Self publishing a novel has a number of pitfalls. Indie authors must be the creative force and the publisher. Something that has been on my self publishing checklist even before I started this process was to read the manuscript out loud.
It won’t be the first time I’ve read it out loud. Last December, I read Naughty Week to my girls, and they loved it! It could’ve been because they are my target audience, or it could’ve been because of the novelty of their dad telling them a bedtime story. Whatever the case, it was good to read aloud and even better to have an audience. By reading the manuscript out loud, I found what worked and what didn’t work. Sometimes I used words or humor that didn’t quite land with the grade-school set. Other times I found they responded to a moment or a character in a way that I didn’t anticipate. Since then, I’ve read the novel out loud after each significant rewrite and plan to do it one more time before the book launch.
It appears the universe is opening up in my favor. I had a meeting yesterday in Long Beach. It took a good 45 minutes to get there. I listened to one of my publishing podcasts. When I got to the location, it was a strip mall. There was a nail salon, an insurance place. Across the way was a Carl’s Jr. I had to circle the parking lot because I didn’t see the name of the business. I looked for the numbers above the doors to the businesses. I was in the right place. I pulled into a parking spot in front of the address, but it was a Fedex/UPS mailbox place. The address listed on the contract was a PO box. I called the client, and he said he was on his way to Irvine for a big job, that he never received confirmation from the salesperson. He thought the meeting was going to be next week. I smiled to myself. I told him no problem. I told him my office will be in touch to reschedule. I hadn’t even turned off my car. I put it in reverse, found another episode of an independent publishing podcast and headed back to Los Angeles.
According to my work calendar, my weekend just started. That could change. I didn’t want to get my hopes up. But all through the day, I kept looking at my calendar, making sure no meetings were scheduled. I took advantage of the extra time and continued reading Naughty Week out loud. This is something I would absolutely recommend to anyone self publishing a book or a story. In my case, this is a story that is meant to be read aloud, so it should sound good. Specifically, I am working to get through this draft so I can send it to Find A Way Voices to get the audiobook production started. One of my tasks for the day was to continue that process. I had already signed up and started checking off boxes, but I needed to stop because right there on the first page it asks for the manuscript. My manuscript is still being edited by my Reedsy editor, so I stopped there. I’m sure if I needed to re-upload the manuscript later, then they would allow it. However, I have done some things out of order — like getting the book cover made before I had a final page count — and I wanted to do this correctly with as few hiccups as possible. I just need to be patient. I just need to finish reading the manuscript out loud, then I’ll be 100% finished with the manuscript and ready to work on the setup files and produce the audiobook.
Judging by my out loud reading pace, I will be done with the manuscript before lunch today. Had I been scheduled to work in Orange County or Rancho Cucamonga all day, I wouldn’t have been able to knock out this task. Finishing today puts me three weeks ahead of schedule. Things are looking good.
