IT’S LIVE!!!!

So, this is an announcement AND a discussion post.

The announcement: It’s in His Kiss (finally) went live on Amazon today!

You can check it out HERE.

And here (again, cause I love it so darn much) is the cover:

And now the discussion part.

I began the posting process Tuesday. Nothing took more than 24 hours. I have seen some discussion on the Kindle Boards about things taking longer than that…. people reporting in that their 24 hour wait periods were sometimes as much as 4 days.

It was pointed out that weekends don’t count. I’m assuming nights don’t either since I never woke up to a finished segment.

I’ll admit, this seemed weird to me. Amazon feels like a 24/7 company. So the fact that getting products live is not a 24/7 deal seemed a bit counter-productive. On the flip-side, my $.99 short probably isn’t very high on Amazon’s list of things to-do.

So, here was the process as I experienced.

You may have seen Thursday’s post about my first snag. I hadn’t listed myself as a “contributor” as an author. To be honest, I thought having listed myself as the author was all I needed to do. It didn’t even blip my radar to add myself as a contributor. I was just too excited to slooooow down and consider that. But to be honest, I’m not sure I would have this first time either.

So, make sure you do this.

I hit “Save & Publish” and wait. It moved (or should have moved) to “In Review”

The first round took about 5 hours. Not bad. I went back in and it was listed again as “Draft” – I panicked. Did I hit “Save & Publish” or not????

I looked at the description of “Draft” in “Help” and it told me that’s where my manuscript lived until I hit “Save & Publish”…so I did.

Only to get an email from Amazon SIX hours later that I hadn’t added myself as a contributor.

So, I waited to get back to Draft again (the next day), added myself and hit “S&P” again…and waited another day.

So, we’re at the end of the day Thursday at this point.

Friday, I see the magic word….finally: LIVE. I’M LIVE! I’M LIVE!

I promptly sent my thank you emails to everyone who helped and tweeted like an insane woman… to all 12 of my followers. LOL

I had a giveaway for when I hit 25 followers (which surprisingly happened in like 15 mins… the power of the RT). I joked a lot about my standing at #24,842 and my desire to be #24,841 so my Amazon ranking at least  ENDED in 1.

I had a ball…and then I went to bed. I was shocked what happened overnight. I’m now  #8,160 – That makes me insanely curious how these numbers work. That’s a HUGE jump.

I’ve also made the Romance Anthology Bestsellers list. Which is exciting but, let’s admit, a little weird. In my mind, an anthology is a collection of shorts, not a short. But, I’m #63 on a bestsellers list, and I’m sure that’s not going to hurt me in anyway.

One last thing. I’d listed the people who did my cover as contributors (they’re also listed inside the short) but then when I was looking around, I noticed most people don’t. I’m wondering if this makes me look like an unproffessional newbie. I did go back in and (worrying about whether or not this would put me back another 24 hours) removed them.

It didn’t, but the book is “In Review” again while also being live on Amazon.

So, what I learned this week:

  1. Make sure you list you as a contributor
  2. Slow down. Amazon emails letting you know what’s going on come 3 to 7 days slower than what’s actually happening ON Amazon
  3. Give yourself PLENTY of time if you have a go-live date announced. You may need the entire week before
  4. Have fun

That’s all. I’m off to RWA Nationals next week and hoping to sit-in on Courtney Milan’s self-publishing breakfast. I’ll bring back notes!

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