Week 13

Christmas Eve - time to ease up and make merry for a time. I'll sort out Amazon after Xmas. Interesting statistic : Even though Amazon is still out of stock I have gone up 70,000 places in their rankings from 480,000th to 410,000th. I must have sold another book. LOL.
I received an interesting response from an email to UKauthors - have a look at : http://ukauthors.com/phorum5/read.php?38,166095

Merry Christmas to anyone reading this blog.

Week 12

Christmas is looming - not much I can do now until the New Year. I am not best pleased with Amazon who are still quoting 'Temporarily out of stock'. This really hasn't helped in the run up to Xmas - I'm sure I've lost sales. I am chasing YPD to try and expedite matters but I seem to be bashing my head up against a brick wall!!
I want to get it on Kindle ASAP and have instructed YPD.
I've done all I can to push pre- Xmas sales. I look forward to the New Year where the really hard work starts.

Week 11

Amazon is still quoting 'Temporarily out of stock'!! - So I'm not quite sure what's going on there.
However I have my first 'review' on Amazon - thank you Kat.
I practice Tai Chi regularly and Colin and Mitzi who run the local club have kindly plugged the book amongst the members.
I've managed to get the book into the local major independant book store - Jarrolds of Norwich, but I've not had any luck with the local 'National' stores, W H Smith or Waterstones - I am going to have to deal with their head offices.
Christmas is approaching fast so I'll soon have to give up marketing and start drinking.
However I've got loads of ideas for the New Year after I've sobered up.

Week 10

Steady progress this week. Amazon was still stating that the book has not been released yet but this has just been changed to 'Temporarily out of stock'. I suppose that's an improvement!
I hadn't realised that there's a middle man in the supply chain between YPD and the main on line suppliers. It therefore takes time for the system to get going. This will no doubt sort itself out.
However those ordering direct from YPD are getting copies within a few days.
I don't think I have enough time to get books into local shops before Christmas - we'll see next week.
I thought I'd allowed enough time to get the book launched by the end of September - in time for Christmas - but sadly not.
Lesson No 2 - Work out when you want to launch the book and add a three month float. (Some of the processes take more time than you would think).

Week 9

It's all been happening this week. I've let everyone on Facebook know that the book can be pre-ordered and response has been good. However this is relatively limited at the moment because I've only been a member for a few weeks and haven't built up a large network - but it's growing - slowly.
Lesson No 1 - I should have joined Facebook 6 months ago when I made the decision to publish.
I'm currently working on those contacts who are not on Facebook but who are in my email address book.
I've produced a business card for Raven Publishing Ltd. This is being handed out to any contacts who may buy the book.
Friday 26th - the first run of books have arrived at the distributors and books are being delivered to those who have pre-ordered. Gulp! People are going to start reading my book!!!

Week 8

This week saw everything working except the link from http://www.welcolmtoheaven.co.uk/ . I needed this because the sales literature quotes this address and it is also printed on the back page of the book.There were initial problems but a quick way out was to set it up so if you enter via http://www.welcolmtoheaven.co.uk/ it takes you to a temporary page linking to the bookshop This will do for the moment. It will take some time to develop the website but it is not preventing book sales.
I just have to be patient.
Not in my nature!
Time to go and sell!

Week 7

I was hoping everything would be OK by now but the links haven't been finalised so there's nothing to report.
It's very frustrating after the excitement of pressing the button to go to print.
Now the long slow climb begins!

Week 6

The YPD Bookstore is up and running, so theoretically the book can be pre-ordered. However the links haven't been established yet so I can't go public. Nearly there!

An Extract from YPD bookstore

Tommy is six years old, bullied at school and abused at home. He doesn’t mind at all because he has friends that help him, secret friends, friends that are his alone, but someone wants him dead.

£7.99

ISBN : 978-0-956711502

Week 5

I've been playing with web site designs this week - hope to get on line soon.
I want to start marketing the book as soon as possible but need the web sites up and running first.
I've given thought to the numbers mountain I have to climb. Here is an interesting thought. If I can sell the book to ten individuals a week and manage to persuade a book store to take another ten I will just make the top 100 UK book list in 2183.

