Picture this: On holiday in Yorkshire, lousy weather, three squabbling kids, stressed husband. Five days to finish editing the final manuscript file, format it, and upload it onto KDP.
Are you stressed yet?
Well, I sure was, let me tell you. That little clock was ticking, and I decided that I hated every word of the book, it was bound to fail, everyone was going to hate it, and all I would get were one star reviews (if any reviews at all). To top it off, I got some bad news on one of my other book submissions that was a very unpleasant surprise and my energy level and enthusiasm was at zero.
The entire week I woke up at 3am every night, and kept proofreading and checking the final file over and over. I finally uploaded a file, and then, to my horror, discovered I’d messed up the uploading process and then the KDP screen was ‘locked’ – for (according to the KDP screen) up to 72 hours.
Luckily, it unlocked in about 4 hours, but not without me spending a rainy afternoon on a beach in Scarborough totally stressed.
I ended up making more last minute changes. The final file got uploaded at 11:30 pm on the night of the deadline.
It was done. I was done in.
And now, the book was going to be published…
What had I done?
Lessons learned:
1. Watch your uploads to KDP, because if you need to replace a file, it can take hours, and perhaps days for the account to unlock.
2. Save yourself some stress by having your file ready early!
3. It’s always going to be hard to press that button and send your creative work off into the world. But only by putting ourselves out there can we ever truly achieve our dreams.
4. There is no failure – the results of my self-publishing venture will either be a success or a lesson.