Ok, so I got in a big hurry and just wanted to see my book in print.  So I paid someone about $400 to print my book.  I did the cover art from a picture I took, and I did the editing along with a friend.  Yay, my book was published!  I sold exactly 10 books.  Five were purchased by the same person.  I knew all of them.  The company gave me lots of opportunities to market my book.  But at a premium.  I couldn’t afford it.  I put my book in the Amazon Kindle store free of charge.  Even though the price is less, the royalty percentage is larger.  I’ve sold about six on Kindle to people I don’t know.  Did I mention it was FREE?  LOL

I was planning on publishing the second book electronically only.  There’s no monetary investment to put it on Kindle.  Then I started reading about Writer’s Relief.  I had applied for a job as proofreader with them awhile back, but apparently I wasn’t perfect enough for that.  But now I’ve subscribed to their newsletter and their Facebook page.  This looks like a company that really could help.  For $100 they will give you 25 agents in your genre to which to submit your work.  And they have a BUNCH of free articles on their website that are very helpful.  When I finish my book, I may just give them a shot.  They also have other services that are more expensive.  You can pick your level depending on what you need.

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I am gradually getting my files saved from my old computer to my new one.  The old one konked out and I was afraid I would lose all the files I didn’t have backed up.  Luckily, I’m able to get the old one to stay on long enough at a time to back up files before it goes back off.  I did have my book in progress backed up on a flash drive.

This is a lesson to all of you writers out there.  ALWAYS make sure your work is backed up.  In fact, make sure it is backed up at least three different place.  Mine is backed up on my laptop, a flash drive, and my computer here at work.  Can you imagine how sick you would be to put so much work into a book, then have it just disappear?  Back it up, people!

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This is my first post on my new author blog.  Most of these posts are going to be boring accounts of my writing, the frustrations caused by it, and possible tales of submission and rejection later on.  For those of you brave enough (or patient enough) to follow this blog, welcome!  If you are at all interested in my boring life as a frustrated writer, I’m glad you decided to come on board.  If you see it and think that’s it’s a big yawn, then I completely understand.  So there it is.  It’s just me.  It’s a pen name, of course, but most of you will know who I really am.  :0)

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