Anxious

Hi Again,

It has been a week since I posted my first blog, and you might be wondering, what I have been doing during that time. Well let me tell you. 

First, my parents, who live some distance  away, came to visit for a few days. Although we speak regularly on the phone, it was nice to catch up with them in person. Brandon and Melissa, who sometimes feel like they don't get to see their grandparents often enough, made the most of their time together - playing games, doing puzzles and relaying stories about their friends and what they've been doing at school. Of course, the time passed way too quickly, and we were saddened when it came time for my mum and dad to leave.

As things quickly returned to normal, well nearly normal (the kids are currently enjoying a two week winter break from school), I began to make the final preparations  required to upload my novel- Mystery Falls - to Smashwords.com. As I have mentioned before, I am not a whizz when it comes to computers. However, after spending a day studying Smashwords Style Guide, and seeking assistance from my husband when I came across an instruction I didn't quite understand,  I was able to reformat my manuscript in the way they described.

At this point, I should probably mention that Richard is fantastic when it comes to computer knowledge, and his support in this area of my publishing career, has been invaluable. 

So, continuing... With my eBook Cover design complete, my manuscript correctly formatted, I was ready to publish. Anxious and excited at the same time, I began to fill in the form located on the Smashwords website. Checking over each entry several times to make sure there were no mistakes, I came to the point where I had to select the files to be uploaded. Afraid that in my  current nervous state I might chose the wrong one, I allowed Richard to complete this stage for me.

With the cursor hovering over the 'Publish' button, we both took a deep breath. Then, with a 'click', the information was sent. For almost a minute, the screen went blank, something we were warned would happen, but still caused me to feel stressed. Finally, a new window appeared. Staring at the table which indicated the progress of the upload, I watched with trepidation, as each box was successfully ticked. Receiving a message to say that the autovetter had not detected any errors, I breathed a small sigh of relief. But the process was not over yet. Instructed to check the EPUB version using Adobe Digital Editions, I once again, felt my anxiety levels begin to rise. This, to me, was the moment of truth. If I had done everything correctly, the book would look terrific. If I hadn't... well, I didn't even want to think about that.

Waiting for Richard to follow the necessary steps, I was absolutely blown away when my novel finally appeared. It was, and is, exactly as I had envisaged.


If you would like to view Mystery Falls for yourself, sample, or purchase a copy, please follow one of the links below.

Marilyn Phillip's Smashwords Author Profile:

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/marilynphillips

Book page to sample or purchase Mystery Falls:

http://smashwords.com/b/178944



Release dates for Apple iPad, Sony, Barnes and Noble, and other retailers, will be posted here as soon as they become available.


So what comes next? That is an easy question to answer - Mystery Rises - the sequel to Mystery Falls, is already in the early stages of development.