I made my first novel A Chemical Fire available as an ebook about a month ago. It was a fairly frustrating process, especially in the area of formatting and uploading. The end result was decent though, and sharing it has been an enjoyable time. It's a bit like a coming out party. Like yes, I actually do this. This is what I am.
As was expected, it hasn't sold much. That's not disappointing because I know the majority of people, even avid readers, simply don't buy ebooks. They either don't have a device for it, hate reading anything of length on screens, or haven't adapted to the technology yet. The point of making it available this way was to have it out there, to have a place to point to and say, interested? Here. Read a page. Read a sentence. While I've only sold a few copies there have been far more samples downloaded, and that's just as, if not more, rewarding. To know that people I've never met are checking out my stuff, and possibly enjoying it, is so much of what this is all about.
More importantly, I'm in the process of getting it into print through print-on-demand. I wasted a little time with Wordclay before realizing the book would end up costing a person, all told with shipping, about 21 dollars. The last thing I want to do is rip people off, so I abandoned that and went to Comixpress. Not only would it cost less but the cover would be full color and my own design. It's a little strange to go with a comics printer but I really like what they're about over there. They seem passionate about what they do and they're not out to swindle. I'm currently waiting for proofs so I can move ahead.
I started a website, http://bloodstreamcity.com, an official site of sorts. That more than anything is my place to point to.
I'm making moves to get the word out, which I'll start in full force once everything is set and I have a real, physical book to sell. I printed up bookmarks which are right now in a box on their way to me, and I made up mini-flyers to bring to coffee houses, bookstores, etc. Yesterday we went to a swap meet and slipped a flyer in every book we gave away. Things like that are what I plan, rather than waiting for a literary agent to approve of my form letter enough to request a sample and like that enough to request a meeting and like that enough to think it's marketable and want to pitch it to publishers who like that enough to request a meeting who like that enough to think it can capture enough percentage of the market to clear printing and advertising costs to be a profitable product.
I want to write. I want to be read. I want to make a living at it but I don't need the approval of businessmen, because they certainly don't have mine. If I get an agent and a book deal I'll be very happy but I'm not going to wait around for it to come to me. I need to move on and keep writing and keep getting read and get better and do more of both, which is what I'm doing. I finished the first draft of my second book, which is going in a drawer for a while until I'm ready for edits, and then I started right away on my third. This one, if I pull it off, could be great.
