Self-publishing my first novel. (Two minute read)
It’s a strange experience to finally publish my first novel, Daughters of the Famine Road. I’m so pleased I can do this on Amazon KDP.
I finished writing Daughters of the Famine Road, two years ago. I submitted it to Cornerstones Literary Agency for advice and got some super feedback from author, Terri Nixon, @terrinixon
I began writing the second follow-on novel, and sent out Daughters to several agents and publishers. None were interested, however, I felt that maybe someone would like to read it, so I considered self-publishing. The other reason was that the manuscript had sat on my laptop for two years, while I waited to hear back from anyone. I felt it was time to set my characters and their story free.
I looked at KDP on Amazon. They had lots of advice about self-publishing, so I worked through that.
I also found the website Reedsy, www.reedsy.com/ which offered a book editor, a free online writing tool. I uploaded my Word doc to Reedsy and instantly liked it. The work appears in chapters and you can move them around. The layout makes it easier to edit also.
I decided I needed to employ a book cover designer, as I wanted my book to look good, and I found Latte Goldstein on the Reedsy website and he designed this cover.
I had the manuscript proofread read by my daughter Nancy, and I was ready to upload to KDP.
Next time, I’ll tell you about the number of times I had to re-upload my manuscript, until I was satisfied with it. It's not a ten minute job!
To purchase my novel: