On Indie Publishers

I have been publishing with smashwords for three years now and have had a generally pleasant experience, but I must admit I am thinking about 'seeing someone else.'  Through a certain blog post, I became aware of a site called Draft to Digital, which does very much the same thing.  My only quibble with smashwords is their so-called Meatgrinder, the software they use to convert your word document into an ebook, has trouble with a complex internal navigation system (the hyperlinks and bookmarks that form your table of contents) and it is like trying to herd cats whenever I try and update or publish a 'box set' or volume with more than one book or table of contents in it.  The resulting ebooks work just fine, but the Meatgrinder has indigestion and the people that supervise the process chuck my book into the 'needs attention' bin wherein I go back and edit, and reset everything and rinse and repeat for about 8 times before someone finally lets it slip through and gets it updated.  This draft to digital seems to have a much smoother upload process, but I can't just start over.  Apparently you lose all your reviews, links, etc. if you switch and basically start with a clean slate, so all the momentum (if any) I've built up over the years is summarily lost.  I might try it with something like my 'Sampler Platter' and see what happens.  For a simple book, smashwords is great, but I dread the coming update of my 'In Shadow' complete volume when I release the new book.

On preorders

So in my last post, I notified the anxiously waiting world (tee hee!) about my upcoming book release.  The problem is, I don't know if I can wait until November.  It is supposed to be the readers who are impatient for the next book, not the author!  But since I am not a huge name author with hordes of avid readers out there (or any at all?) waiting rabidly for my next release, this whole preorder thing may not make a whole lot of sense.  We'll see how the writing process goes, but this is fair warning that the book might be out sooner than I promised.

Deadlines

One perk of being an indie author is no deadlines, until now.  I am trying out the new feature at smashwords called an 'asset-less preorder,' which is basically an announcement that your book is going to be published on day X but you don't have the final manuscript done yet.  I like the preorder feature but previously you had to finish the book and then put it up for preorder, whereas I would like to publish the thing the minute I have it finished.  This way, I can use preorder without having the book done yet and get the best of both worlds, but now I also have a deadline.  The book is two thirds done and the release date is November 17th, I should be able to make it.

It is the fourth book in my 'In Shadow' series, so if you have noticed a slight price increase in the boxed set, it is in anticipation of the next book joining the series.  Those of you who have already purchased the 'In Shadow' boxed set are in luck, you get a freebie!  Take a sneak peek at the book here.

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