Palpitations re: Publishing

the current Kindle Direct cover

Well, I just felt my heart accelerate, my BP soar, my sack of woes double in weight. I've sent in some digital files to a company who will convert my YA biography of Edgar Allan Poe (Kindle Direct, 2012) into a paperback. (By the way, the image shows the Poe Cottage in the Bronx, his last known address--photo from our visit there in 2003.)

Let's back up a little. Nearly fifteen years ago I gave up dealing with traditional publishers. Although I had published books with the University of Oklahoma Press and Scholastic Press (J. K. Rowling's U.S. publisher!), I had just received my cancer diagnosis, and I knew that Time--always an issue (but one I'd long ignored)--was in his winged chariot and hurrying near. I realized I simply did not have the leisure to deal with publishers and their delays and temporizing (oh, the stories I could tell you!).

So ... I began publishing on Kindle Direct--"self-publishing," as they call it, realizing I would thereby lose all kinds of things (like professional editing, publicity, professional reviews, respect of readers) but would at least get my stuff "out there" before ... well ... before ...

So that's what I've been doing.

But recently I decided to give print-on-demand a whirl. And I decided to start with the Poe biography--see how that one goes. If it proceeds well (i.e., if I make back the $$ I spent to have the conversion professionally done), then I'll convert another of my e-books and see how that one goes.

So back into Poe I dived. I carefully proofread the text (a process I'd already done a gazillion times), and, of course, I found some errors that had slipped by me previously. Sigh. Some modest updates--some modest revisions.

And here was a surprise: I was stunned by how much I'd forgotten about Poe, about the book. (Such is dotage?)

Anyway, just a few minutes ago I emailed all the relevant materials to the company converting the book. Now, I'll wait to hear from them about all the stuff I will have to do before the thing is "alive" and ready to upload to Amazon and become ... available.

I'll let you know how it's going--and when it's available. I know that some of you have read it via Kindle; I hope others of you will soon be able to give it a whirl in its physical format.