Yes, I tried it. I published my short story, The Good Neighbors, on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) using my pen name, J.Q. Rose. I am not a guru when it comes to formatting, so I was really nervous about getting it right. I learned a LOT about formatting. I think the short story, 4000 words, was a good one for the first (and last?) project because there were no chapter headings to worry about formatting or any need to add hyperlinks to them.
The most difficult problem for me was to come up with a book cover. I am not satisfied with this one…pretty amateurish, but I wanted to clue readers into the idea that it is a funny, holiday story. And hey, selling a book for 99 cents doesn’t leave any cash to pay an artist to design a book cover. Since the same characters are in this story as in my e-book, Sunshine Boulevard, I wanted to connect the two stories. I did that by choosing a flamingo. Two flamingos are on the cover of Sunshine.
Actually the process is very simple for a short story anyway. After I pubbed it, I discovered a ridiculous, obvious error, so I re-pubbed it with no problem after fixing the error. I was also amazed the story showed up within 24 hours for sale on amazon.
The story features characters, Jim and Gloria Hart, from my mystery e-book, Sunshine Boulevard, published in March from Muse It Up Publishing. I hope to use it as a promotional tool to garner interest in Sunshine Boulevard. I am donating the royalties from the story to local food pantries. The story is only 99 cents, so not much income for donations, but I’ll just throw the change into the pot to add to my monthly donation to our local food pantry.
Check out my humorous story, The Good Neighbors on amazon. While you’re there, discover Sunshine Boulevard on amazon or at the Muse It Up Publishing bookstore and major online booksellers.
Let me know about your experience with self-pubbing on KDP.
Happy New Year 2012!!
Posted by Widdershins on December 28, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Haven’t done any self-publishing yet … but planning on it in the future.
… Cute toque on that flamingo!
Posted by Janet Glaser on December 28, 2011 at 5:05 pm
Hi Widder, Thanks for stopping by. Good luck with your writing!! glad you like the flamingo.
Posted by Publish on Amazon Kindle with Kindle Direct Publishing | I-want-to-buy-a-book. on December 29, 2011 at 12:00 am
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Posted by takeactionebook on December 29, 2011 at 10:18 am
When I self-published my first ebook I was very nervous. I use Smashwords. But soon found out that formatting may be a little time consuming but it is pretty easy. I’m now working on my 3rd and 4th ebook. Good luck with your books!
Posted by rogerdengle on January 26, 2012 at 6:51 pm
Hi Janet,
I enjoyed reading about your book offer on Kindle Direct. I am trying to learn all I can about publishing on KDP because I am a beginning self publisher. I wonder if you might have any recommendations for me. I’ve begun writing my own blog about my struggles and successes through the process, and I have bedeviled all of my social network contacts with posts about my first publication. I’m reading all that I can about how to more effectively use keywords and categories to get more traffic and I am working on better cover designs for future publications I already have in the works. What else should I do to empower myself for eventual success?
Posted by J.Q. Rose on December 30, 2014 at 8:50 am
Hi Roger, I apologize. I’m only about 3 years late in answering your comment. I kind of abandoned this wordpress site when I decided to promote my pen name, J.Q. Rose. I’m curious as to how your self publishing career is doing? What is your blog addy? And your amazon page? My Author Blog is http://www.JQRose.com I am going to copy this post to it for my first blog post of the new year. Jan 5 Hope to see you over there so we can catch up!