***At a recent romance writer’s workshop, each of us were asked what our best advice would be to help each other. This should have been my first suggestion – next post, I will share what I really said.

 

When I first decided I wanted a career as an author
and not to just have a book with my name on it, like everyone else facing this
precipice, I had to make a lot of serious choices.

The decisions that faced me mostly had to do with publishing
a professional product and not an amateurish piece of work that would end up
being an embarrassment. I had friends who’d taken the cheap route and after the
first few one and two star reviews, their warnings were enough. Either do it
right or not at all.

So, I worked out a budget for each book with the
three main costs being editing, covers and formatting. Hells bells, when I
remember how much I spent over the years in turning out properly formatted
novels, I have to shake my head and swallow the cuss words. And… all I got in
return for my $100+ per book was a mobi file for Amazon.

Now, because my formatter had a lot of other
clients, I didn’t feel comfortable in asking him to upgrade the “Also author of…” page of my backlist
and so I often felt frustrated that my readers weren’t being kept up to date on
my newly published work.

A few years, and twenty-five books later, I decided
to spread myself to all the venues available and not just stay with Amazon. When
I shared the good news with my formatter, he dropped a bombshell that blew me
right out of my comfy little sand patch… you know the one where my head was
deeply buried.

Because I’d been with him for so many years, he’d
only charge me another $40 per book for the epub format which was necessary to
carry out these plans.

Whaaa!!!

As much as I hated the idea of having to force-feed myself
yet another technical procedure that would tax my non-techie brain, I knew it
needed to be done. I would have to take on the job of formatter myself……groan!!

Thankfully, the way the world works (for me anyway)
when you search, you find. After asking other authors at a local workshop how
they handled this part of their business, one very smart friend explained about
Pressbooks.

It
couldn’t be true! How had I missed out on learning about
this earlier? Twenty-five books earlier? She
explained the concept and I admit to feeling pessimistic. Copy and Paste into a
template. Only costs $20 for three formats and as many copies as you want. You
can get the paperback format there also for an added reasonable cost. And… they
have monthly sales coupons? Well for heaven’s sake… which planet had I been occupying?

That very day, I went home and opened an account. I’ll
admit it took a couple of phone calls to my friend, watching the tutorial more
than once and with the paperback pdf’s, a few e-mails to the very helpful Pressbook’s
administrator. But every time I push that export button and get those lovely,
three formatted copies (mobi, epub & pdf) of my updated work, I once again
thank my guardian angel for sending me to that workshop.

And… now that I’ve set up every one of my books on
Pressbook, I have a wonderful library of my work, altogether on one platform
where each book’s information is easy to maintain and always just a click away.
If my computer crashes, no problem, my work is safe.

So there’s my hint. Did it interest you? Or are you
still taking the hard road and paying someone else and giving up control?

 

****