Self-Publishing Diary: The Final Steps Before My Novel Hits the Publishing Queue
Hello! In case you’re wondering… yes, I’m still alive and yes, my book is still on its way to being a real, legitimate, published novel. I know it’s been months since my last self-publishing post. However, I have a very good reason for that. Are you ready?
I’m pregnant! And that’s not all. I’m pregnant with twins. If your jaw is dropping right now, trust me, mine did too. I’m due early 2022 and now I’m wondering: Which will come first, the twins or my book? Whatever happens, next year is going to be wild.
Okay—back to The Manhattan Mishap.
Thankfully I got all of my major editing done before I got pregnant because I literally had zero energy. For a couple of months I essentially went from my bed to the couch and back again. It was beyond weird for me, a self-confessed workaholic who loves being in front of my computer writing and writing and writing. But now that I’m in the 2nd trimester, my energy has been coming back in bursts. And I am fully taking advantage of it.
First of all, I received the first copy of my book in the mail in July. Eek! I couldn’t believe I was holding actual physical proof of my work. It was beyond exciting. I also had the PDF copies and what not to make edits and changes in. Believe me, there were lots of tweaks to be made—not so much to the story but to the layout and format.
Flipping through my novel, I noticed some weird things. For example, some pages were entire blocks of text with no indents or new paragraphs. That was troubling because I know that’s not how I submitted it. Likewise, a lot of words I had italicized were no longer written in italics. So, I had to go through and flag all of those little things to be changed.
Alas, my changes have been submitted. Now I’m waiting to review the entire book for the final final time. Then, it’ll be off to the publishing queue!
Stay tuned, xoxo
—ᴍᴍᴍ