End of a Marathon

That’s it! I am published.

I got my graphics back from at 11PM last night. I forgot to turn my phone off so it dinged. Of course, I had to look and see what the noise was. I saw it was a message from David. I didn’t open the message. I just knew it was my graphics for the cover and tried to go back to sleep.

At 2AM, I woke up. Eyes wide open, I tried desperately to go back to sleep. I decided to get out of bed and take a shower. I was starting to get stinky and I hadn’t shaved my pits in a month at least. I took a nice long shower.

After the shower, I tried to go back to bed. I flopped on the bed. I rolled over to my side. I tucked the pillow under my head and shoved a pillow between my knees. I took a deep breath and sighed. I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing.

Ahh. The calm.

It lasted all of two seconds.

I got out of bed and went out to the kitchen. I brewed a very dark pot of coffee. I went to my work station, the corner of the kitchen table, and turned on my laptop. I quickly opened my email and downloaded my graphics from David.

Everything looked great.

I hopped on KDP Amazon and began finishing my set up for publishing. The ebook went first. I was so excited. As it was prepping to give me a preview, it was taking a while. I said a Hail Mary and an Our Father just to be sure. It all looked good. I recorded the event for posterity.

I clicked the publish button.

It went through.

I became an author.

KDP approved the ebook. I went through the process for the paperback but ran into some trouble. I call tech support and they walked me through the problem. I thought all was well and then they rejected my graphics.

I was disappointed thinking I was going to have to wait on David. KDP said the barcode was the wrong size. I emailed David. David emailed me and helpfully suggested I didn’t click that I had barcode. AND sure enough. I had not clicked the box.

I was able to resubmit for publishing the paperback today, which was my imaginary deadline.

I am now waiting to see if KDP accepts my paperback for publishing. We will find out soon.