![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/OnlineLearing-scaled.jpg?resize=640%2C426&ssl=1\")
I continued (for a while) the \u201cFrom First Draft to Bestseller<\/a>\u201d class with Jon LaPoma on Udemy<\/a>. Lots of really good, helpful stuff here. Though the class is several years old, and self-publishing is changing almost daily sometimes (okay, I may exaggerate), I still feel like I know way more about self-publishing now than I did before. Jon covers everything from getting your manuscript publish-ready to some of the various publishing platforms (whether Amazon only or \u201cgoing wide\u201d) to marketing plans and newsletter promotions, and more. The only reason I stopped was\u2014well, I\u2019ll get into that below. But I am going back to it. Soon. And Udemy has lots of other classes on various aspects of this journey, many of which go on sale from time to time on the Udemy site. If you haven\u2019t checked them out, you should.<\/p>\n I learned about DRM (digital rights management) encryption. I\u2019m still not an expert. Far from it. But I understand better what it is, and why many indies choose to not use it. Here\u2019s the thing. DRM encryption was intended to make your ebook impossible to pirate. But\u2014surprise!\u2014pirates break the encryption anyway to bootleg your book and meanwhile, buyers who purchased your book through legitimate venues can\u2019t read the ebook on their tablet because it\u2019s already on their Kindle, and they can\u2019t use it on both. There are numerous other reasons why DRM encryption might not be the best option for every writer. I\u2019ve even seen notes in the front matter of ebooks I\u2019ve bought or borrowed through Kindle Unlimited that specifically say they chose not to enable this DRM encryption so that readers can enjoy their purchased content in whatever way they want. It\u2019s worth mentioning that once you choose between enabling it or not enabling it, you cannot change your mind later. Here\u2019s a link<\/a> for more info, but I urge you indie writers out there to do your homework. Know the ins and outs of this before you publish. I mentioned in my last post that I\u2019d joined the Alliance of Independent Authors (see the link on the sidebar, top right), and thus far they\u2019ve been great. At the moment I\u2019m an associate member, but once I\u2019m ready to publish, I\u2019ll upgrade to an author membership, a level where there are added benefits. One thing all ALLi members get is the opportunity to participate in the ALLi Facebook group. I know not everyone is a FB fan, but if you\u2019re on that social media platform, you should take advantage of this resource goldmine. Lots of great questions are asked and answered here, as well as some awesome information shared between members. Don\u2019t miss out. Another FB group that offers excellent information, especially for new indies, is 20Booksto50K. So many helpful discussions go on here that I can\u2019t even begin to list them all. I just sit back and read through this excellent information and file it away in the growing pile in my head. Both of these groups offer the ability to search the archives for topics that might have already been discussed. Best of all, members are super willing to offer guidance, answers, or moral support.<\/p>\n Since I posted last, I looked around at editors offering their services, but thought to ask a friend who I know has some experience in the literary world if she offered editing services. As it turns out, she does. Not only do I know her and respect her, I know she is a writer of integrity. I know she\u2019ll be honest, even if her words are hard to hear, and I know she won\u2019t overcharge me by padding her time. She is, even now, working the manuscript for the first book I plan to publish, in order to be sure every page is as error-free, grammar-accurate, and shiny as it can be.<\/p>\n When I first started this journey, I was of the mind that I would get a decent cover for a couple hundred dollars. And that is entirely possible. There are some really good designers out there, but do beware; there are also some who will take your money and give you something that looks homemade. Since your book\u2019s cover is the first impression readers will have of your work, you probably don\u2019t want that. I firmly believe you get what you pay for; I don\u2019t mind paying well for a professional, eye-catching cover, as long as I can afford it. I did a lot of looking around, and finally asked a friend of mine who has been in graphic design for decades. She gave me a couple of artists names, which was wonderful (thanks, Jerrie!). I checked them all out, keeping in mind the kind of cover I want on this first book, then picked the one I liked best and really investigated every tab on his website. Turns out he and his partner have a cover design business, Corvid Design<\/a>, which offers various packages at different price levels, and all of them (even the lowest priced ones) are superb. So I touched base with one of the designers, Duncan Eagleson, and have put a deposit down on my first ever custom-designed cover. I\u2019m so excited I could bust!