An Update Regarding Shadow Herald

I need to announce a delay in the release date.

Behind the scenes, I’ve been going through the wringer. I’ve been rushing to release Shadow Herald as soon as I can because I want enough income to get myself out of an uneasy home situation. But because I’ve been rushing, I feel like I have not had the breathing room I needed to do everything properly.

As a result, I’ve had to scrap the December 19th release date so I can take a breather and re-gather my resources.

Firstly, I skipped the professional edit with this first publishing attempt — I am well aware that this is extremely controversial in the publishing world, because almost everyone has had the phrase “YOU NEED AN EDITOR” drilled into them. This wasn’t a choice that I’d made lightly. At the time, I really didn’t think I could afford an editor, so I utilized every self-editing trick I knew of. I’ve re-evaluated the costs now, and I think I should put it through a proofread.

Secondly, more edits means that I’m going to have to revise both the ebook and print versions of Shadow Herald. Since I’m getting better with Scribus and Sigil every day, that should be the easiest step.

Thirdly, I would like more time to search out willing reviewers and compose review offer emails for them. I’ve already got a good list in mind, thankfully.

Fourthly, I want to better understand what my marketing options are.

Fifthly, if I want to sell outside of Amazon (if you haven’t noticed, they are not the most ethical of companies), I will need to purchase ISBNs. They’re a little expensive for an indie author, but the alternative is Amazon exclusivity. I don’t want that.

Finally, I need to set a new release day. Amazon won’t let me implement a pre-order anymore since I canceled the one for Shadow Herald’s ebook. Nonetheless, I can still push back the official release date; it’ll likely fall between March and May.

Other aspiring self-published authors, please take a few lessons from what I’ve gone through here! When people say that writing the book is the easy part, they are correct. Even though I have to delay everything like this, I have not given up on this labor of love, and I will live to see it published in 2021.

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My apologies to anyone who was excited about Shadow Herald‘s release. I want to do my best to release a book that I can be proud of! If you’d like, you can support me as a creator by buying me a Ko-fi. Thank you, and have a lovely day.