The Birth of My Novel

After many, many hours of work, my 1st novel, “Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” is finally published and ready to be found by the world.  It is now published on Amazon.com, iBooks, Barnes & Noble (Nook), Kobo, Playster, Tolino and Scribd.  Amazon even allows me to offer a paperback version that they will print on demand, which is an awesome feature.  I’d ordered the proof copy to be sure that it looked okay, and found the size to be a bit large, so I created a new, smaller version that will be up online in just a few days.  I’m not sure how many people are still reading paper books, but it’s great to have that available and you know I’m going to get some extra author copies as well.  Nothing beats holding your own novel in your hand.  Mind blowing.

I must admit, although the world doesn’t much know my novel exists at this point, it’s amazing to me that I’ve published my novel.  Being able to self-publish your book is a major boon to independent authors wishing to get their work out there.  Would it be awesome to be accepted by a literary agent who would pitch and sell my novel to a traditional publisher?  You bet it would be, but what was the necessary first step to getting published years ago, is not the roadblock it once was.  Now authors can very easily self-publish and get their work into the hands of readers around the world.  A process now possible for all authors, although with wildly varying results.  Self-marketing seems to be the key to your book being discovered, so this process is now underway.

For what is a writer if no one ever reads their work?  Answer,… a sad writer.  Not wanting to be sad, I’m now working on getting the word out about my first novel.

Progress Report:
“Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” Novel Progress: DONE, published!
1st Draft Novel:  78,198 words
2nd Draft Novel Rewrite:  Completed 2/11/2018!

“Burt’s Bots” Novel Outline progress:
Outline:  17.816 words  (Rereading outline to date now)
Novel 1st Draft:  13,367 (Went back to outlining 1st though)

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Judging a Book by its Cover

We all know the saying, which is quite wise when it comes to people, but there’s a reason this saying came to be.  Many a book has been put aside, passed over, or never read at all because of its cover and the instant impression someone had about what the story inside might be like.  So with my book about to be published soon, I needed to find a cover that would relay a part of what the story was about, so people will find it intriguing enough to at least read the description, and hopefully buy the book.

This seemed like a tall order as one my central characters was female, or at least a representation of that, and also a computer.  I did a lot of searching and had a few other possibilities, but this one seemed the best as the woman modeling for it looked the closest to how I envisioned Sofia to appear, and it included elements of both digital and fiber optics technology.  What would be an odd backdrop for other author’s books was the perfect one for mine.

I searched quite a few sites to find one that would both fit my needs and my budget.  There were more sources than I expected and found many that would allow you to work with the artists to customize your cover to meet your exact needs.  Needless to say, that came at a price.  For that kind of service and customization, it would seem worth it and a fair price to pay those artists for that work, but I needed something more economical.

I settled on a great source of many different book covers created by a plethora of graphic artists where the prices were quite reasonable.  On SelfPubBookCovers.com they had many different covers for a variety of genres, but to find the right cover, you have to put in the time to search.  I’d actually started this process a while back, so I had some time to keep looking for what would work best.  This helped as new covers get uploaded all the time.  You have the ability to save a cover, but it can still be bought by others, so no guarantees there unless you shell out the cash to make it yours.  Their site also allows for you to put in your own text, using different fonts and effects to make it look just right.  Even after purchasing, you can go back later and make edits and download the graphic again.

I’ve uploaded the cover in the Amazon Kindle Self Publishing site for my initial tests and it looked fine, so I hope that this was the right choice.  Only time will tell.

Progress Report:
“Inheriting S.O.F.I.A.” Novel Progress: DONE, publishing soon!
1st Draft Novel:  78,198 words
2nd Draft Novel Rewrite:  Completed 2/11/2018!

“Burt’s Bots” Novel Outline progress:
Outline:  17.816 words  (Added more notes to the outline)
Novel 1st Draft:  13,367 (Went back to outlining 1st though)