Do you remember your first time?

 

 Hey! Get your head
out of the gutter – I’m talking about the first book you self-published 🙂 (Gotcha!)

I recall it as being one of the scariest days of my
life, full of angst and pressure.  Everything
that should have been easy had taken on huge propensities to screw up. Especially
when I was locked in my office, three o’clock in the morning and I had loaded
the file for the 8th time and the paragraphs still weren’t
formatting properly on the viewer.

Swear words were escaping in a surprisingly fluent manner.
 I didn’t even know I knew some of those phrases, probably because I made a lot of them up. Foot stamping, a behavior I’d
given up at the age of two, had reappeared with a vengeance. And tears were
sniffed back and due to a stubborn streak weren’t allowed to fall. My husband came to announce bedtime and left with a huge bite taken out of his face.

 

Finally, giving up due to exhaustion, I remember
just hitting the save-and-continue button and promising myself I’d fix it to be
perfect the next day. To be truthful, it took a week until I’d finally gotten
the advice I needed to make the changes which were my paragraph indents.

So… that was my first time.

Tonight I helped a friend, Jodie Esch, with her first
time. We had a lot of laughs, clicked through each of the Amazon stops with
ease. Worked our way through the various selections for categories, keywords,
etc and uploaded the file where it proved to be perfect the first time. (Years
later, I’m now aware that a professional formatter is worth every penny he/she
costs and Jodie thankfully agreed with me.) Her file was already perfect before
she started.

After a lovely supper and delightful evening, we’re going
to get a good night’s sleep and wake up to her being a debut author and me
proudly sharing her joy.

My advice to anyone who is looking at
self-publishing a book on Amazon for the first time:

– Find a friend who’s already had the experience and
is willing to help you when the time comes.

– Get the book formatted properly by an expert.

 – Make sure
you’ve already perused the KDP site so you know what to expect when the time
comes.

 – Choose the categories
and keywords you want for your book ahead of time, they are so very important.

 – Have a bottle
of wine or at least some great dessert on standby to celebrate

 ~~~~~***~~~~~