The Draft2Digital migration process begins

-
A pretty apt photo for today's subject.

Over three years ago Smashwords and Draft2Digital became one company. Last night I received notice that it was my turn for the migration queue, and for the rest of the night I was...slightly pensive, nostalgic, and resigned to change. Lol. Change is often not nearly as traumatic as we think it will be, current American governmental coup notwithstanding. I chose not to do more than ponder this somewhat monumental to me alteration, instead working on a one thousand piece puzzle (see above) that will keep me occupied until I feel the shingles are truly GONE.

'Nuff said about that. Yet for Smashwords, my goodness! I independently published The War on Emily Dickinson on July 16th, 2011, that's coming on fourteen years ago! SO MUCH has changed in indie publishing, although this is not an analysis entry, more of a walk down memory lane while assuaging my mind and heart that ALL WILL BE FINE.

It truly will, ahem.

Since then, I've released MANY books, excising a few, while remaining true to my belief of how damn cool is it that finally writers can become publishing authors without all the traditional publishing decrees and limitations! A big WOOT WOOT for that, and for that I am EXCEEDINGLY GRATEFUL to Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, for running a company that put authors FIRST. Not agents or publishing houses or, lol, Amazon. It remains to be seen how thrilled I will be with his merging the company with D2D. I'll report as that process unfolds.

However, I won't be releasing any books imminently, so there will be plenty of time for me to get to grips with Draft2Digital. I am very appreciative of their books2read site, so if that's any indicator, all should be fine.

It truly will, ahem.

I guess this post is mostly to assure myself that indeed change is fine. Most change. A retrospective of my Smashwords experiences isn't necessary because those days are GONE, unlike my shingles, sigh. I have added my Smashwords Interview to the top of the blog because that element of one's profile page will no longer exist, although the Smashwords Store will continue, whew! The rest of what D2D offers will be time in coming; my next book is tentatively #3 for The Hawk, with #4 of The Enran Chronicles right after it, those slated for August and September respectively. That gives me all summer to play with a new interface. However, being it's nearly the end of April, I'll sneeze and suddenly it will be time to upload a new book, yikes! What will that be like???

For almost fourteen years I have comfortably used one distributor for my novels. That's pretty amazing, to be truthful. I don't go through Amazon, as they don't like freebies, so Smashwords has been my be-all, end-all. And now it's about to END. Lots to ponder for this author, mostly a heart filled with thankfulness that I've been able to release books for FREE without monetary cost to myself. That's AWESOME in this day and age.

Perhaps that's the takeaway; change is necessary, I preach often enough how life is NOT STATIC. While I've been happy in my distribution arena, something new doesn't mean something less worthy. I could be singing D2D's praises come August, and I surely hope that's the case! Meanwhile, there is a puzzle to piece, little sewing to be had until my shoulders are amenable, a birthday (lol) to consider, and laundry to throw in the washer. First I'll make a cup of Yorkshire tea, to honor where I wrote my initial novel Drop the Gauntlet and to celebrate the subsequent prose, all of it released independently. Thanks again Mark Coker, for making this writer's dream come true.

Popular posts from this blog

I want to be somewhere else

-
Image
I wanted to continue these revisions, but the entry below came first. Heads-up: Bleak post but with strength at the end. Ups and downs; perhaps that's what it's like living under a repressive regime. Not the most uplifting manner in which to begin a post, but at this moment in time it's how I feel. And being honest with oneself is imperative to keeping a grip on sanity, if reality is an effed up kettle of rotten fish. Maybe I should have called my senators already. I could contact my rep, Jared Huffman, because aides do answer those calls. But I'm not steeled enough mentally or emotionally to delve into that arena. This day, I'm barely able to note my name. How do repressed peoples manage during such bleak days? They've been doing it a long damn time, and if that's how my nation ends up, I'll be doing it too. Life goes on; sports and Valentine's Day and whatever else the Big Eastern Syndicate requires. Big Eastern Syndicate is not of my creation; it...
Read more

Blogging or Bluesky

-
Image
  A hunk from my Lavender EPP quilt, currently in progress. Around the first of March, I took an early Lenten sabbatical from Bluesky Social. My account with that form of social media is only from last November, after the election. I didn't abandon a Twitter handle for it, as that type of social media had never been my preferred method of outreach. As you can imagine, I like a LONG manner in which to share my thoughts, smiley face inserted HERE. Yet I was happy to create the account, and enjoyed the camaraderie I met. Giving up Bluesky was in part a Lenten sacrifice, as well as a need to distance myself from the weight of what was happening in America. I fully expected to rejoin the banter once Easter was over. That plan has been discarded, as I will continue my absence from Skeets and a three hundred character limit for posts. That was certainly a hindrance, as often I have far more on my mind, LOL. But what I found most interesting was how I didn't miss that level of social m...
Read more

Red Sky at Night reconsidered

-
Image
Washed and crinkly! My first Kawandi-inspired quilt. Meanwhile zoning from joy to despair (and not quite halfway back again).... So yeah, a new plan for Red Sky at Night . Going to morph some of the EPP blocks into a Kawandi-inspired quilt. Yup, that's what I'm gonna do. I gotta do SOMETHING outrageous that won't land me in jail or further emotional depths. Maybe not outrageous, but unplanned, beautiful. Crafty, but not evil, just saying.... Making the art quilt pictured above, I was truly in THE ZONE OF HAPPINESS. Arranging (and often rearranging) scraps on a fourteen-inch piece of batting underlined with most of a fat quarter, I listened to lots of S artists on my computer; Steely Dan, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Supertramp. Most heartening was Stevie Wonder, especially songs from his 1974 LP Fulfillingness' First Finale . "You Haven't Done Nothin'", pointedly aimed at Richard Nixon, made me smirk. Learning what Elon is trying to do to the Treas...
Read more