Dead in Time paperback ships to Amazon

[analect]

I wasn't going to post this, but then I decided a) there's actually a relevant point about self-publishing here, and b) if I go first, it stops anyone else feeling awkward about shameless self-promotion. So... yes. Ahem. *shuffle*

My novel, Dead in Time - possibly best described as a glam rock-flavoured paranormal murder mystery - is the first thing I've ever self-published. It's been an interesting learning curve. I've had to deal with a lot of challenges, not least formatting for .epub, Kindle, and various other voodoo, distribution programs and so forth, but now - after a four-month wait since the initial ebook release(!) - the paperback has finally shipped to Amazon.

I used Lulu.com, because their GlobalReach package automatically ships to both the US and UK Amazon sites (among other places), as opposed to Createspace, which distributes solely through Amazon.com, and has pretty lamentable support for UK-based authors, although they're a great alternative if that isn't an issue for you.

Lulu are far from perfect. Their site forums and knowledge base are, I find, terrible to navigate, and several features such as Author Spotlight pages, the ability to actually format your blurbs and buy pages, not to mention the dodgy tagging and keyword system, are severely lacking. However, the paper and print quality are pretty good, with several available choices representing reasonable value for money. Profit margins are - if you don't intend to price yourself completely out of everything - lower than Createspace, I think, but it's still better than a poke in the eye with a wet fish.

It's probably worth mentioning that I own my own block of ISBNs, and in technical terms I've used Lulu as a print-on-demand fulfillment option, rather than a 'publisher' in the sense they refer to themselves in documentation... though I suspect this is largely semantics. Bottom line? At this point, it's too early to say whether I'd recommend the service. I'm unimpressed by the four-month wait, inability to monitor progress etc., but it is wonderful to be able to get titles distributed without a US-only restriction - especially with a book that is so emphatically British - where going through Lightning Source or similar isn't a practical option.

If anyone is looking into self-publishing packages and would like to throw this open for questions and discussion, please go ahead. If it's something you've done, and you have insights to share.... gimme! gimme! *grin*

Also, if anyone feels generous and would like assist with tagging on Amazon and/or Lulu, linkies are below. You can read an excerpt of the book here.

Amazon.com (paperback)
Amazon.co.uk (paperback)
Lulu.com (paperback)
US Kindle Store
UK Kindle Store

Those are the main ones I know of. If you see it on other country regions and feel like tagging, reviewing, etc., you would make the world shake with your awesomeness. It's also on Goodreads.com, for those who do that.

Useful tags would be anna reith, glam rock, murder mystery, london, brighton, british, whodunit, paranormal, fantasy, seventies, music, detective, women sleuths and stuff like that. Anything else relevant. Stuff that helps people find stuff, style of thing. Thanks in advance to anyone who has the time/inclination to do that!

We now return you to your regular, non-promo-y programming. Sorry.

Comments

[intothewood]

Don't apologize, it's all very interesting. I don't know whether I would ever self publish, but it's not out of the question. After having put so much work into my stuff, I'll get it out there one way or another. I'll be interested to hear your updates on how this is working out.

The New York Dolls introduced me to myself, you could say, so I love your premise of a glam rock mystery. Makes me think of poor Richey Edwards - not a comparison, just a memory jog.

Oh, the excerpt I read was cut off at the end of each line - a browser problem or maybe formatting.

[analect]

Thanks! I confess, it's one of those things I said I wouldn't do, but ended up taking as the best route for this particular book after getting sick of being told how 'non-commercial' it was, and repeatedly declining suggestions I rewrote it as a romance.

So far, it's snabbled a couple of really nice reviews, which is heartening. I kind of ought to get off my butt and promote it more, but I will let you all know how it's doing. And yeah... the music industry is sadly replete with stories that would make fabulous plots, just like Richey's. Talking New York Dolls, I'm really tempted to a fictionalised something-or-other that nods towards the peculiar circumstances of Johnny Thunders' death, but - like avoiding basing anything in Dead in Time too much on real people - there's that slightly uncomfortable sense of exploitation. I shall probably get over myself and end up doing it anyway. *grin*

ETA - thanks for the heads-up about the site. Hosting provider had a massive DDOS attack yesterday, which sent everything offline and/or squiffy for several hours. Fixed now, and it looks fine to me on Opera, IE9 and Firefox, so hopefully that's all it was! :-\

[intothewood]

Good for you for staying true to yourself, and very exciting about the reviews!

The promotion is something I'd really struggle with, I'm lazy and I just know I wouldn't do all I should do. Maybe at some point the community should look at creative ways to promote, because even with publishers the promotion can be less than great and I really doubt they're using all of the avenues available.

I think the story with a nod toward Thunder's death sounds intriguing. If you're that aware of your feelings about it, I doubt your book would be exploitative.

[analect]

True. We should have a promo sticky or something. I'll get onto that.

Promotion truly is my pet hate, simply because it's so damn hard to actually reach readers. I think every live chat, forum thing, whatever else I've ever done has been full of writers, and maybe a handful of readers, who then get jumped by about fifty authors... not good. I tend to just make an effort to keep my social media and websites current(ish) so readers can find me if they've enjoyed a title and want to know more. That seems to work better for me than shoving myself in people's faces, but there are so many options available.

Also, I will officially consider my arm twisted on a JT-flavoured story. Soon as I clear some backlog. I shall blame you. ;)

[intothewood]

Ha, brand new to the community and already I've committed my first act of violence! But I promise not to twist too hard, would't want to hinder your ability to type!