Honestly, I really am going to write another Galapagos travel blog post—maybe even this week! Just not now (check the Archives by clicking the Galapagos link if you’re interested in what I’ve written about my travels so far). Today I’m popping in from a busy and hot (finally!) summer to report that I’ve finished going over the proofreader’s file for the Indie edition of HEAD OVER HEELS and have handed the book over to my formatter for conversion into Smashwords, Kindle and ePub (Kobo, Apple and other outlets) files. I’m also hiring out for the interior design of the new trade paperback edition I’ll be doing through CreateSpace. The same talented cover designer, Kim Killion of Hot Damn Designs, who did the ebook cover, will design the paperback cover. By the end of August, my “soft launch” should be complete. I hope!
What is a “soft launch,” you ask? It would be nice if I had a definitive answer, but that would require more research than I have time for at the moment. Instead, I’ll go with a Sindie answer (ie. what I’ve figured out but haven’t verified yet). A “soft launch” is when a self-published author is busy uploading her book to the various venues which she, as a Canadian, can upload to on her own. Example, Kindle and Kobo. Nook must be uploaded (for Canadians) through a service such as the one an aggregator like Smashwords provides. There’s a time lag between when an author uploads a book and when it’s actually made available for sale. So, in effect, there can be several “launches” for the same Indie-published book. There could be a Kindle launch, a Nook launch, a Kobo launch, a CreateSpace (trade paperback) launch. They might occur days or weeks apart. From what I have been able to gather, some Indie authors quietly go about the “soft” launch and then, when the book is available everywhere, they do a “hard launch.” In other words, announce the book as available everywhere. Other authors announce the availability as the various formats go live.
I will most likely follow the latter option. I’m too excited to wait for a hard launch (if I even have the terminology correct. If you are an Indie author and I don’t have the terminology correct, feel free to, well, correct me). The easiest way to keep up with when a particular format is available is to:
– subscribe to the RSS feed to this blog (link at bottom of blog – click where it says Entries and then click the Subscribe link that will appear in the feed).
– Join my Facebook author page and then make sure you comment or like a post every so often so Facebook will continue feeding you my updates
– Join my newsletter on Yahoogroups (see box in upper right hand corner of blog for ease of joining) and, when I am ready, I will send out a newsletter announcing where the book is available. I will likely save the newsletter for a “hard launch,” with perhaps the exception of the trade paperback version, because it might take longer than the ebook launches.
And there you have it. Several ways you can be Cindy-fied. This is not to be confused with being dignified. Dignity is for sissies.