She is out. She is published. Yay! It’s rather unbelievable that my fantasy novel finally is.
Right now, I am doing a soft launch of the eBook. I had read about this method of launching a book awhile ago and thought it a good idea. Basically, I upload the final DOC file to Smashwords, which converts it to all the eBook formats, creates a book page for my urban fantasy novel, and lists it on all their appropriate shelves. I tweet about She a little and tell a few close people and my Beta Readers, increase the small announcements once I’ve had a chance to check and fix it for errors, but I hold off on doing the big announcement and marketing push until everything else is in place, like ISBNs and retailers stocking it. A soft launch gives me a chance to see it in its final eBook form on my Sony Reader, on the computer, and on my iPad in the various apps — kobo, iBooks, Stanza, Bluefire Reader, Kindle. That’s the best way to find formatting errors, like a title not fully italicized, or minor punctuation errors, or typos that would’ve been missed in the DOC file. After several readings of the same file, your eyes tend to see what is supposed to be there instead of what is actually there. Looking at the ePub is like seeing it for the first time, and errors pop out at you. With Smashwords, it is easy to fix the file and re-upload it. Anyone who has bought the original version will also be able to download the newer one.
The soft launch also means I have time to create a Goodreads page for She and a page for it on my website (yet to do!). Yet I can still get the eBook out into the public while doing that and while waiting for the Canadian agency that issues ISBNs to process my registration and to issue me a block of ISBNs. Canada does not charge for this service, unlike other countries, but you have to wait. I also have to wait for Smashwords to distribute She to retailers. Some won’t take it until I have assigned it an ISBN; others will. And, as well, I want to assign the Kindle version an ISBN before I publish it in the Amazon Kindle store. In a couple of months, I hope to have the print book out.
But you don’t have to wait to read it: just head over to Smashwords, buy it for the low, low price of $2.99, and download your preferred format to your computer and eReader and smartphone and iPad. Once you’ve bought it, you can download it as many times as you like without paying again. You can also read samples of and buy my other eBooks. Enjoy! And if you can spare a moment, please leave a review on Smashwords!
