Hi everyone.

I figured I’d do a more extensive blog update for you all and tell you what’s been going on with the book.

As of April 29th,2014 the book has been submitted for approval for print distribution. This means that it is now out of my hands and there’s nothing more I can do. Unfortunately, it takes about 24 hours before I get an e-mail saying that my book is good to go. So that means, even though I’m technically in for the deadline, the book will not populate the Amazon store until the beginning of May.

So what was the hold up?

Well, editing a 90,000 word book and then formatting it for print and Kindle is no overnight job. When editing, you have to read the entire manuscript from start to finish in order to make sure you catch all the mistakes. Missing capitalization, punctuation, a word that is spelled correctly but it used incorrectly. The tricky ones like: they, they’re, their, its, it’s, brake, break. Etc.

All of these things needed to be caught and snipped, and when you’re editing it takes even longer to read through the whole book.

Then there’s the marketing material. What goes on the back? What goes on the blurb? Should I include an author bio?

Then if you decide to include these things, you need to format the book and present it in the most aesthetically pleasing way as possible.

Guys and gals, being a writer is not easy, especially if you are self publishing. It’s time consuming, stressful, and quite frankly the honeymoon ends once you’re preparing the book for distribution. Of course, you can always query an agent and hope they get you in with a traditional publisher, but remember, you will still have to market the book regardless of whether you are traditionally published or not.

This is not to discourage anyone from writing. I merely want to keep people’s expectations firmly grounded in reality when they do decide to write. It is one of the most rewarding experiences when you get a book in your hands, but that’s not happening unless you put an insane amount of hardwork into it.

ANYWAY! The book is on its way now and as soon as I have information on when you can purchase it, you all will be the first to know.

-Wilmar