My Self-Publishing Misadventures - (Raw writing because I'm tired of editing)

Why is help so hard to find?

It’s a Monday night and I’m frustrated. My book that I published 2 months ago I am attempting to reformat. I may have to republish this and feels like a train wreck now. This self-publishing process has been a headache to say the least. I honestly don’t think I’ll ever attempt this again, as much as I love to write.

My first copy the margins were all wrong. It didn’t look too bad on the preview. The second update I did edits. Amazon said they could format to make it fit. I clicked Ok. Well, the font is too small now and my copy is stuck on the Amazon bookshelf with tiny font that’s almost impossible to see.

Text ran into gutter almost

Tiny text. Nice margins

Yes, most of this is my fault I know. I did it myself, the formatting process. Where you find help without spending $100s and not get scammed or have it screwed up?

I can come up with ideas and stories out of thin air. That amazes me. I cannot for the life of me edit or understand formatting. Then there are the continuous careless errors I make. This brings me back to painful comments I’ve heard about myself. “She’s smart but doesn’t apply herself.” “She is so disorganized, and work is sloppy.” “She can be organized if she’d only try.” Undiagnosed ADHD in the past. It’s frustrating because I feel like I have to work 3x as much as the next person in certain areas.

On the brightside

I had a friend that helped me reformat my manuscript beautifully. He lives in California and has published several books. Thirty-three pages were added from myself and formatting my book correctly. Long story short, Amazon would not accept it due to an editing error. It took me a while to figure out why. The additional pages are more than 10% of my total book and that is why. It will need to be unpublished and published as a second edition. I could lose my reviews as well in the process.

So, what’s next?

I need help but where? If I needed my air-conditioning fixed, I’d know who to call. If my hair needed to be cut, I’d know who to call. Writing? It’s a crap shoot.

Where are the book doctors and whom can I trust? Old school me, wonders why I can’t have someone sit with me in person. Someone that can walk me through the process and say here this is what you do. If that was the case it would’ve saved a month of stress. Not the case

Where is help? Not chat boxes, or online scammers. Humans? Where are you?

Maybe it’s because I have had some health issues these past two years and I feel like one size fits all.

The human connection is missing so much. Even when we are in person like the doctor’s office or physical therapy there is disconnect. It can take days to have a phone call returned and months to get an appointment. Meanwhile we are on our own and floating out there.

How will this world be as we get older? We are all becoming more of a number. Is it survival of the fittest, most technologically advanced, smartest and richest? Why not add youngest and most attractive in there too. I’m beginning to think so.

A side note -

Oh, and I’d really like to connect with other writer’s here and discuss the writing process. It seems like it’s become puppy photos and quotes from famous poets are the ones they get seen here. Those post we blindly like while scrolling. (Guilty). It is all about shiny objects and we are losing - lost those connections because of that.