little things have to be adjusted. Big things have to be adjusted. The book is at the maximum length that Amazon will print, which means some of those adjustments are difficult to make. But Amazon’s processing tells you immediately when you have to make adjustments.

IngramSpark’s processing does not. I know I uploaded the wrong cover file for IngramSpark because neither I or my designer understood what needed to be uploaded (it seems very counterintuitive, tbh). But I can’t cancel the process and upload the correct cover file. I have to wait. For 3 – 5 business days. And then upload the correct cover file and wait for another 3 – 5 business days.

Eva Wilhelm has been uploading her finished chapters as she goes, and I’ve been uploading those to FindAway, the distribution platform. But that, at least, I’ve done three times now, so I foresee no ulcers in that process. (She says, knocking wood.)

I wanted to wait to post anything until all of the various parts were lined up.

But I also want to post the sample chapters I generally post before a book is published.

So there’s been a lot of spinning in circles.

In the meantime, the revisions for Cast in Atonement have arrived, far earlier than they usually do. But I haven’t been able to dig myself out of the Hunter’s Redoubt print SNAFU to really look at the revision letter or to arrange to talk to the editor.

***

I am going to put the Hunter’s Redoubt chapters up, which means the book page will go live. The publication date is set for 30th of October — but the print on demand books aren’t quite there yet. Amazon was (relatively) simple. Ingram may be simple? But Amazon takes about five minutes to evaluate whether or not your uploads are print read; Ingram takes “3 – 5” business days to assess. During that time, there’s nothing I can do. Any mistakes I’ve made during this first-time endeavor will have to be fixed, but will incur another 3 – 5 day wait.

I still have hope that 30th October is a realistic release for print and audio, but there’s a lot more anxiety and lot less certainty as the days pass. Actually, I’m not worried about the audiobook. Just the print versions.

16 Responses to State of the Author: October 2023 edition

Joe says:

October 17, 2023 at 4:21 pm

I am v excited for this. Just wanted to say
Marie says:

October 17, 2023 at 4:28 pm

Wishing the best for you!
Melanie A Allen says:

October 17, 2023 at 4:34 pm

I am cheering you on in the learning curve, you get through it! As excited as I am about a book coming out… it could be next week or next month, I am just thankful there are more of your books continuing to tell me the stories I been following a log time
Birgit McCall says:

October 17, 2023 at 4:41 pm

We will wait for you to figure it out! Don’t stress. We are all just so exited about the book!!! Thank you!
Chris G. says:

October 17, 2023 at 4:55 pm

I was excited for the print collection of Memory of Stone and am still very glad to have it.

I have faith that this will all work out well…in the end. Hopefully that end arrives sooner for you than later. Good luck and thanks for the update!
Joey says:

October 17, 2023 at 4:57 pm

Congratulations to The Author — actually The Creator since you’re doing far more than writing the book — for getting this far!
michelle says:

October 17, 2023 at 5:12 pm

@Chris G. That was maybe poorly worded on my part. I was happy to put out a print version of those stories for those who do not read ebooks, but I also knew if people would be happy, there wasn’t the same sense of New Novel anticipation, if that makes sense?
michelle says:

October 17, 2023 at 5:14 pm

@Joe: thank you :). I’m very excited as well — but there’s a bit more anxiety in mine =/.
Marti M says:

October 20, 2023 at 9:10 pm

Eagerly awaiting the publication of Hunters Redoubt (with instructions as to how it can be purchased).
michelle says:

October 21, 2023 at 7:49 am

@Marti: In theory, purchasing the book should be similar to purchasing any other new novel. In practice, I had no idea what I was doing, and I’d never worked with either Amazon or IngramSpark for print before. Ebooks get ordered the normal way – the ebooks link on the book page are live for pre-order. Print books will be available, but with ebooks it’s a simple: upload the files.

With print books it appears to be: upload the files. Order a proof copy to make sure the actual printed book works. Fix anything that wasn’t an obvious problem with the electronic proof. Upload new files. Etc.

The Amazon print book should be available to order for the 30th of October soon. The everywhere-else print books are far more up in the air. Amazon lets me know immediately when there’s something major wrong with the files; I can fiddle with them and upload new files, and iterate on this until in theory the book will print properly.

