My book's on Amazon!

My book, Carousel Kisses, will be available later this week or early next week on Amazon.com. This has been a very long time coming, but is finally at the point of publication. I published it myself. I had to re-vamp the cover, but I love it. This is the same book I wrote in 2005, but never went global with.

Now, it will be on Amazon and I will be setting up an estore through them that will have a link on my website. It's been a lot of work, but an interesting process. Never give up on your dreams.

Wow, Louisa, congratulations! I will have to check it out.

Thank you. As soon as I can figure out the estore link, it will be available on my website too and it takes about 6 weeks before it's on other distribution lists. But, Amazon was my immediate goal. Next will be getting it on Kindle.

Congratulations, Louisa!

It's always wonderful to hear that one of our BWS members has achieved a lifetime goal!

I went to look for your book on Amazon and didn't see it yet, but will keep looking.

Remember, if you are an NABBW member, we will be happy to review your book on the NABBW site, and that includes having the review posted on Amazon as well.

Contact me for mailing instructions if you are interested in this opportunity.

Anne

Thanks Anne, I just approved it and it takes 5-7 business days before it hits on Amazon. Should be Friday or by Tuesday. (I hope) In the meantime, I'm trying to set up the estore.

congrats Louisa!

Thanks Meredith. It's on there now. It only took two days!

Yeah! Carousel Kisses made it to B&N today too. I was surprised that this happened so quickly.

And a 5-star review on Amazon! Good for you!!

Congratulations! I found your book on Amazon, and from the description it sounds like a book I'll enjoy. Beautiful cover too. Did you use Smashwords or CreateSpace or something else to create it? I'm curious because my book is also on Amazon but only as an ebook at this point. I'm thinking about paperback in the future...maybe. Gathering information at this point.

Thank you!

I used CreateSPace. I have found them to be good to work with. Helpful and available. I am the publisher though. They have a lot of packages for authors, but I doubt they are any more expensive than any others. Lightning Source charges hefty set up fee and $30 for every proof copy you have to get. CreateSpace only charges a few dollars for the proof copy and there are no set up fees other than a $39 fee for the year for the ProPlan. This is optional.

If you know how to do your own formatting, you can do it for free. They have templates you can copy and paste your file into or if you can create your file and turn it into a print ready pdf you can do that at no charge. This is what I did. You can also design the cover through their cover generator. I used that since I found one close to what I wanted for the cover.

I have heard, through the community forums on CreateSpace, about Smashwords. Good luck with yours. If I can answer any questions, let me know. I plan to go Kindle in the future.

Thank you, Louisa, for generously sharing this information with me. I think the $39 Pro Plan is the way to go for sure on CreateSpace, simply because of the reduced price for author copies. I'll let you know what I finally decide to do! Your support is sincerely appreciated.

You're welcome, Sandy. There is also a site called Smashwords where you can go ebook, but not Kindle. But you need a separate ISBN for that. On CreateSpace, you can go Kindle for a fee, but only Kindle. I think you can get an ISBN though them, but then you would not be the publisher.

That deal for CreateSpace is indeed a good option.

Kindle publishing is free. You may get an ISBN from them (I think it's $10) or you don't need to have one. So if you wanted to do a special report or whatever, it's not absolutely necessary to have a Kindle book ISBN.

Depends what your intentions and goals are.

Ronda

I'm delighted this discussion is proceeding. And I'm happy to announce that I will be interviewing Ronda about how to publish a book on Kindle in an NABBW teleseminar at the end of this month. As usual, the call will be free, and will last an hour.

Details here:

How to Successfully Publish a Book on Kindle -- with NABBW Associate, best-selling author and Kindle expert, Ronda Del Boccio - Thursday, June 23rd at 8:00 PM Eastern. Go here to attend: How to Publish a Book on Kindle

I'd love it if Louisa, Sandy N and all of you who are authors would mark your calendars and attend!

There are also two other great NABBW teleseminars hapening this month. Here's the details on the other two:

• Profit from Your Thoughts! How to Generate Income with Your Blog (The Art of Finding and Signing Advertisers and Sponsors) -- with Marissa Sweazy, Director of Digital/Social Media, Aigner Prensky Marketing Group - Tuesday, June 28th at 1 PM Eastern (NOTE the EARLY time for this call.)
• Want to Relocate When You Retire? Here’s What You MUST Know and Do NOW – with NABBW Associate Jan Cullinane, co-author of the best-selling book, The New Retirement: The Ultimate Guide to the Rest of Your Life - Thursday, June 30th at 8:00 PM Eastern

I will not be home on the 23rd, but in regard to Kindle publishing, it is something I have in mind eventually. I can do this through CreateSpace, my distributor. The thing is that ISBN number. I know they will provide one, but I want my own. The next time I get one, I plan to buy a block. It will be better for me in the long run. It is my understanding that if you use someone else's ISBN #, that makes them the publisher and gives them rights to the title. I DO NOT want that. I learned that it is best to have your own number on your book, which is what I did. I also learned that you need a separate number for any other versions, i.e. Kindle, audio, etc.

Ronda, my goal was to have a print book and go global with it. I am thinking about going Kindle at some point. Even thinking about getting one, but not sure about that yet. I still love holding a BOOK in my hands. But, I'm getting tired of buying books and having them all over the place and ending up giving them away.

How is the book doing Louisa?

It goes in spurts. I did a book signing at Borders in June, before they announced they are going out of business. It went well. I've been invited to speak at the Revere Historical Society in the fall. Revere and Revere Beach are mentioned a lot in the book and one of their members brought them a book to look at. They said they will do a book signing when I come. I'm having fun with it.

Congratulations! It's always fun to see a project come to fruition!