Self Publishing...

Okay, so I competed in National Novel Writing Month for the first time two years ago and although there were no real prizes for completing it, it felt good to me to know that I could accomplish something so huge as writing 50,000 words in a month.  What the site did give out, however, was a coupon code to get a free copy of my book - as an actual book!

Pretty exciting, right?

Wrong.

I am not a techy person at all.  I know just enough to get by.  In order to get said book, you had to convert files to PDF and then format them and on and on and on it went until I just about pulled my hair out of my head and said forget it.  Plus, the coupon expired.

The next time I did it, I forgot to validate my work so although I actually DID write the 50,000 words, it didn't count because I forgot to hit that last little button in time.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

In my in-box about a month ago came another code for a free book, this time through Amazon from when I competed in the Breakthrough Novel Award contest.  So I sat myself down and MADE myself figure out the whole formatting thing and you know what?  I did it!  It was a ginormous pain in the butt but I did it.  I edited, I designed a cover and I formatted and I submitted.  And I got my book in the mail!

And it is FULL of mistakes!

This is why writers don't like to self-publish, I'm thinking.  I have spent close to a week reading and re-reading and marking up my proof copy of my book and now I have to sit down with the book AND my computer to fix all of the mistakes.  And they are stupid mistakes - spacing problems mostly - but they still need to be fixed.  It will be VERY time consuming but at least now I know I can do it.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole thing.  I mean, I love having a book in my hands with MY name on it but it is really expensive if I actually want to get copies made for selling.  Has anyone out there done this that would be willing to give advice?  How about publishing on Kindle?  How does that work?

Suggestions would be welcome...