Learning to Surrender to What Is: Indie Author Edition
Sometimes things do not go as planned 🤦♀️
Readers of the Realm: This week is not going as expected. As such today’s post will be short, as I’m making it up as I go. (Pansting powers activated!)
The second edition of Rowena’s Song was officially published Thursday—at least according to all of the information I filed when I registered the ISBN. Perhaps I should not have purchased that number when Mercury was retrograde, because things are not panning out according to my schedule.
Welcome to my world.
But before I get into that, I need to start with the fact that ARC readers are also out of my control, and yet I am delighted to see that there are new reviews up on Goodreads and StoryGraph. A heart felt thank you to everyone who read the Advance Reader’s Copy of the book and left reviews! I don’t have a huge following, in part because marketing isn’t my favorite.
For those of you that were able to take the time to share such kind words, I am truly touched. Thank you thank you thank you ❤
If only my storefront worked…
UGHHHHHH.
I am an artistic soul. Writing lyrical passages? Sure. Planting a cottage garden? Yes. Nature photography featuring birds? That would be my favorite.
Setting up a digital storefront? Somehow I figured it out. I copied codes and keys and made functioning buttons on my website. It’s integrated with a system so folks can use their credit card or PayPal. The analog kid that listened to her first audiobooks on a record player set up her own publishing company!!!
Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that even though Lemon Squeezy was acquired by a larger company last October, there is still a delay on how long it takes for an account to be greenlit. Silly me thought that it really would be 1-2 business days and I’d be operational.
Day four and I’m still waiting.
Is part of that on me? Perhaps. When I did the initial test run on the storefront, I made an error. When I tried again the next day, perhaps the clock reset and I’m still in the middle of business day two because now it’s the weekend. Not sure.
This was a long way of saying that no celebratory mead was consumed on publication day. This is what every mom that remains pregnant after her due date must feel like.
As soon as my storefront has been approved, you all will be the first to know. Thank you for your patience.
To be honest, this was a good lesson in not waiting until the last minute. Then again, I’m an undiagnosed ADHD author, book coach, and librarian living in a 75-year-old fixer upper with a puppy. I have fibromyalgia so there are days I remain in bed, wondering why my body hates me. I know this, and yet I still find flying by the seat of my pants an alluring M.O.
This doesn’t feel very zen, and yet here I am, more chill than not.
I could get upset with myself or with Lemon Squeezy or the universe. But that isn’t going to make my storefront magically appear. I considered hiding, and I suppose I did for a bit since I usually publish on Friday and this article is being written and published on Saturday. So who is sharing a big I effed up with their followers?
It’s meeeeeee!!!!!
Would this have happened with a big five publisher? Nope. But that’s ok. It will be out by next week instead of next year. “And if I’m flying solo, at least I’m flying free!”
Speaking of free: If you haven’t had a chance yet to read the first five chapters for free, they are still available and will remain so until the title is uploaded to Amazon.
***Update: Ivy’s Free Chapter Offer has expired. However, you can still read the first three chapters on Amazon by clicking here and then clicking the “free sample” button underneath the image of the book on the left..