<\/p>\n There is a lot to keep in mind when considering a cover artist; Corvid\u2019s page even has a blog post from a few years back about what to consider (and they aren\u2019t using that post as a means to drive business to their own company). Good stuff there, but something important to remember (and something I hadn\u2019t thought of before I started talking to designers) is that when you pay for that cover art, there are rights and licensing issues to consider. A professional artist isn\u2019t likely to sell you all the rights to something they created, painted, and designed, whether or not they did it specifically for you, and doing so is sometimes frowned upon in the profession. Some will grant you indefinite rights to use their art on your book\u2019s cover; others may sell that use for a limited time, after which you will need to negotiate a long-term use contract. Even if the artist uses photo or image manipulation of pre-existing art to create something specifically for you, they themselves are using images designed or crafted by others, and thus do not own the copyright or licenses for them. Thus, it may be rare that you will be able to commission a cover design for which you own all copyrights, all rights, and all licensing. Read the fine print and know what you\u2019re getting before you lay down that first dollar.<\/p>\n Then, there\u2019s the design of the interior. Bobby is taking Udemy classes in Scrivener (because I\u2019m so slammed with other stuff right now), so he can help me figure out the Mysteries of Compiling in that awesome software. If we can figure out how to do it ourselves one day, so much the better. But meanwhile, until we can understand that process, I plan to hire someone. I can\u2019t say who it is at this point, because they aren\u2019t yet advertising this service, but I have faith it will be worth it.<\/p>\n Bobby is also taking a class on WordPress so as to help me redesign my website. That\u2019s in the plan too, I just don\u2019t know where to put it yet (in the plan; I already have a site, obviously, but it needs more appeal, I think, as well as a more professional look).<\/p>\n I finished the read-through and revisions on all three books in my trilogy (the next books I\u2019ll publish), and just this evening sent off the latest draft of book 3 to my readers for feedback. (This was the only reason I stopped Jon\u2019s Udemy class: I\u2019d promised my readers I would have the 3rd book to them within 10 days, so everything else went on hold. I\u2019ll start Jon\u2019s class back up tomorrow.)<\/p>\n Last night, I finally decided on an LLC name, and today I spent part of the day filing with the State Corporation Commission in Virginia to register my new indie entity name: Niveym Arts LLC. I\u2019ve sent I\u2019ve signed up for additional marketing courses through Udemy<\/a> and will get to them as soon as I can. I also need to peruse and take advantage of the free resources through ALLi and Kindlepreneur<\/a> (I\u2019m pretty sure there is a book launch timeline on there, though you may have to sign up for the newsletter to get access\u2013can\u2019t remember, it\u2019s all a blur), as well as pursue the next steps in my business license process and set up a business bank account. Maybe I\u2019ll have a report on those steps in my next post.<\/p>\n Please note that I am not a professional indie publisher<\/strong>. Outside the writing part\u2014for which I have taken numerous classes and workshops, and in which I\u2019ve seen enormous improvement over the years, but which I am still learning\u2014I mostly have no idea what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m reading everything I can get my hands on, looking at how others who have been successful have done it, and learning this process as I go. I don\u2019t want any reader of these posts to think I\u2019m teaching THE way to self-publish; there are as many ways to do this as there are writers on the path. I am only sharing how I have done it. Your mileage may vary.<\/p>\n That said, I want to point out that none of this has been easy. Hell, a lot of it scares the stuffing out of me. Why? I couldn\u2019t tell you any valid reason other than<\/p>\n There are other assorted doubts and fears that get into my head, that imposter syndrome stuff we all deal with. Bobby keeps reminding me to do all of it one step at a time. One obstacle or hurdle at a time. One scary thing at a time. And it seems to be working because I\u2019m inching along through it all.<\/p>\n When I decided to self-publish, I knew it would be a lot of work. That I would have to tackle an overwhelming number of New Things to make that dream happen. So I signed up for a ropes course at the Virginia Beach Adventure Park, and went with my niece (who is many years younger and far more fit than I) to Do A Scary Thing. It was fun, no doubt. But I won\u2019t lie. In a couple of places, it was damn hard for me.\u00a0Even so, I did it<\/strong>. Without help (other than shouted encouragement). And I learned a very important lesson: I can do things I didn\u2019t think I could.<\/p>\n You can too.<\/p>\n See ya next time.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (or How I Did It, a \u201c.doc\u201d-umentary) Part 2 of ? January 2022 (so far) So much has happened since my last post that I don\u2019t know where to start. But I\u2019ll give it a try. (Grab a cup of something\u2026this post is long.) I continued (for a while) the \u201cFrom First Draft to Bestseller\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts","category-indie-publishing-journey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8n0kX-DR","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3441,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/26\/the-chronicles-of-self-publishing-addendum-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":2471,"position":0},"title":"The Chronicles of Self-Publishing: Addendum 1","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"July 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"(or How I Did It, a \".doc\"-umentary) Branching Out For those of you who don\u2019t know, I am hearing impaired. Not totally Deaf, but my hearing loss is significant. I hear things like thunder, but not peeper frogs. I hear bass notes in thumping music, but not cicadas. I hear\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/joyce-busola-h7pDENTfYvU-unsplash-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2449,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/02\/the-chronicles-of-self-publishing-my-journey\/","url_meta":{"origin":2471,"position":1},"title":"The Chronicles of Self-Publishing: Part 1 of My Journey","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"January 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"(or How I Did It, a \".doc\"-umentary) Part 1 of ? In September of 2021, I attended the Hampton Roads Writers' Conference, where Leslie Penelope gave a keynote presentation wherein she asked, \"What is your 'why'?