Wednesday 23 March 2011

Old Fart Wannabe Blog 12, Aargh. Panic



Hey, how did this happen? When did this juggernaut start rolling?
Let me tell you and strike a cautionary note for any other Wannabe self-publisher who is following this.

See, it’s like this. You know I wrote this book right? And the book became two books and the two books, which were actually written and under process of rewriting, revising, editing became conceptually a series of five books. If you have been following this blog you know all about that, ho hum.

Well I thought I had it all under control. I had a plan.

1.     Get trained, do some creative writing courses. OK, that’s in process and I’m learning. Diploma due, fingers crossed, in the summer.
2.     Edit the books --- In process. Give that a tick.
3.     Buy ISBN’s and nominate a provisional publishing date for July 2011 for the first one. This will be, The Axe, the Shield and the Triton (subject to quality checks by me and perhaps a partial airing on suitable websites, sample chapters on my own). --- ISBN’s are purchased and allocated to the ‘Triton’, publishing date nominated --- Give that a tick.
4.     Part of 3., of course, involved setting up the publishing house. Done. The books will be published by, Wyrd Sisters Publishing. Give that a tick. Wyrd Sisters has its own Websites at wyrdsisterspublishing.com and wyrdsisterspublishing.co.uk..
5.     The next steps, or so I thought, were:
a.     Get the web site up and running. Give that a tick
b.     Maybe publish a chapter or two and invite comment.
c.     Then, when totally ready, publish through Lightning Source.

Now that all seems perfectly rational to me, deliberate, unhurried, a plan proceeding step by careful step. When I bought the ISBN’s I gave my publication date as July 2011. I didn’t expect anything to happen before that date.

So imagine my surprise when, in the course of building the Wyrd Sisters Publishing web site on RapidWeaver, I paid the site a visit, just to check out the URL and found myself re-directed to Amazon. Imagine my even greater surprise to find that advance sales of The Axe the Shield and the Triton have already started. Aaargh!! That – puts – me – under – pressure!!

(Heh tutors! I know I’m not supposed to use exclamation marks but give me a break!)

So be warned all you fellow wannabe’s out there. This writing and publishing thing can run away with you. You can find yourself on a dump truck plummeting downhill fast.

Who did this you might ask? Well obviously I did, through ignorance of the system being a total Newbie to all this. I guess when I bought my ISBN’s from Nielsen they set the normal process in operation and part of this is notifying Amazon. Wonderful when you think about it. Also, I did have a reminder from the British Library that by law they are entitled to a copy on publication. I knew about that, no pressure there. But Amazon? With a price already set? Aaargh! Not a girl in the house washed and the street full of sailors!! And if you don’t understand that and the panic it implies, God Bless You.

Take even greater care out there, alligators are snapping at my ankles, how about yours?

OFW

Oh, by the way. This is the last post on this blog. You can now find book specific information and, soon, some sample chapters on my web site:

 
 If this link doesn't work then just cut and paste to Google. That'll get you there.