Where to begin? I’ve been editing my book since the end of September and I finally finished it this week. After making friends with a self-published author at the beginning of this month, I’m beginning to contemplate the self-publishing route. When I first started writing my book, I made some kind of statement like: self-publishing is for books that aren’t good enough to get published by real publishers. I would like to apologize now to anyone who heard me say that. I was wrong. Honestly, the real reason why self-publishing is so appealing now is the cost and the time. I’ve heard horror stories of how hard it is to get response from publishers or literary agents. It’s a long game full of rejection and I’m not sure my heart can handle it. Also self-publishing allows me to start my book out as an ebook for free. The ideal plan is that I raise money through my ebook so I can actually purchase a plan that allows me a printed version of my book to exist. I want nothing more than a printed book on my bookshelf with my name listed as the author. This is the ultimate dream, but for cost effectiveness, I will start with an ebook and see where things go from there.
What’s next? I’ve been working on cover art and formatting my manuscript to be an ebook. I’ll be looking for an endorsements and contacting the publisher to get the ball rolling. Once I have more clarity on the publication process, I will create a launch team. Those who are interested in being a part of the launch team will get an advance copy of book to read with the commitment of writing a review on Amazon and sharing a link to purchase the book when it’s released. I’m hoping my launch team can give me the momentum I needed to get this book out into the real world.
I’m not big in the world of social media self-promotion. I don’t want to talk up my own work or have my social media become over taken by this project. At the same time, I want to give this book it’s best chance of getting off the ground. I’m not entirely sure what that looks like. I’m praying for discernment. Again, hopefully, I’ll have a launch team who will be ready and willing to shoulder the load of promotion with me.
It’s exciting and scary to move this process forward. I know I’ll be glad I did it when my book is launched into the world, but right now I’m tempted to just let it sit on my computer forever. I’ve started telling more people about it. I’ve posted it about it here. Just this week, I let my Instagram followers (all 128 of them) know that I wrote a book. I’ve mentioned it in a few ministry settings. I’m hopeful that by speaking it out loud, it will keep me accountable to moving forward.
What’s going in my life beyond book? The usual – with the exception of all the holiday goodies I’ve already started eating! We did a Friendsgiving with our growth group this weekend and I’ve been living off of the leftovers. So good! I’ve probably eaten at least a dozen dinner rolls in the last week. Also, this weekend I got a full day at home to rest so I decided to make a pan of cinnamon rolls. Graham and Jeremy helped, but I polished off at least half of the pan on my own. I view cinnamon rolls as seasonal treats since we rarely ever make them. Oh the good eats have already started in my life and Thanksgiving is still over a week away.
I know it’s too soon for some, but we put up our tree and decorated it this week. The boys have been asking for a while now and I love Christmas trees just as much as them, so it didn’t take too much arm twisting. Our autumn decor is still up and will remain so until after Thanksgiving. For those that think that decorating for Christmas rushes the Thanksgiving season, I would like to say that my autumn decor has lots of “thankful” elements and it has been up in my house since Labor Day weekend. I have thankful decor up for almost three months and Christmas decor up for about a month and half. I have given Thanksgiving its time and place for months now. I’m not skipping Thanksgiving by any means. I’m just now blurring the lines between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I’m okay with that!
Well, that’s it for now. I need to wrap this up and pick my kiddo up from the bus!
My current reading list. I love our local library!
Operation Christmas Child boxes ready to send off around the world!
Cider and cinnamon rolls! The kick off to all the yummy holiday food in my house!
The boys made their own Forky – except with spoons because we couldn’t find sporks anywhere!
Growth Group Friendsgiving
The best growth group meal we’ve ever had!
Documenting the completion of editing my manuscript!
Our thankful tree until November 29th!;)
Dropping off 13 OCC boxes for MOPS & MOMSnext.
My crafty friend and I made advent calendars to use as examples at MOPS & MOMSnext this Monday. I was just going to watch her craft, but she talked me into making one too. Now to fill the bags up with goodies!
Amy Scott's Thoughts 