Self-publishing is HARD!

In the past, my books were published by a major publishing house, who handled most of the marketing and publicity. My part was to attend two conventions a year, and turn up for a few booksignings.

Now I am self-publishing my backlist. Over the years, I’ve known enough self-published authors, that I knew it would be hard.

In fact, I was always telling newly self-published writers, "It's going to take a lot more time and effort than you think."

Never did I speak a truer word.

And that was before I met the infamous Lizzie Ford.

In the month of October, my efforts had consisted of contacting a few blogs and setting up interviews, maintaining a blog of my own on a website I already frequented, and making myself obnoxious to everyone I knew by mentioning my first venture into self-publishing as often as I could think of an excuse to do so. (Which was often.)

Prodded by Lizzie, I joined Facebook last week.

And just since Friday, when GOBLIN MOON went live on Kindle, I have: approached even more blogs about reviewing my book; contacted everyone on my mailing list, telling them the book had just been released; joined Goodreads; uploaded my bio and photos to amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, and amazon.de (and here, of course); tried to maintain a presence on Facebook, GoodReads, sffworld, and sffchronicles.

Things I've learned: Before an indie blog will review your book you have to fill out a form longer than a job application! It is no fun trying to follow directions in German when you don’t speak German, and ...

It takes a lot more time and effort than I thought.