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Self-Publishing Series, #6
It was April, 2021.
We had accomplished a complex feat as a family: Chained was published.
Now it was time to pull my chair to the desk, put my hands to the keyboard, and edit the sequel. Another battle began.
Trapped had a good skeleton and several top-notch scenes. My primary goals were to 1) further develop older characters, 2) refine the role of Rebekah, and 3) complicate the story plot.
Encouraging words from family members who were reading Chained made these goals enjoyable to achieve over the next few months.
Once again, Mom and Aynsley read the manuscript, keeping alert for errors. Mom is great at noticing grammar and punctuation, as well as ensuring Scriptural veracity. Aynsley is great at noticing plot holes and things which are uncharacteristic of my hero and allies. Their help was invaluable to me!
This time around, we decided to also hire a professional editor. Enter Sony Elise! Sony was fantastic to work with! She sent Trapped’s manuscript back with edits and suggested changes marked (on a Word document). I went through to accept or deny the changes. Sony kept me up to date on how fast the turn around might be so I could be alert for incoming emails.
One round of edits Sony requested I make was to eliminate the words/phrases “spun around,” “suddenly,” and “whirled about” as many times as possible. I did, surprised at how many times I had used the words/phrases. It was an interesting challenge.
When I finished those edits, Sony read it through once more and marked a few more things. After that, it was golden!
I learned a few keys to looking at my manuscripts more objectively during this process, which has helped me down the road.
Meanwhile, Aynsley worked on the book cover. She had found an image a few months back which she saved to use. All she had to do was refine the image, add another for the back, and format it. It turned out fantastic!
Ezekiel took his drone up and filmed the forest and lake near us. From that footage, he created the book trailer. Esther helped me refine the trailer lyrics. We matched them to the music again, but it might have turned out slightly wordy. We learned our lesson: write the trailer, then add music.
By now, I was formatting. With the knowledge I had learned doing Chained, this one was a breeze! Then, it was back to beating the KDP system. Thanks be to God, the prior tricks all worked!
Dad surprised me shortly after with a proof copy. Thankfully, this time, all the pages were in the correct places. I was excited to see all our hard work had come to fruition much sooner!
Then, came a series of unexpected hurdles. The printer delayed sending my copies, we discovered mistakes in the synopsis, and the publishing program freaked out and wouldn’t accept our cover design anymore. Our beautiful deadline of September 5th went by with no progress on the book.
By the time September 23rd rolled around, we had not received the official copies of Trapped to send out. We decided to do another new thing: put Trapped on preorder!
Thankfully, two days later, Trapped was officially published and we were ready to send out signed copies!
It was shortly after the joy of publication that I, once again, reached the place where I wanted to quit. Give up. Punt.
Why? Well, because building an audience and sharing the books (being an authoress, in other words) was hard work and overwhelming. I had a LOT to learn about God, who I am in Christ, what He’s given me to share, and how He tells me to give. But that’s a story for another day.
My point now is this: God has a purpose that He has foreseen from long ago. Nothing will thwart it. No matter how much I disliked the process, no matter how tired or discouraged or frustrated I was, God had determined my steps. And God was determined to help me do His will.
All along the way, I learned to look to Him for wisdom, strength, courage, and peace. We cannot do what the LORD directs us to do apart from Him – only with Him.
That’s the joy of walking these determined steps: we walk with God every step of the way.
Thank You, God, for determining our steps and never leaving our sides! Also, for being my Strength when I was weak and revealing Your heart to me!
Thank You, my dear family, for all the hard work, encouragement, love, time, joy, energy, patience, and confidence you poured into this endeavor! I love you all so much!
“In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.”
Want to enjoy the fruit of our labor? Read Trapped now!