Hello! And welcome to my very unorganized blogs, but I am set on sharing anything and everything that I can, so here is my unorganized mess with everything.
First of all, if you are writing a book or even considering writing a book- YES!!! You are AMAZING and CONGRATS!!!! YOU GOT THIS!!!
Second of all, I don’t want you to compare your journey to my timeline. This is not why I am sharing it, but I am sharing it to help other indie authors to know the process and to know what to expect and when to start on everything, because YES it’s a lot of work and a long process and it is good to get started EARLY. I also understand that not all authors will do the same steps that I am doing. Because I am getting my books printed and I sell them on my own website/package them myself and I know that this may vary! Either or I will share what my process looked like!
Here’s what I did:
End of December:
-Finished my first draft
January-February:
-Reread my book a few times/fixed plot/characters/ etc (Still absolutely a mess, but a lot better than the first draft)
-Started already marketing to get people on my email list
February-March:
-Had my cover design started
-First round of beta readers started
-Went through my book myself another 2-3x
-Hired my developmental editor
March:
-Had artists start on artwork for the chapter headwings / art behind the dust jacket (For the gold foil) / and art work for the pre-pre-order (stickers, sweatshirt, and shirt designs)
-Had my 2nd and 3rd round of beta readers
-Created my own website
-Got my book on KDP
-Set up an email list
-Started my pre-pre-order the moment I got my cover back and the marketing materials
April:
-Finish going through beta readers notes
-Reread my book with all of the updates
-Get my notes back from my developmental editor - Then go through these and get the manuscript updated
-Reread it one last time
-Send to line editor April 15th
April-May:
-Go through line editors notes
-Send it to my proofreader
-Go through proofreaders notes
-Get author profile set up on good reads
-Promote my preorder
-End pre-pre-order and start preorder
-Artists start on my art prints of my characters/scene art
-Get my chapter headings ready to be formatted with the artwork I received
-Start on my second book a little bit
End of May-Beginning of June:
-Finish up all editors notes
-Format book
-Send files to printing company
-Get draft from printing company
-Have them start printing
-Get the finalized files uploaded to KDP
June-September:
-Work on my 2nd book
-Start on ARCS
-Receive my printed books
-Start packing all of the pckages purchased during the preorders
-Get ready for my in person launch party (Sep 9th)
-Get ready for the launch date in general (September 14th)
Here’s what I wish I would’ve done:
-To be fair- I got everything that I wanted to done, which was AMAZING!! Something I wish I would’ve done was to wait a little longer to get my line editor lined up. What I mean by this is that I got my line editor lined up, thinking that my book was going to be ready, but the few weeks before actually getting it to my line editor I got no sleep and rushed on a lot of things. Something to note is that most line editors are booked out for months. I wish I would’ve waited until my developmental editor started on my book to then book the line editor. This was what I wish I would’ve done personally, but it still worked for my book Scalebound.
-Something else I wish I would’ve done was waited until I had all of my notes in and beta readers comments applied before I had my developmental editor look at it. In my circumstance I was on such a crunch time, I don’t know if I could’ve waited, but it has been hard because she wasn’t able to see the whole picture because I was still changing things. It worked for us, but I won’t be doing this in the future. I plan to have my book as good as I can and then to send it her way. (Where I don’t plan to change anything else)
-I wish I would’ve gotten my book cover started on earlier. For me, I got it started the moment that I decided to self publish so I couldn’t have done anything differently this time, but for my future books, after I finish my first or second draft I will be sending it to get the artwork done. It took about 2 months for me to receive my finalized copies when I was expecting to receive them in less than a month. Which was fine- but I will plan for that in the future.
If I think of anything else to add in the future- I will definitely get this blogpost edited and add to it! However, for the time being, enjoy my process and feel free to reach out if you have any questions! :))
