Today I published my first book

Fathers day weekend was fun.  Spent a lot of time with my parents at their place on the river.  I helped my dad put together one of the Jet Ski's.  They are becoming more trouble than they are worth.  Each year you have to put in a new battery and $40 yes FORTY dollar a gallon oil plus gas, registration etc makes them an easy $200 to get running every year.  Friday it was nice, but Sunday when we got the second one in the water finally, the wind had created 2-3 foot wave swells.  Test running the jet ski was a jarring ride that my back has yet to forgive me for.  I am not even going to get into how the boat engine was disassembled by the company who winterized it and said it was water ready.

Today in the world of being a writer, author, publisher marks a special day.  I uploaded my manuscript to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Lightning Source.  Two locations for eReaders and the printing company.  Everything appears to have gone smoothly so now I am in a "hurry up and wait" phase.  Amazon says 24 hours, Barnes and Noble says 48ish, and Lightning Source says it will be a while.  10 days for them to create and send me my proof copy.  Once that is approved, then I can order print runs of it and it will be listed through Ingram Book's catalog.  When it shows up on Amazon or Barnes and Noble to buy as a paperback, I have no idea.  Research points to as little as a week after the proof is green lit to as many as 10 weeks.

The eBook versions have been priced at $2.99.  The paperback has a retail price of $14.15.  I chose that price for my own convenience.  When you add the 6% sales tax for Idaho, it makes it an even $15.  So if I sell any copies out of my truck, I do not have to worry about too much change.  I also have set up an account with Square.  This is a company that lets you take Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and AMX cards through your phone.  They take a 2.75% cut from every swipe, but its worth it.  If you have any experience in dealing with a card services company that has contracts, fees etc.  You should be delighted with Square.

Book two of The Eternal Gateway series is currently at chapter 2.  I have set myself an aggressive goal for it.  I would like to see the first 5 chapters completed by the end of the week.  Unless something goes horribly wrong with Requiem now that it is released, all my time can go to Guardian.  I still plan to use Mondays and Thursdays as the days I blog to help market and promote my work.  It took 5 weeks to complete the first draft of Requiem.  With the added work of promoting etc, my goal is 7 weeks to have the rough draft of Guardian complete and a stretch goal of the final book, Sentinel, finished for the holidays.