Tips from My First Self-Pubbed E-Book

I've just self-published my first e-book!
An Amazon Kindle!
Exciting and HEAPS of work!
Fun work, challenging work!
After I "hit" PUBLISH yesterday, it only took
Amazon a couple of hours to list it -- Wow!
Here it is FYI:
Hungry River: A Yangtze Novel.

For several months now, I've been blogging about self-pubbing e-books -- about how my writing buddy Melissa Rees and I decided to launch our own e-books after LOTS of research. You know, like J.K. Rowling. . . :-)

When I blogged last month, Melissa had already launched and sold nearly 200 books in one month (as a totally unknown author). Since that blog, ADD about 400 more books for her! Granted, she's selling a cozy (Miss Pettybone's First Case) for only $.99 (35% royalty). But hey, she's quickly developing a following. And she's ready with more cozies, which she plans to price higher.

I've priced my book at $2.99 (70% royalty). I won't have the same huge cozy audience Melissa has to draw from, but I'm excited to see who my new readers will be. I'm hoping to gain overseas readers, especially from China. Right now, the majority of my readers are from audiences who've heard me speak, and several book clubs.

Okay, here are some "thing's" I've learned FYI:

Unlike with my print books, there were no costs except for the cover, which I already had from my print version. (Reminder from my last blog: Melissa paid an artist $400 for her cover.)

Also unlike my print books, I won't have any shipping costs or hassles. But hey, I hope I'll still have the fun of packing up a box full of books for a book club now and then.

Amazon makes the whole process pretty easy! The paginating is really different from print books, so that part took me longer than my second e-book will (now that I know the steps). Plus with this version of HR, I've added photos for the first time to one of my books, which took some additional learning as well. (BTW, the photos are also in my newest print-run of HR.)

I really like that Amazon makes revisions and corrections possible all during the process of uploading, and even after the book is uploaded and listed. Melissa has already edited her listed book a couple of times with ease.

One "thing" I haven't learned yet is how to hyperlink the Table of Contents/Chapters to the text. I must have read the instructions at least six times before I gave up for a few days. I'll try again next week, or maybe get my son Peter to help me with it this weekend. I did figure out how to bookmark several spots, like the beginning (I chose my cover, not all authors do).

OKAY -- I've just shared with you a great authoring experience I've recently enjoyed. So NOW it's YOUR turn. Any tips from YOU for the rest of us? Maybe a super book you're reading?

Writing and reading blessings,
Millie Samuelson
http://www.milliesbooks.org/