Well it is done, shorter than I would have like as at the last minute I pulled a couple of stories I was not happy with but I decided it was more important to actually take the plunge with the publishing process than to create a doorstep of a book.  The kindle version is listed as 59 pages while the print version will run at just under a hundred, I am hoping that the stories will endear themselves to people and they will like my style and want to read more but that is where the sickness comes in.

What if no one likes it? What if the intertrolls decide to give it their special treatment? I have seen so many horrible comments on friends reviews pages, comments they do not deserve, that I cannot help but wonder how I will handle them.  I know there will be some, I don’t think anyone ever really escapes unscathed these days but I know the minute I sent that final draft and could no longer go back that I found myself almost in tears with nerves.

I like to think of myself as a fairly strong person, but my absence the last few days has been basically because I realised my procrastination at finishing a project comes down to fear.  It was not a pleasant realisation to make, at one point I even tried to change the release day but if I had I would have lost my pre-order privileges (though I would point out I wanted to change the day from the Saturday to the Monday because I am actually at work when my book goes on sales, I picked the date randomly without looking what day it was, lesson learned).

The actually process was not too hard, mainly thanks to a wonderful article I found on Lit World Interiews you can find by clicking on their name.  I know how to format a document in the old fashioned sense of indents titles etc, but like many I should imagine of my age who learnt typing on first manual and the electronic typewriters, I never really use many of the other format features of word and had certainly no idea about doing a Table of Contents from the document, the article was a blessing for me especially as it seems it is a feature Kindle require more frequently these days and was certainly a positive leaning process to take forward to Voices.

The Create Space experience was a little more difficult and require a few adjustments to get it all set up properly, the addition of blank pages, a little alteration to the cover to get it to fit though it seems that had I done it the other way round that might not have been an issue.  I have however been convinced of the need to think about covers for both formats before next time and that is something I need to look into.  I have just submitted the files after the last adjustments so hopefully I will soon be looking at a proof and it should be ready to go on sale at the same time as the Kindle version.  I am going to be using the hashtag #PaulaDisintegration for this book as I looked on twitter and it was the only way to do it that would not end up taking you somewhere else lol

So it is done, no turning back, I feel scared, exhilarated and incredibly nervous but now I have taken the plunge surely it gets easier with the next one?