Update Obsession

Updates.

They drive us crazy. We over check our Facebooks, we check our blog stats, and we check our bottom line. So what makes us so update crazy?

I don’t have a clue, but I thought I’d share my self publishing status with you. There are many writers sharing their experiences  in this new publishing world. I’m nothing more than a tiny little ant among thousands, and what I have to say will not overly effect anyone in the grand scheme of things.  So I will try to post what happens with my own books here.

A sum up of Right Before Her Eyes.

I originally wrote Right Before Her Eyes to target  a Woman’s World romance story.  After it’s rejection, I let the story sit.

Fast forward to now. I dusted off the hard drive the story was sitting on and read the story for the first time in three or four years. Woman’s World was right in their standard R. This thing sucked.

So I edited, rewrote things, edited again and on and on until I could at least for now live with it.

I sent it to friends, asked suggestions. Edited again. And again.

Then inspiration struck me for a book cover. When time allowed I snapped a few pictures and then the hard part- picking the right one.

I added text. Deleted text. Added it again. Until I was happy with what I’d done.  This wasn’t new to me, as I’d made bookcovers before. I’m not anywhere close to being a pro, but I can dabble with Photoshop. 🙂

I already knew I wanted to try Smashwords. I didn’t have to wonder or debate what I wanted to do with the story now that it was  nearly ready. I already had my account before I’d even remembered writing the story all those years ago. So now all I had to do was format it. I’d heard the horror stories. I’d also read the Smashwords Style Guide and from years of working, living, breathing writing with other writers it at least wasn’t foreign to me.

This didn’t stop me from being scared stupid that I’d make a horrible mess.

I very tiredly worked on the formatting most of a Sunday night. Reminding myself I’d be better off to ‘go to bed’ and work on it in the daytime ‘like normal people would do’. I’ve never been ‘normal’. LOL

I uploaded the cover and file that night.

So far it’s made it through the meatgrinder and I’m awaiting status reports on the “Premium Catalog” where my little story can be purchased from the major outlets like the Kindle and Nook. Cross your fingers for me! I don’t know how that will turn out.

So in one day I check the stats and low and behold! It says I have between 80-100 pageviews! Wow seriously? Sample downloads…6. Hahaha ok well it’s only the first day or two right?

Let’s keep in mind that if it was free, I might have seen some downloading action. Since it’s not, I may not have the first download. And that’s okay for now. Ten years from now. Ok then I’ll call this a failed experiment. But for write now, I’ll continue to click refresh and see what the status report is.