making a difference Archives - Addicted to Writing

My debut novel Making A Difference (amazon link) was finally on electronic bookshelves. But before I could hop to social media promoting the hell out of it, I encountered one weird problem after another.

I don’t know how many of these problems are due to Mill City Press. But I do expect them to help me fix it.

So far, with the weekend in between, customer service hasn’t exactly been fast, but if this week things don’t get done, I might officially regret my choice.

Here are some of the problems:

– It’s available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but only people from certain countries could manage to buy it so far.

I live in Turkey. The company is American, and my novel is in English, and I have friends and audience all over the world. So far, friends and family haven’t been able to buy the book. We tried Barnes and Noble, as we had the same problem. My customer rep hasn’t offered any solutions up to now.

Amazon suggested I changed my address to an American one. Which worked. I can buy my own book, yay? But this is obviously a temporary and narrow-reaching fix. If you have ideas, I’m happy to hear them.

What’s the point of releasing a digital book if it can’t easily be accessed worldwide?

– The customer service is slow to respond, and they want a phone call to go over the issues.

I get that my book is not their only problem, and I’m not their only customer. But my whole reason to involve a company was to be able to bypass technical issues and potential problems.

While anything can go wrong at any time in this world, I expect more from a company in this digital day and age. Them being available on weekdays on a normal 9-to-5 schedule wreaks havoc in my life because there is a considerable time difference between Florida and Istanbul. And making International phone calls are expensive, and apparently, they don’t do Skype.

Wait, what?

In 2018, after paying a hundred of bucks (just for the website, formatting/distributing the book has a different cost that I paid) I have to pay to fix problems?

Why isn’t there a way to chat with their authors online?

That doesn’t sit very well with me.

– They forgot to email me about some big news.

Writers tend to be obsessive about certain things, such as waiting to hear from their editor and checking their email about a million times a day. It is worse when you have an author account, and you are checking expectantly if they formatted your book so that you can more or less estimate your launch date.

Then you read that you will get an email notification with important updates so you relax (a bit) and go about your days. Then you don’t get an email notification when the book is ready and already on Amazon.

Ouch.

– My supposed $99/year (if I choose to renew it later) author site is a big nothing.

Imagine just an image picture of my book. But instead of the book, it just says image not available. You can’t click on it. There is no writing. You can’t find my name or my book among the collection when you search. And the most popular categories have got nothing to do with mine. Lovely.

Below is the screenshot of my author website.

Appealing, right? Notice how the promoted categories are Christian books? My book is a contemporary romantic comedy where characters are mostly liberal agnostics with some strong opinions. It’s PG-13, but still…Not the best marketing strategy on my end or theirs.

100 bucks might not sound like a lot of money to some, but I could get hosting, find a theme and make a website myself with that. Hell, I could just spend it on ads or improving my writer website and sell it here.

After these major cons, let’s include some pros:

The formatting looked good.
The package was affordable. They are fast responding to your questions/concerns prior to making the investment.
They work with authors from all over the world.

Do I recommend them? It’ll all depend on how/whether they fix the existing problems. Stay tuned. And while I can’t see my sales at the moment, you can always help me out by buying the book and leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads.

Have you published your novel yourself? What problems have you encountered?

I wrote this post before my novel’s launch. As I update this post, my book is now a little more than a year-old. You can check it out on Amazon or Smashwords.

February is almost over, and it kind of just went with the wind. Between colds and trying not to catch one in the consistently unstable weather and fighting against the dreary mood the grey skies cause, I’ve got to admit I haven’t been very productive.

It’s not to say I didn’t write, but you know how it is. The number of words on the page or the number of pitches sent is never up to your expectations.

But it is better to start late than never, so here comes my February post.

One reason for my lack of updates is that I wanted to publish my novel, Making A Difference – M.A.D. for short – I hired a cover designer (the lovely Michelle Fairbanks), and I also purchased a basic package from Mill City Press, a company that came recommended to me by a writer/editor/publisher I trust.

While I’ve enjoyed working with them so far, I realized the actual book launch will have to wait. My book is still being formatted and being prepared for the electronic shelves as we speak.

I’m not sure whether I’ll do a print version, but if I do, IngramSpark looks like the winning candidate.

Making A Difference is a contemporary romantic comedy-drama set in New York. It’s relatively short, under 60,000 words, so it makes it perfect for the beach, or even when you just want to cozy up to your blanket with a cup of coffee on a cold, rainy day.

So what the hell is this novel about? Below is your lovingly-crafted blurb:

Making A Difference (M.A.D.)

Everybody loves Jay Clark. He’s that weird PR guru who doesn’t live like the rich and runs a profitable company so that he’ll have more resources for humanitarian causes. He is obsessed with making the world a better place. He defines himself through how much he and his company have made a positive impact. He loves his family and friends, but work has always come first.

He is engaged to a gorgeous CEO whose purse collection alone could feed the homeless in NYC, but he’s only human. Besides, it’s a match made in workaholic heaven.

If anyone notices the irony, it’s Jay’s protégée/new partner Zoe Ellis. 10 years older than her, Jay has always been her idol. He is the reason she chose to study PR. She also wants to make a huge difference, and she’d much rather do it at Jay’s company. So when Jay’s business partner/best friend takes a less pressuring position, she’s delighted to return to the firm she interned for.

But Jay and Zoe have a big secret from everyone else: 5 years ago, they fell hard for each other. She was a student at NYU where Jay was a lecturer. To Jay, his legacy was everything, and he’d never risk tainting his reputation by dating a student/intern. Moreover, he’d die before he let Zoe ruin a career because of romance – something he never cared much for. While Zoe would never risk her dreams and goals for any other guy, she is furious he doesn’t take the risk for them. She leaves the country to get over him. 5 years is surely enough time to get over any love?

And now she’s happily coupled-up with lovely writer Colin. Apparently, her time away from the firm worked: Zoe and Jay are over each other. They must be.

Colin detests Jay, and he doesn’t even know the entire story. It doesn’t help matters even his friends think Jay’s dreamy. Zoe’s upset Colin’s turning into a whiny, insensitive jerk, but he’s the first guy she has felt strongly for in a long time. Also, she can’t dump a guy for being perceptive.

Jay can no longer dismiss his feelings as nostalgia, but Zoe is still furious at him. And the last time he tried to fix things, she left the company and the country. And now that the stakes are even higher: Zoe is no longer an intern, but a managing partner.

While Jay isn’t as predictable as everyone believes, will he be able to follow his heart even when improving the world seems easier?

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Self-Publishing Your Novel with Mill City Press: Pros and Cons

Update: My First Novel Has Arrived: Making A Difference (M.A.D.)