On writing "The End"

[Anthony]

How do you react when you finish writing a book? With joy? Huge relief? Or sadness? I always have a little cry when a new book is done. Partly it's pleasure that a long project has been completed … and partly grief that what was part of me for a long time has gone – to be shared now with many other people.

Here's a post I did on writing "The End" on the last page of my new book. I'd be interested to know how other people respond when they finish a piece of creative work. https://anthonyhillblog.wordpress.com...

[G.T.]

When I finished Juror 1389: Dorsie Raines Renninger I was elated that the first stage of the project was complete. I immediately moved into the final stages editing/proofing/file conversions/publication and now marketing. When I saw my cover on Amazon that's when I knew "it was real" and I'd reached my goal. It was only after my book launch that I felt a sense of relief and overwhelming joy. The characters are still very much alive in my life/mind and I'm still in the story because I've been a guest speaker at four book club meetings. After answering questions and signing, I walk away feeling validated as an author. I'm working on another project and getting emotionally entrenched with my new characters but book club readers pull me back to Dorsie Raines Renninger.

[Anthony]

Yes, it can be along time before new characters come along to take the places of the old in one's imagination. And some never leave.

Penguin published a book of mine about a young French war orphan who was smuggled back to Australia by some airmen after the First World War http://www.anthonyhillbooks.com/young....

He's still as strong in my mind as he ever was. It's the father in me, I think. I want to see him safe. I want to get him home.

[Jack]

Relief. The final stage of writing, for me, is to push hard, get as much done as soon as possible. The End is only the beginning.
Do a fast edit, make sure the book reads the same in final form as it did while you were writing segments. Look at the formatting; are centered items 'centered', or are they indented (Word will do that if you're not careful). Are all the front material/back material items where they should be? How about the cover?
Now it's time to run it through Calibre (for me; YMMV), examine the Mobi or eBook format, see what they look like. Publish to Amazon, maybe to other outlets too.
And STILL you're not done. Now's the time to decide on a promotion. Your choices are limited; as a new book with no reviews, some promoters won't touch it.
Add information to your blog, or to your FB/GR profiles and pages.
It's not a beginning, that 'The End', but it's fair to say it's the end of the beginning.
About promoting: I've tried two today, eBook Soda and a sidebar on Choosy Bookworm's site. Results? The ads went out, I checked; zero sales.
In less than two hours after a similar ad had run on Ereader News Today, sales had begun to climb, eventually reaching more than 100 US sales. Ancillary sales continued for several days after that.
I'm guessing that CBW and EBS don't have the audience yet for their ads, or perhaps their audience isn't right for my books. But for now, I can't recommend them. Later, after they gain more subscribers? Maybe.

[Justin]

I usually feel a bit of both sadness and relief. Relief because I'm no longer busting my butt in countless hours sitting at my computer typing away writing the heck of of the thing. Sadness because while it was a hard and tedious project at times I'm sad that I'm not longer creating and writing something to which I hope others will enjoy but in just that knowing that people will enjoy it takes some of the sadness away. Sometimes you just can't help but be happy that you've reached the end because what follow's is the satisfaction in knowing you've just completed a book.