I'm so excited to say that today Rebecca Yoder, the author of 'The Golden Dragon Series', is doing a guest post. I hope you enjoy it and love her as much as I do. Without further ado her is Rebecca Yoder talking about self-publishing.
Hi, my name is Rebecca Yoder and I write books...ok, that was a twist off of a quote from one of my favourite movies Anne of Green Gables. Now on to the real stuff.
Olivia gave me the opportunity to write a guest post for her blog. I love the way she writes. She makes me want to read the books she reviews. How about that one she did Sunday on Tiger Lily? Now I have to add it to my Goodreads list!
She asked me to write about self publishing. Well, I confess, I’m probably not the most experienced person to be talking about self publishing, but I can tell you how I do it. Fair enough?
Why I Self Publish
Almost four years ago I moved to a new state here in the good old U.S. I had just left a six-year teaching career (which I hated) and was starting over with nothing. I decided I wanted to get back into writing. A few weeks after my move, I met a guy who introduced himself as a writer. Through him I learned about websites where you can publish an eBook version of your book for absolutely free. That tickled my ears because I did not want to wait the 2-3 odd years for a traditional publisher to accept me, nor did I want to fork out thousands of dollars to print the book on my own. These websites were my ticket to getting my work in print with no cost to me.
What I Did First
The first website I used was Smashwords.com. Five months after hearing about it I published my first eBook. (I know, I’m fast, right? lol *sarcasm alert* I don’t know why I felt so afraid of it, but I did.) I wrote that book in about two hours. It’s a children’s book called Betty Butter that you can check out on Smashwords and Barnes and Noble. It was my first experiment with self publishing.
I found that the work I had to do to format the book properly was a little daunting. I think, though, that it sounds more difficult than it really is. However, there are other websites that make the process much easier for you, and faster. One of these is Tablo.io.
How I Self Publish Now
To date, I still have a profile on Smashwords but have not used it to publish since that first experimental book. I now use the aforementioned site, Tablo. On this site I can literally copy and paste my work into their word processor thingy then hit “sell in bookstores” and in a week or so my work is available on Amazon and iBooks. (I like that waaay better than formatting my own work!)
I also have another cool place where I will be selling my books, and that is Etsy.com. Etsy is a website where you can create your own online shop and list items to sell. The only catch is that these items have to be handmade, vintage or items that are used to make crafts. You can sell literal or digital items. So, for Etsy, I create a PDF version of my book with an enlarged font, making it beautiful to read on phone-sized devices, and create a listing to sell it and -- presto! I have a book for sale. Etsy does have a small cost, $.20 per listing per month (or maybe it’s for 3 months). I would keep better track of this, but the cost is so low that who cares!
That’s It!
So, that’s it. Those are the two ways I self publish. I find them ridiculously easy and they are the perfect fit for me at this time.
I am currently working on a series called the Gold Dragon series. I released Book 1, Innocence in March 2015. I’ve since chosen to update the book a bit and do a relaunch (which started last Friday, September 4th on Wattpad and Tablo!) followed by the release of Book 2, Awakened, coming mid-October 2015.
Here is a preview of the story:
Her mom had promised. Mint should have known better than to believe her. A new town, new faces and a new danger meet Mint in Pinewood, North Carolina, the thirteenth place Mint will have lived in her sixteen years, the thirteenth time her mom will have broken her promise to stay put. A mysterious figure, a teenage murder, a strange, disappearing truck will all try to stand in the way of Mint’s goal: to find her father and move away from her irresponsible, immature, lying mom -- for good.
Innocence is Book 1 of the Gold Dragon series. At less than ten chapters long, it is the exciting introduction to a story of mystery, danger in unexpected forms, and a struggle to find a place that truly means home.
Follow Mint’s journey in a chapter by chapter release of Innocence, followed by Book 2, Awakened.
You can follow the story on Wattpad and Tablo where you can read it for free. A new chapter will be released every Friday. This Friday (Sept 11th), Chapter 2 will be up. I’m working hard to get a purchase link available for those who don’t want to wait for each week’s release and would rather buy the book right away and put themselves out of the misery of waiting. I’m hoping to have it ready for Friday. If I don’t make it, I should have it up for the release of Chapter 3 (Sept 18th). *cross your fingers!*
Thanks again, Olivia, for inviting me to do a guest post. If anyone has any questions, you can contact me (and follow me) below. I would love to hear from you.
Email: authorrebeccayoder@gmail.com
Twitter @EdinanRoman
Thanks again for this opportunity, Olivia!
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