Release Date. Sort of.

One of the downsides I've found with self-publishing is that you can't really set a firm release date. When you're done editing and formatting and are ready to go, you submit your files to the various sites (Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, CreateSpace, etc.) and then wait for them to approve and publish your book. There's no guarantee exactly when that will happen, and you can't tell them to wait until a specific date to do it (at least, not that I've seen). So I can't really say "DESTINED will be out August 29th!" because I can't know for sure that it will be out then.

What I can say is that, if all goes well, I believe the book will be available for sale in both print and ebook format by the end of August. Print will be available on Amazon.com and from CreateSpace's estore for $9.99. The ebook will be available for Kindle at Amazon, Nook at B&N (price TBD, though most likely either $2.99 or $3.99) and I'm still researching the other outlets. It looks like Kobo finally has a way for authors to self-publish, so I'll be looking into that. As for Sony and Apple, I haven't researched Sony yet, and it sounds like I'm out of luck with Apple unless I either get a Mac or use Smashwords, neither of which I'm keen to do right now. I have an iPad, but apparently that's not enough. It's a shame they make it so difficult, because I have the ePub all formatted and ready to go!

Once I get my print proof back and can look it over, I'll be all set. I want all the formats to release around the same time, so right now I'm held up on the print proof. I see that the review process is done and I can order a proof, but there's a warning about transparency in my cover PDF, so I have to check that out when I get home from work before I order the proof and waste any more time. It says the flattening created a color shift, which makes me nervous. I thought the flattening was already done when I originally saved the PDF in Illustrator!

Posted in: book,cover,print,self publishing