It’s as easy as 1-2-3 . . .

Old Friends went live on Amazon today!

In case any other first-time authors would like to follow in my footsteps and self-publish a novel, here are the steps to follow.

1. Get over your hang-ups and summon the courage to start writing. Don’t wait for a mystical revelation. A fully-developed plot will not descend from the clouds. Just do it. Start writing. Time: 5-10 years.
2. Write the first draft. Be amazed at yourself. You wrote 68,000 words. Time: 5 months (assuming you’re unemployed).
3. Get loving feedback from your wife and write the second draft. Add another 7,000 words. Also, during this time move to a new city. Time: 6 months.
4. Decide to print five copies as Christmas presents for selected family and friends. Frantically proofread and fix a lot of mistakes (oops, you miss a few). Also spend hours looking for a cover image. Draft number three is done! Upload it to a printing service in the nick of time. Time: 4 days.
5. Wow. It feels amazing to see your book in print (although, to be honest, the quality is not great). Hope for positive feedback from your friends and family. Then spend weeks not thinking about your book. You need a break. Time: 10 weeks.
6. You’ve made it this far. You can’t stop now. Decide to self-publish the book. But you’re going to do it the right way. That means finding a professional editor. Research a large number of editing services and choose one. Time: 2 weeks.
7. Send your precious manuscript to a developmental editor to review the plot, pacing, character development, etc. Wait anxiously to hear back. Agonize. Time: 6 weeks.
8. Process the editor’s feedback. Relax. She liked it. Time: 3 weeks.
9. Write the fourth draft incorporating your editor’s suggestions. Ignore some of her ideas. Be inspired and add a new chapter. Word count now over 83,000! Time: 6 months.
10. Next step: copyediting! But no editors are available right away . . . patience. Eventually one is found. Wasted time: 1 month.
11. Copyediting takes longer than expected. Contract with the same company to start working on cover design and interior formatting. Time: 2 months.
12. The copyeditor’s comments come back. Not too bad! Start rewriting again: the final (fifth) revision. You are getting sick of reading your book. It’s getting hard to keep up the momentum. Time: 6 weeks.
13. You did it! The manuscript is finally done! You think! Now you just need to get the text formatted and finalize the cover! What is taking them so long??
14. While you’re waiting, create your author’s website. Start writing blog entries. The experts say you have to do it. Weight the pros and cons of publishing on IngramSpark as well as Amazon. Read many blogs.
15. Discover that YOUR EDITOR RESIGNED FROM THE COMPANY (OR WAS SHE FIRED!?) AND COMPLETELY DROPPED THE BALL ON FINISHING THE PROJECT! Wasted time: 1 month.
16. Decide to do all the text formatting yourself. Spend hours bogged down in excruciating detail: fonts, margins, spacing, page breaks, layout, ugh. You have to read the manuscript again!! Find out it’s harder than it looks. Oh, and don’t forget to buy ISBNs. Discover that eBooks are a separate process that requires different formats and specifications. Spend hours trying to figure it out. Time: 3 weeks.
17. Find someone else to finish the cover. This time a friend you can trust (thank you Vini!). Time: 1 week.
18. Finally, upload the files to Amazon and IngramSpark! The first time it doesn’t work! Fix the problems, try again! It worked! You order a proof copy! Time: 2 days.
19. The Amazon proof copy is perfect! Take a deep breath and click PUBLISH!

Congratulations! You did it. Amazing. Incredible. What a feeling. Your self-published book is finally live on Amazon. Total time (not including Step 1): 29 months.

That wasn’t so bad. If I can do it, anyone can.