Finally, my first book is up on Amazon. After years of rewriting, Altor Stranded on Earth is loose, running wild among the first works of all the other amateur authors. (when I say “amateur” I am talking about my presumed status. I will be happy to know that a few people enjoyed reading my “soft” science fiction story. Other writers I know are determined to be the new Stephen King or J. K. Rowling. Definitely not amateurs.)
Question: what lifts a novelist/memoirist/nonfictionalist out of the amateur caste? Does self-publishing count as professional? Would getting a lot of sales make a writer a professional? Writing more than one book? Netting a profit? What?? I have a friend who earned a three-cent profit. Is she now a professional writer?
Self-publishing should be considered at least semi-pro because it’s really exhausting the first time you do it. I had decided to do everything myself except for the cover, and I couldn’t stop tinkering with that. I counted maybe six, maybe more computer apps I was using: Word, Photoshop, Vellum, Macinthecloud, SquareSpace, Bowker’s perplexing website, the U.S. copyright website, and of course, KDP on Amazon. Most of the apps/websites were open on my computer taskbar for months, and I hysterically Googled for help multiple times. Like the colon (:) situation.
Altor: Stranded on Earth was the actual title of my book. However, KDP could not find the ISBN I bought for it. Bowker sells ISBNs in the U.S. I spent hours going between the merciless, cryptic Bowker website and KDP, trying to load in the ISBN. It just wouldn’t work. So, I searched the web, trying phrase after phrase to find out what was going on. Hours, maybe days later, I clicked on the “view all” button at the end of the first page of results. Several 100s of thousands of suggestions later, someone else asked the same question, and there was an answer! Because of the colon in the title, Bowker assumed that the book had a subtitle. I, of course, had not entered one. Thus my title did not match what was on file with a flustered KDP. Trying for the easiest path, I retyped the title in Bowker without the colon. It worked! I did keep the colon on the book title page. Maybe I was lucky that little rebellious act didn’t cause problems.
It was time-consuming and frustrating work. The one moment I was exhilarated and thrilled was when I finally got the paperback cover to load in KDP. Celebration, all right! Every moment after that, including pushing the Publish button, was anti-climatic. Okay, I walked around with a satisfied smile for a long time. But, hey, I earned it. And next time I’ll know all about subtitles.
There is a confession due here. I re-released the ebook multiple times because I would suddenly see an error I had missed or a bit of writing that would not do for my paginated darling. How many times? Enough so that I worried KDP would tire of the behavior and toss Altor and me off for good. But, they or it hung in there with us. KDP did want to check the paperback carefully before releasing it, and the words they used ever so slightly conveyed the message that I better be a good little author.
What does it feel like? After all these years, it is a relief. Something happened for the good of civilized society, and I let go of my dear Altor. (If there are any errors still in the manuscript, you will let me know, right? So I can fix them?)