FIRST THINGS FIRST.

On Monday I decide to venture into the unchartered waters of the self publishing world.
On Tuesday I spend inordinate amounts of time discovering things on the internet.
On Wednesday I feel totally overwhelmed by the whole thing. Aargh. How can this be so complicated?!!!

So, on the basis that a list calms the troubled mind, I've decided to make myself one. I shall start at the beginning......


1. The manuscript.

I'm going to work with my current project to start with for no other reason than I can remember what happens in it. It's currently out with trusted friends for feedback and an editor friend of mine has very kindly said she'll take a look. After that, I intend to send it out to a consultancy for comment. I am hoping that this will tell me what's wrong with it so that I can build it into something that I can work with. Or I can just start again....

2. The website.

I have a very basic blogger blog. (This is it!) When I did the Beyond Belief experiment (where I blogged a manuscript chapter by chapter and asked for feedback) I tried to do it via Wordpress but had to give up because I couldn't work out how to do what I wanted.  This bit is really hard for me. Words I can do. Technology is a whole different story.

3. The social media.

Facebook is my thing but my page is very much limited to my personal friends. My blog has a public page but if I am going to shift my blog/website to somewhere else then I probably need to do that before I start trying to increase my followers. This frightens the life out of me and fills me with hideous self-doubt. All other forms of social media are a mystery.

4.  The publishing format.

Here I really have no clue. I have friends who have published on Amazon and Createspace. I have also heard that Lulu is good. I have no idea. Do I want paper, ebook, both? I need a strategy before I can even decide which way to look. Research is required.

5. The information overload.

There is not much I can do about this. I think I just have to set a little time aside each day to read other people's blogs, webpages, etc and discover what I can. Discipline is required. I do not have vast chunks of time to sink into endless surfing or there'll be no time to write. I think I should find a course/conference to help me focus my research. And I'll have to talk to people.....maybe just digitally to start with!

I'm a bit scared. It feels like I'm sneaking into silicon valley through a service vent armed only with a pencil. But hey, the only way is up, isn't it?

Imogen.