The book is written. Now what?

Today, Anticipation of the Penitent was handed off for its final editing job before I publish it through CreateSpace.com. In the contract, my editor, Rene’ Curry, states it will take 4-6 weeks to complete. Verbally, she says it may take less than 4 weeks. But, let’s say that within a month, by October 15, 2012, the editing should be complete.

So far, the people who have helped me with editing, in chronological order, are my brother, Anthony Johnson, my niece, Celeste Davila, and several folks on Authonomy.com who have given me great editing tips on the 1^st two chapters. Other people have helped by giving input on the story flow, including Elizabeth Pomada from the SF Writers Conference, my sister in Christ, Sherry Vonderheid, and my mom’s pastor, Rev. Frank Darby, Jr.

I will then finalize the publishing process through CreateSpace.

After about a couple of days for CreateSpace to approve the submittal, the book can be available to purchase immediately from their estore. It can take about two weeks to be available on Amazon.com, however. So, I’ll say that by the end of October, I will be a published author!

The reasons I’ve chosen CreateSpace over Lulu include:

1.                  CreateSpace is an Amazon company and marketing through Amazon is automatic and free.

2.                  Printing and shipping costs are cheaper

3.                  There is a great community base within the website

4.                  There are several inexpensive options to widen the market base.

The advantages that Lulu have are that they also print hardcover books, and they have a few more options in their cover design software.

Since I can often times be a slow learner, I’ve started researching on how to promote the book. I’m doing it the cheap way first – online search engines! Come on now, if you can learn what your medical diagnosis is by a search engine, why can’t I learn how to promote my book the same way?

Here are a couple of interesting sites:

1.                  First is the CreateSpace site itself, which has many articles on promotions, marketing, etc.

2.                  Then there’s http://www.promotingyourbooks.com/bm.htm, which has some great tips.

It seems that the most important things are to not be shy, communicate, find niches for your market, and never consider you’ve done enough.

As I find out more during this process, I’ll let you know. In the mean time, I am still sending out query letters to literary agents, and writing more on Michtam's Hubris. Keep praying for me!