epublication

Fly away and propagate.

I was curious what other first-time authors thought when they sent off a book for publication.  Mine was about the grammar errors I might have overlooked.  I am an English teacher: what else would cross my mind? So I asked via GoodReads, Twitter and Google+.  These are the results.

• Marcy Peska, Hashtags and Head Buckets:  “Ooops!”  It
  was when I published Head Buckets & Hashtags, and I accidentally
  pushed the publish button before I’d finished formatting photos. 😉

• Kevis Hendrickson, The Legend of Witch Bane: I published my first ebook when the Kindle still had fresh paint on it.
  My thoughts at the time were more along the lines of Megatron’s famous
  words: “Their defenses are broken. Let the slaughter begin.”
• Rinelle Grey, Reckless Rescue:  With the ebook, it was “Well, that doesn’t feel any different”, but the
  print book, which I only hit publish on yesterday, it was “What if I
  missed something?” 
• Micah R. Sisk, PleshaCore:  But if I were to describe the moment after pushing the button as a
  sound, it sounded like nanometer-sized needle dropping into a
  galactic-sized haystack.
• Adam Osterkamp, book in process, Minnesota Writer blog:  Having just ordered the “proof” copy for my print version, my first thought was along these lines. “What if it prints terribly?”
• Jason Letts, Powerless: The Synthesis:  
  It was unbelievably exciting. A lot of times I was checking my
  sales at work, and I was so much more concerned with the dollar or two I
  was making a day from the story and gaining potential fans than
  everything I had to do at my job. 
• Debra McKnight, Of Dreams and Shadow:  Mine ran along the lines of, “Oh no, I forgot to fix the type-o on page three.”
• Jennifer Priester, Mortal Realm Witch: Learning about Magic: Sadly my first thought was more money related. I was thinking something
  like this: When will the books be available for purchase online and how
  long until my copies arrive so that I can start selling them? And my second one, although you aren’t asking for it, I just find it
  interesting, was about whether or not they would sell and if people
  would like it as much as I do or not.
• Philip G. Henley,  To the Survivors: My KDP book launch felt unreal and disconnected, although I enjoyed
  seeing the free downloads happen along with the first reviews. Print
  was a different surreal experience. There was my name on a physical
  book. What followed was even more odd, giving the copies to friends and
  family and then being asked to sign them. All very odd, embarrassing
  even.

 I wish more people had responded.  I enjoyed finding others who remembered that moment of final decision.  It is one of those firsts that will stay with us whether we felt fulfilled, let down, frantic with worry or ready to battle bears. 

Now the second time I sent off a book into the eather of e-publication, I wondered why I felt no elation, no panic, no heart thrusting wildly against my ribs.  I wasn’t blase, but I hadn’t been rocked by an overwhelming run of sales on book 1, so I had less uncertainty about what would happen next: Only I would celebrate by dancing in the kitchen, making my daughter blush and my husband shake his head.  Since I now have four books published and my fifth in R&D&R (research and development and redraft), I do feel rather moved peering at the list when I check on Amazon and Smashwords for updates. I think come this July 2014, I may discover a few thrills running up my spine to see book 3 of the Students of Jump hitting the road.

Anyone want to add to the list of first reactions at the cry of “Engage” catapulting off their coddled canary? Post a comment, and I’ll update the list above (this week) and enjoy hearing from you.