\" Her words, descriptive of her own journey, made me ask myself the same question.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/KindleAndCroissant-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/KindleAndCroissant-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/KindleAndCroissant-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/KindleAndCroissant-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/KindleAndCroissant-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/KindleAndCroissant-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2584,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/08\/the-chronicles-of-self-publishing-4th-part-of-my-journey\/","url_meta":{"origin":2471,"position":2},"title":"The Chronicles of Self-Publishing: 4th Part of My Journey","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"May 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"(or How I Did It, a \".doc\"-umentary) Part 4\/? In the last week or two of February, as well as all of March and April, I was far too absorbed with our move to even think about my manuscript. Instead, that time was spent searching for a new home, packing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/CoffeeConversation-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/CoffeeConversation-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/CoffeeConversation-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/CoffeeConversation-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/CoffeeConversation-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/CoffeeConversation-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2732,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/08\/the-chronicles-of-self-publishing-5th-part-of-my-journey\/","url_meta":{"origin":2471,"position":3},"title":"The Chronicles of Self-Publishing: 5th Part of My Journey","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"June 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"(or How I Did It, a \".doc\"-umentary) Part 5\/? We\u2019re finally settled into our new home, which means additional tasks that suck time away from my writing and publishing, but I don\u2019t mind. I\u2019ve always loved weeding a garden, as long as the temps aren\u2019t soaring in the upper 80s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/WateringCan-683x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3007,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/27\/the-chronicles-of-self-publishing-11th-part-of-my-journey\/","url_meta":{"origin":2471,"position":4},"title":"The Chronicles of Self-Publishing: 11th Part of My Journey","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"December 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"(or How I Did It, a \".doc\"-umentary) Part 11\/11 Latest update: I\u2019ve always heard from experienced authors that the best way to stop obsessing over a single work is to move on to the next project. So I\u2019ve been learning to juggle. Again. Projects, that is. As an indie author,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Microphone-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2851,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/21\/the-chronicles-of-self-publishing-7th-part-of-my-journey\/","url_meta":{"origin":2471,"position":5},"title":"The Chronicles of Self-Publishing: 7th Part of My Journey","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"August 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"(or How I Did It, a \".doc\"-umentary) Part 7\/? Latest update: Duncan finished the setup on my print version and sent me a proof to review. I cannot express to you the excitement of getting even that much closer to publication! I\u2019ve picked a tentative new publication date but am\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SEOKeywords.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SEOKeywords.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SEOKeywords.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SEOKeywords.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/SEOKeywords.jpg?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2471"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2669,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471\/revisions\/2669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Facebook.jpg?resize=379%2C239&ssl=1\")
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out the first feelers to a friend about help with designing a logo. I\u2019ve applied with the IRS for an employer identification number (which is necessary to get a business license and a business bank account), and already have my number. And I sent in an application with the zoning board for my city to start the process of obtaining a business license. That step may not be necessary elsewhere, but here in Norfolk it is.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/RopesCourse-copy.jpg?resize=225%2C300&ssl=1\")
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