PUBLISHING THE PAPERBACK

Since writing the last blog post, several weeks have intervened and Summer has become Autumn.  Everything stopped for the misery of a head cold, and both my writing and the garden lost focus. Then something else took over: I decided to publish a paperback version of ‘Losing Time’ and the process began.

This has not been an easy project, and it thrust me into a world of which I knew nothing. Such an experience is somewhat akin to being pushed into a river! It wasn’t until I dragged myself back to sit on the sidelines and take stock that I realised I had it in my power to control every process if I took it slowly and stuck to my guns.

I could not have succeeded without the help of two people: my sponsor, and Alexa from Compass Publishing / The Book Refinery. My sponsor wishes to remain anonymous, so no more about him. But Alexa was a real find and if I hadn’t decided to purchase my own ISBN number I would not be writing this. 

I am a writer, not a publicist and selling a product is something new. My first task was to set up my author website, and fortunately this was an area where I had a little experience. It is also fairly easy to achieve these days, and there is a great deal of help online. Next, the manuscript of the book needed to be formatted for the printers. This was painstaking, headache-inducing stuff, but the sponsor helped at the final hurdle and the correct file was sent across to Alexa for the printers. Finally we needed to work on the cover, bringing together my efforts and Alexa's expertise to produce something which both reflects the mysterious aspects of the story and the importance of colour to the theme, as well as attracting a reader to purchase the book.

In three weeks' time I expect to be sitting in my study surrounded by copies of the paperback, and the most difficult task will begin: selling them. That will be for another blog post.

Here is a link to the new website: www.prfordauthor.com

Now... back to what I do best - continuing to write!