Carpe Diem Scroto The Book blog

Well, I have my first round of books that I need to deliver today. And this is both a moment of excitement and a moment of sadness. I am excited because this is what I've worked so hard to do. But reserved in the fact that, these are my children that I am sending off into the world. So, it is bittersweet.

This makes it 100% complete (well until I get them to all the people who ordered 99.99%) and now the whole ordeal is behind me. I now know the process and details of self-publishing for the most part. Im sure that there are a few gaps in my knowledge and a few things that I have missed out on. But for my very first book, I am happy and content. 

Looking back over the last few years, it really does not see like that long ago but also feels like the last 3 years have been me running at max compacity. All of the work that I put into designing my cover. All of the typing, and the editing, and the back and forth with people for one reason or another. It is all surreal to think that its come to an end.

According to my PR team, they still want me to push forward and to get back out in front of people and tell my story over and over, and promote the book still and to start doing speaking engagements, and getting my book into the hands of some local book shops and even into the library system. I've got to come up with more money to get more copies made too. But all of that in good time.

 

Well as I sit here at my computer finishing up the last of my speech and making games to act as time fillers, I know that I am 98% done with my book and the journey it has taken me on. 99% will be having the book launch party this coming Sunday, and 100% will be me hand delivering the books to those who've ordered.

Im nervous, yet so beyond ready to just get it out there into the world and let people have access to it. I have still not released the URL as to where to purchase it and until I get some things finalized, I don't know that I will. As there are still so many things that I need to complete once the launch has come and gone.

But for now, all I can say is that regardless of if it's going to be well received or not. Carpe Diem Scroto is complete.

Well, there has come a point where new setbacks have occurred. It now looks like I may not be able to offer an eBook like I originally thought I would at this point in the books journey to publication. I may also be selling the book privately for a short time. What this means, is that book orders will most likely take up to 3 weeks to get to the customer due to shipping arrangements and the like. I am hoping that this is not going to be the case for very long if that is the option I have to choose, however, I am uncertain. 

This is not what I had planned and not how I wanted to conduct the release of my book. But when you have so many variables to deal with, it is hard to account for all of the hiccups that come along the way. Such is life, am I right?

What I can confirm is that things are at this moment still on track for the December 8th Book Launch Party, which may now be an intimate gathering of friends and family and well-wishers. I still have to confer with my PR Team as to how they wish to handle this.

So I will keep you all updated as things continue to unfold. Thank you all for your support and understanding. 

 

It is with tears in my eyes that I am writing this. The book is 97% complete and is almost ready to be published.

These last few months have been some of the most difficult and stressful. I honestly understand why "professional" authors hire Literary Agents and Traditional Publishing companies. The amount of red tape and hoops that an independent author has to jump through is enough to make you go absolutely insane!

Also no one ever really talks about the out-of-pocket costs of writing a book. You have to take care of every little thing yourself. Thankfully I already had some experience with doing gig jobs and have a background in marketing, and doing product reviews and things like that, so I wasn't completely blindsided when it came to who to turn to in order to get some things done. Other things, like ISBN numbers and other book related things have all been new learning experiences and will help me in the future should I go through with publishing other books. But I really do believe that IF there is a next time that I will seek out more traditional methods of publishing.

The issues that I am facing right now with the book is getting the eBook fixed so that it will render properly across all the eBook devices and that it will render on mobile phones. But I have sent the information of to my editor and should have it taken care of soon (fingers crossed.)

 If it's not one thing its 60 others. So due to the editor taking time that we didn't have, the PR team and I decided to push back the release date until 12/8/24.

This is not a decision that I am taking lightly and am actually rather upset at the fact that it has to be done, but there are too many pieces of the puzzle and with some people who have said that they will do XYZ and then not following through, it has caused a lot of stress and anger. So, without throwing people under the bus, Im just going to say that things haven't lined up properly. 

But I have to have faith that everything happens for a reason and whatever this "reason" is, it must be something good right? If I were a more superstitious person, I would almost think that this endeavor was cursed lol. 

I can now understand how important it is to have a literary agent, because they are the ones that take care of all of this. Maybe that is where my focus for the next book is going to be. Getting it done, and then getting an agent to take care of making sure all of the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted.

So for right now this is how its playing out. 

Well, I still have yet to get the edited book back from the Editor. He sent me a message asking to extend the deadline by 3 days, so I agreed to extend it. It was supposed to be back to me by 10/16 and I agreed to extend it to 10/20, so we'll see what is going to happen from there.

Also, I have been working on the webpage for the book www.cdsthebook.com and finishing up the ordering page, and it looks like I am going to be able to offer the book on Apple Books, Google Books, Kobo, Barns & Noble, and Amazon. Barns and Noble and Amazon will have both the eBook and the paperback, the others will only have eBook. The amount of hoop jumping I'm having to do in order to get these services setup has been interesting and can see why people suggest having a Literary Agent. But I am a hands-on type of person, and I like to figure things out the best I can, without having to pay out of pocket. That's why I use free services like Weebly, Square, Talkatone, and other such services. One, it helps me keep costs down, and two, I get to learn how to do things on my own. I can do basic HTML coding from scratch and type out the programing that I need, but when it comes to adding JAVA, CSS, and other programming languages, I rather use a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) so that way it looks more professional and not a website designed in 1996.

So, with everything else going on in my personal day to day, it's kind of nice to let things get worked on in the background so that I can focus on other projects.

Well, I just at this very moment submitted the manuscript to the editor and everything is now under review, and he will begin working on it right away.

I am so flipping excited and nervous. My whole body is buzzing right now, and I think that it's just the adrenaline of pulling the trigger and making such a large investment in myself.

Now I've got to purchase my ISBN number and get everything submitted to KDP and Barns and Noble.