How I Became An Indie Author

I am finally a published author. When I started this whole process I not only had no idea what I was doing, but I am not very computer savvy. I did not even have a FaceBook page until a couple of months ago! I opted to do everything myself. But where should I start? I Googled it. First, I decided to do the print book. I did my own editing and formatting and I did my own cover. I’ll talk about the cover later in this article. When I began the formatting and editing process, it seemed each time I fixed one thing something else changed and I had to correct that and each time I corrected the part that had changed, something else would go wrong. I became frustrated but I did not give up. I did 16 versions of the interior before I got it right. I was not joking when I said I was not computer savvy. Each time I had a problem I Googled the problem and found an answer.

I knew beforehand that I wanted to download one of my paintings for the cover. If you ever read my novel, Leah’s Garden, you will understand why I wanted my painting of Claude Monet’s Japanese Garden to be the cover of my book. I had no idea where to start or how to do it. A friend recommended Krita, a free paint program. A lot of people do their covers on that site. I am sure it is a good site but when I checked it out I could see right away it was for people who were much more experienced with such programs. It was too complicated for me. So I Googled it. This was how I discovered Canva.com. Canva has a free site that allowed me to choose custom dimensions and download my photo for the front cover.  They have a huge database of shapes, lines, lettering and colors, all of which you can use to create your spine and back cover. After many tries (12 to be exact) I had my cover and uploaded it to KDP.

The Ebook Should Be Easy

According to Amazon KDP all you have to do is push a button or two and convert the files for your ebook. I already knew this was not a good idea because I had Googled it and found out a lot of authors out there had bad experiences doing it that way. First, I had to do another cover, so I went back to Canva and they already had a Kindle format cover. I love Canva! The interior was another story. I thought, surely my download will be near perfect, as I spent so much effort fixing any mistakes on the print version. I downloaded the Microsoft 10 docx file of my interior, supposedly an approved format for Kindle. They claimed there would be no problem, they would convert it to the Kindle format. This did not work. Even though they accepted it, whenever I downloaded the free review to my Kindle to check it there were several formatting and space issues. So I Googled it and found numerous threads on Kindle forums that agreed this was not a good format for Kindle even though Kindle approved it. Next I Googled what to do about it and I found out that I needed to convert it to mobi/Kindle format and resend it to Kindle. It didn’t work, of course because I did not have a program on my Windows 10 that could do that. I Googled it and discovered HelpnDoc, a wonderful free (for my own use) software program. They had editing capabilities before conversion so I was able to fix a few formatting issues and take out the page numbers and headers from there. Once I created a good copy and fixed any mistakes I downloaded it to my computer as a mobi file and it loaded into Amazon perfectly and looked great on my Kindle.

An Author Needs a Website

After I completed my print book and ebook I read that any serious author needs a website. How on earth would a techno-phobe like me create a website? This was the only thing I did not Google. In Self-Publishing Books 101 by Shelley Hitz and Heather Hart, they advise every indie author needs a website. I recommend their book to all beginning authors who are going to self-publish their work. They also have much helpful advice on their website at trainingauthors.com . They recommended InMotion Hosting company for the beginning indie author. They have WordPress. I signed up for their plan. It costs less than ten dollars per month. A fellow indie author had previously advised me not to choose a free hosting company because their many popup ads slow down your site and might annoy your users. I was able to build my website through them and along the way I Googled numerous questions, and answers were always available in the form of well-designed tutorials from InMotion. Thanks to Google I did not have to slog through hours of tutorials-I only had to watch the ones that were pertinent to my situation.

A Dream Come True

I always wanted to be a published novelist and now I am one. No matter whether my book sells or does not sell, I did it. This has been quite a challenging and fulfilling journey for me yet I know I am just beginning. Of course I am grateful to Amazon for having this self-publishing avenue and opportunity for indie authors but I could not have done any of this without Google. Google is so fast and accurate and useful I think we sometimes take it for granted. I cannot adequately express my gratitude for Google. Each and every time I had a problem I Googled it and found a solution. I also want to thank all of the people out there who so generously share their experiences and knowledge with new authors like myself. CL May