Friday, October 7, 2011

The Kindle Experiment





The Kindle Experiment

One of my personal goals for the time I would spend in New Zealand was to get a novel published. I did and for the first time it was self-published. I put my Young Adult novel Heartland on Kindle for $2.99.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005Q720EQ

I believe it is well past the time where self-publishing is the same as vanity publishing, Although vanity publish is still around, many authors I admire have published on Kindle. It might not be the smartest thing to publish on a new platform while I am half the world away from home but, for me, I decided it would be part of my adventure.

I knew the story was good. It was a finalist in the 2010 Young Adult Novel Discovery sponsored by the Gotham Writers Workshop. Literary Agent Regina Brooks was very helpful and comments made by the judges zeroed in on some things I needed to change. Thanks to everyone who judged the contest.

I tried to follow the directions on direct publishing with Kindle. I did not find the exact screen to set margins and indentations so attempted to do an indentation for each paragraph by hand.

Living in a university town I thought it would be easy to find a WiFi café where I could check my work before it went into final form. No joy. The university has a wireless system, but it did not allow anything as frivolous as a Kindle download.

Christchurch lost many businesses during the earthquakes. Some have reopened but had to move. Finding out where they are now is not easy. Websites have not always been updated. Information cannot keep up with changing conditions.

In the time I had I was not able to check my work before it went up. Afterward I discovered that the local McDonald’s has a WiFi café that is open 18 hours per day.

The indentations I made disappeared. And the colors of the cover I made could have been brighter, but all in all I would say it was a good experiment and I learned from it.

Preparing for my next upload, I finally discovered the page that allowed me to set margins and paragraph indentations. Tramping through the help pages so I could figure out how to check later work I planned to post, I discovered how to change work that was already posted. I was able to download, correct and re-upload the book. As far as I can tell the indentations worked this time. Having no access to outside help I’ve learned to do more things on my own.

And a small publisher contacted me. We are negotiating a paperback version.

My experiment was a success.

15 comments:

  1. Warren, your experience sounds soooo familiar. I had as many problems putting my first ebook out there. Definitely a learning experience, but like so many other things, the second time is a snap.

    Looks like it paid off well for you. Good luck with the print book publisher.

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  2. Congratulations on testing out this brave new world, Warren! And best of luck with the press--I will look for your book when it's out in print!

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  3. Yay for an experiment that worked. Congratulations also on being contacted about a print edition.

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  4. Wow, Warren! Great experiment. Time will tell whether or not I go this route, but also congratulations on being contacted for a print addition. You've just made your own way to publishing. I applaud your success.

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  5. Congratulations on the print edition. Just shows--it pays to try something new.

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  6. Warren, way to make things happen for you! Sending out positive vibes.

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  8. Congratulations, Warren, good for you!

    You did everything right, the main thing being that you made sure your novel was up to standard!

    You are correct - vanity publishing is on the way out. Top authors are not self publishing which kind of makes us "respectable" lol

    I am self (contract) published so I had a tiny company do everything for me, including listing me with Ingram and Nielsens.

    Diana Hockley
    www.dianahockley.webs/com/

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  9. Thanks, Earl,

    I haven't got to the "snap" part yet. I trying a new word processing program and my learning curve is rather steep.

    PS Love your short stories on KIndle.

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  10. Thank you, Jenny. I always enjoy hearing from you.

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  11. Thanks Jody,

    Now I've gone from print to e-publishing and the other way around. This is an interesting time for writers.

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  12. EB, Thanks! There's nothing like good luck and mine happens more often when I'n working my tail off.

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  13. Pauline,

    This is part of my New Zealand adventure.

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  14. Donnell, Thank you. I'm picking up your positive vibes.

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  15. Diana,

    Thank you for the information. IF you had a good experience with the company that helped you, could you leave the company name here? Lots of us could use some help. I'm still swimming upstream.

    There was a time I would not even have considered self-publishing, but a lot has changed since then.

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