There's nothing more gratifying to an author than finishing a manuscript, getting it formatted with an appropriate cover and seeing the final result in print. While sales are important and they provide the fuel to keep the writing going, the actual printed word displayed in front of your eyes is a big reward in itself.
When I retired just a little over five years ago to my beautiful rural homestead with my lovely wife, I knew I needed an avocation to keep me busy and motivated. Oh, yes, I wanted to make some money, but I also knew that mastering writing in a way that attracts an audience takes time and hard work.
My first book was self-published, but I did use a publishing company to print it. It was a good way to get started, to learn the process and what makes it tick, but it still left me yearning for time control on my own. The enhancements that Amazon has come up with and the Kindle program, now with the addition of printing and even audio books, caught my eye. It gave me full control and, of course, with that can come some issues when mistakes are made. But each book makes it a little easier and at long last I finally feel myself becoming comfortable with it.
I'm certainly not saying that Amazon is the perfect solution, but it does afford an independent like myself the capability to build an audience and market books, including paperback versions, without the requirement to maintain a large inventory. Now it's true that publishing on Amazon puts you in direct competition on their site with millions of other books, but that's where your own initiative has to come in. Fire up your creative juices and come up with strategies to use that to your advantage.
And that brings me to this morning, Saturday, November 18, 2017, a day which is dawning bright and beautiful. And on this day my latest Kindle Book, Confessions of a "Horse Husband" is now live, and my first Amazon paperback of the same book just became available for shipment as well. It will not be up on my Amazon author page for a day or two so I've given the two links to the individual books below.
This is a very special moment for me and I'll savor it for a few hours before I get back to marketing while planning my next book. It's actually a never-ending process which some call work, but for me it's joy.
I hope that you, my blog readers and visitors to my various author pages will take a gander at this and all my books. Even if you aren't interested in buying them, there is some interesting stuff available. I'll periodically keep you updated on things as they take place. Have a wonderful day.
Here are the Amazon links. Just copy and paste to your browser to view.
For the Kindle Book version:
https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Horse-Husband-Life-Lady-ebook/dp/B077BSTND5/
For the paperback version:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1973307200
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