IngramSpark takes 3 – 5 days to produce an electronic proof. If any changes are made, it’s another 3 – 5 days. IngramSpark is the source of the print-on-demand hardcover. So I’m uncertain at this point if that will actually be available by the 30th.
Chris Carlucci says:

October 22, 2023 at 4:21 am

I’m not sure I understand the difference between a print version from IngramSpark and one from Amazon. Why would I choose one over the other?
chibipoe says:

October 22, 2023 at 8:09 am

Chris, the print on demand from Amazon will be paperback, and their hardcover option was a laminated board akin to a children’s book. Ingram will be a proper hardcover with a dust jacket.
michelle says:

October 22, 2023 at 8:42 am

@Chris: Sheila retired from Astra’s version of DAW, so it’s my hope that she’ll have time to do what she’s always done going forward. In the meantime, I hired a copy-editor who has done good, expansive work for the first book in the series, and a proof-reader with an eye for detail. (And an unpaid second pass proofreader – my mother – who has used her natural talent to find flaws, which she has shared.)

There are two advantages to self-publishing these books. The biggest, for me, is that I don’t have to watch sales figures & numbers, wondering whether or not I’ll be able to write the rest of the series. I also won’t have to leave things off the page because I only have a certain number of books, and I can’t actually write them because they will expand that number of books. I didn’t intend, before this, that I return to the South at all, because I was desperately trying to write *four books*, even if I warned Sheila that there would probably be six. I had an entire thread involving Angel and Terrick that I would have left alone. (People were… not very happy to hear that I had intended not to have events in the Dominion on the page.) Now, I don’t have drop everything that won’t fit in four books.

Writing to length was never, ever a strength of mine. Aiming for a specific length was never a skill I could leverage. But Hunter’s Redoubt was long, for a first book in a series. My longest series book that wasn’t a final book was Battle, at 276k words. So it seemed reasonable to me to assume that the upper limit of a West novel that wasn’t the last book in the series was 276k. This did not prove to be true.

The disadvantage to self-publishing is every bit of work that occurs after editing and proofing has been done. There are things that I didn’t think about while writing, while revising, while going over copy-edits, etc. For me, the book was finished once I’d dealt with the revisions necessitated by various stages of process.

But of course that’s only true for books that are being publishing by someone else. But.. of course: Yay! I’m finished! Is only true when a publisher has the responsibility of doing everything else. And, oh look, that’s me.
michelle says:

October 22, 2023 at 8:47 am

@Chris: What chibipoe said. Amazon’s print version will be sold by Amazon; IngramSpark’s print version will be sold by anyone else (including the bookstore I work in). Amazon has its own self-publishing and printing arm. But Amazon’s hardcover option is “laminated boards”. The cover art printed on the hardcover. So there will be no Amazon hardcover. Amazon *can* order copies of the IngramSpark hardcover — when it’s available T_T — but I expect that it will order only to cover specific special orders; I don’t expect them to keep it in stock.

I expect, in fact, that people who want the book will have to special-order it; I don’t expect stores to stock it on shelves. The entire print on demand endeavor is to make sure that people who *do* want the print version *can* special order it from their bookstore of choice.
Chris Carlucci says:

October 23, 2023 at 5:28 am

Thank you. That will help in deciding which one to purchase.

Hadn’t heard about the acquisition by Astra, or that Sheila had retired from DAW afterwards. Given her and Betsy’s age, and that I’ve never heard of anyone else in Betsy’s family involved with the business, I imagine that was the best decision to insure that DAW continues going forward — but when Betsy retires, it will be the end of an era.

Forty-six years ago, when I was a sophomore in High School, I found my school’s Sci-fi and Fantasy section. Someone had given me “the Hobbit”, my first book that wasn’t a Scholastic children’s book, on the bus to school. It was awesome and I wanted more.

On the shelves, mixed with the other books, were these odd paperback sized books with a yellow spine and hard covers (special versions they published for schools). They all had “DAW” printed on them and a number for each title. Most notable was a large series of books by an author called “Allen Burt Akers”, (what I later learned was a pseudonym of Henry Kenneth Bulmer — at the time, I didn’t even know what a pseudonym was, or why someone would use one.)

This was my introduction to reading voraciously (often two or more per week) and DAW books. From that point onward, seeing DAW on a book meant that I was very likely to enjoy the book, and I always looked at those books first. That was how I first found you.

When you next speak with her, thank her for me. I couldn’t tell you the names of most publishers, but I knew of Donald, Betsy, and Sheila.

You are only a few months younger than I am. When did you discover reading and speculative fiction in particular? Do you remember the first science fiction or fantasy novel that you read?
Chris G. says:

October 24, 2023 at 5:35 pm

Amazon US now has the Paperback available for purchase: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1927094518/