It's a White Christmas...

I just took this photo. You can't really tell, but it's still snowing. 

So...last night, I wound up watching The King's Speech, again. I guess to remind myself that it's possible to overcome problems if you really focus on them and work hard and don't let the turkeys get you down. Yeah, right. Very Pollyanna.

Okay, now that the saccharine is out of my system, I can say I am way out of my depth when it comes to launching a book. And probably too late, according to their plan. I should have started everything prior to even beginning the writing.

Well...I guess trying to get an agent interested in repping A Place of Safety to a mainstream publisher was a way of doing that. Sort of. Even though it did crash and burn. And they say editorial reviews...like from Kirkus and BookLife...are important, which I have.

But...I should have my own website, preferably with the ability to buy directly from me...as well as a lengthy list of people to email when I have a new book or special promotion going on. Got neither.

Of course, the biggest issue with this outline is, they are very Amazon-centric...and I am not. I don't trust Amazon. I know too many authors online who've been fucked over by them. One recently had all her KU ebooks removed because some asshole pirated the book and set it up though another group. KU demands exclusivity.

Which is a big no fucking way to me...because they don't listen when you tell them that there's been a mistake. I went through that with them, more than once back when I was still getting going with my self-publishing. Hell, even before.

The first time How to Rape a Straight Guy got banned was when it was with a publisher, and the cowards wouldn't fight for it. I had to, and I got Amazon to back down...but it took weeks. I'm neither a masochist nor interested in an abusive relationship with a two-trillion-dollar company.

Anyway, what it boils down to is learning a new approach to publicizing my books or finding someone I can afford who will do so, for me. And I think the latter would be far better, overall.

Anybody got a couple thousand bucks lying around that they don't need?