                                                              So much for Plan 'A'.

Week 4

I received a copy of the final PDF manuscript on Friday. After saying that I will not read it again I couldn't resist going through it. Guess what - I found more corrections. I know I have to stop some time but having found something wrong I can't resist re-checking. Anyway I needed to read the book again to see if it still ended the same way. Ha! Ha! - Guess what - it did!
I have passed all info through to YPS to enable them to set up the web site. Hopefully this will be up and running within a week and I can really start marketing. The intention is still to launch on the 30th Nov but to be able to pre-order ASAP.
I had my "press release" photo done this weekend. It took some time as I expected it to make me look the age I would like to be. Oh Well - never mind!
I'll let you make up your own mind.  Thanks to Sarah who was very patient with me.

Week 3

I had originally briefed YPS on my requirements for the cover design.They supplied the following designs for my comments:

 

 As originally requested the biohazard symbol runs through all the designs but bearing in mind the book is about a young boy I liked the silhouette, so the final choice ended up between the last two. The decision was not easy but eventually I decided on the last one. It seemed to be a more powerful image, effectively summing up the mood of the book. Consequently it has been agreed as the final design.

There were still a few more corrections this week - hopefully that's it! Book blurb and back cover have been agreed so we are pretty much ready to go. Once the web site is ready I can really start to market the book. I am still aiming for 30th November 2010 as the official launch date.

Week 2

All final corrections to the book have been completed, this took up a large lump of the week. (Jackie re-read the book and found even more mistakes!) It has all gone back to YPS now so hopefully that's it.
I received the ISBN number for the book from Nielsen. I had to buy the minimum quantity - 10!! That means I have to write another 9 novels to get my money's worth. I don't think I'll live that long so 1'll just have to sell more copies of Welcome to Heaven. Ha! Ha!
I had to write a short bio for the book and a longer one for marketing. It wasn't easy as I found it impossible to be serious, so I eventually kept them light hearted.
I quite liked the idea of embossing the titles on the front cover but costs for short runs were too high.

Now it begins. Week 1

Having spent three years writing my first novel, 6 months re-writing it and failing to attract the interest of any agents or publishers (I was warned!) I decided to self publish. This is a route many thousands before me have taken and I've been made fully aware of the chances of success - infinitessimal.
However, now I've gone to the bother of producing a completed manuscript, I'm not stopping now.
This blog has been set up to track my movements, successes and failures over the coming months and beyond as I try to get my novel published and to persuade some members of the public to read it.
Fed up with trying to get the industry to consider my manuscript I decided at the beginning of the year to set up a publishing company and publish the novel myself. Raven Publishing Ltd was created and I set about trawling the net to find a suitable company that could help me.
YPS (York Publishing Services - believe it not they are based in York,) came to my attention and since contacting them I have not looked back. I have enjoyed working with them and at last I have a finished sample book in my hands. They allow you complete control over the finished product whilst providing any help or service you may require. I would thoroughly recommend them enqs@yps-publishing.co.uk .
Enough advertising!
The last four years have been easy - now for the hard bit.
I'm currently reading the finished book and making corrections.  This is the final stage after 6 months of reading and re-reading proofs. There always seems to be another list of corrections to make. However this is the final time and once finished it goes into print and there is no going back. Gulp!
I've set a date for the launch - 30th November 2010.
The book will initially be for sale online at http://www.welcometoheaven.co.uk/  and on Amazon but don't go there yet, I am still setting up websites and links.
Ahead of me I have to organise press releases, advance information packs for book stores, radio and TV interviews, book signings and anything else I or YPS can think of to promote the book. Then there is Utube, eBooks etc etc. I'm not quite sure what is ahead of me - a bumpy ride I suspect - but I'm looking forward to the challenge. I don't know where this blog is going - that is part of the fun - if nothing else it will be a full record that will be useful when I publish the sequel.