Gene Doucette

This week we’re looking back at the first year in the life of the indie published book Immortal.  You should probably read it.

I’m not proud

Immortal was scheduled to debut on 10-1-10, and I’d love to say things went smoothly, and everything worked out okay, and I was cool about it all.

But…

There was Amazon.  The publisher’s initial plan was to use Amazon’s “fulfillment” plan which resulted in this spectacular blog entry in which I attempted to convince my readers to wish-list the book due to the impossibility of pre-purchasing anything in the fulfillment program.

I then convinced the publisher to use Amazon Advantage instead so the book looked like every other book on the retailer site.  (The fulfillment listing looked like it might if one were buying a used pair of off-brand shoes from a “retailer” that lives in an “apartment.”)  But switching didn’t exactly happen immediately, resulting in this panicked blog entry wherein I tried to cover for the possibility that the book would not actually be available on the much-publicized release date.

And then came the release date… and the book was available.

These are not, needless to say, exemplars of posterity.

And that was only for the print version

After a nice launch party (for which I neglected to take any pictures, because I’m smart like that) and a press release it was time to sit back and watch the sales figures go up…

…and answer awkward questions about where the ebook version was.

OK, I know this was only a year ago, but I’m not that bright.  I didn’t realize how important ebooks were to the current publishing model, and neither did my “this is only our second book” publisher.

It took another writer (the very nice Lorna Suzuki) to ask, “Gene, why don’t you just use Smashwords?”, which prompted me to ask my publisher, “Why don’t we just use Smashwords?” and then there I was formatting an ebook myself.  This was a process that required multiple revisitations, considerable anguish, and not an inconsiderable amount of weeping.  But it got done.  And thanks to Smashwords, it’s available not just on the Kindle, but in all the other formats you can name, and a few you’ve never heard of: Nook, iBooks, Sony, Kobo, Diesel.

Next week: More reviews roll in, we discuss whether Adam is an asshole, whether the book is structurally sound, and whether you’ve bought your copy yet.