In a few days, perhaps before the end of 2018, my second YA novel will be released to the reading public. The Bullybuster will be put on the market by Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), the self-publishing arm of Amazon. It had been my hope that Astraea Press, the publisher of Fast-Pitch Love, would also publish The Bullybuster. But despite doing my best to eliminate unnecessary characters from the story (See “Killing My Characters” 9/16/18), they passed on it. Having invested five years in writing and revising the book, I didn’t feel like spending more time identifying other potential publishers, querying them, and then waiting — perhaps weeks — to receive their response. So I moved to Plan B, which was to self-publish the book.

I already had some experience with self-publishing first with Writers’ Ink’s Just Paper and Ink, and more recently with Lost and Found, the GEM-C Writers’ anthology. Still, self-publishing on KDP did not prove easy mostly because I had to complete tasks that Astraea completed for me with Fast-Pitch Love. Those tasks included selecting a cover designer, formatting the book’s margins, editing the content, and setting a price. On the plus side, however, performing these tasks gave me more control over the finished product. I restored some of the characters that I deleted earlier and set the paperback price at a level that will make it far more affordable to readers than the paperback price of Fast-Pitch Love (17.99). Moreover, without Astraea as a “middleman,” I’ll receive a higher royalty from each sale.

As I write this blog, I am waiting on a hard copy draft of the paperback, which I will review within a few days of receiving it. Any revisions I make will be transferred to the online draft of the book and uploaded to KDP. One thing that makes this self-publishing process somewhat complicated is that the preparation of the eBook version is handled separately from the paperback. I still need to find out how to change the eBook draft of The Bullybuster, which Charles O’Donnell, a GEM-C Writers member, completed for me.

Speaking of Charles, he deserves special praise for serving as both my guide and mentor in the self-publishing process. The author of at least four self-published books, Charles has not only helped prepare drafts for both versions of The Bullybuster, he has also offered advice on the book’s font, cover dimensions, and distribution strategy. It’s worth noting that Charles uses Scrivener, a fairly new word-processing program specifically designed for writers. I may try it myself before long.

I will close with the blurb on the back cover of The Bullybuster, which will hint at the adventure that unfolds within.