This Shit Is Overwhelming

Trying to wrap your head around self publishing a book is insane.

I have been trying to work through all this stuff and map out the best way to go about all this book writing stuff. I basically research until my head hurts and then I stop for a while and research again. Like most stuff there is so much conflicting information that it boggles the mind.

Ok, rant over… for now…

Anyway, I have been setting up a digital footprint for writing. In my day job of owning and marketing a business and helping others do the same, I feel like I understand all of that part. I really don’t want to create this whole extensive social media presence where it has to be constantly updated and kept up with, but I do want to be able to connect with people and share with them this journey that I am on for writing a book and trying to sell it. I am sure a professional writer would just laugh at my efforts.

Writing has been a bit on the back burner the last couple of weeks as I have been working through all that digital footprint stuff. I landed on Facebook and Instagram. I know they are pretty basic, but there are just so many more people on those two platforms. Also, they both fit into my normal social media life.

I have created a pretty basic website, profiles for both Facebook and Instagram, selected Mail Lite to manage my newsletter list, and set up the automation to send a welcome message to people that join the newsletter.

The website is cheap, I didn’t want to spend a ton of money on a website since I don’t know how much use it will actually get. The Mail Lite was free for now, and free is in budget!

Today’s time has been spent on where or who you publish your work through. For this it seems like Amazon KDP and Ingramspark paired together seems to be the common wisdom. Amazon because of course it has to be on Amazon and 85% of the digital market is on Amazon. That one seems like a no brainer and is most likely the main focus of where I will be publishing. I want to make sure my work is available via Amazon Kindle. Ingramspark seems to be a little better for the paperback or physical version. Once it is on Ingramspark you can have it put into distribution for print on demand in so many markets, including Amazon for the physical book.

For some reason many people also do their physical book through Amazon KDP, but I am not sure about that yet. This whole journey is enlightening and crazy all at the same time. Remember, I am not a professional author so what the hell do I know? I am just a dude trying to write a book with a wild imagination.

Shamon