Category: Publishing The Book

I couldn’t be happier that I’ve crossed the finish line and actually finished my book and saw it all the way through to publication. It’s mind blowing for me, since this is my debut novel and I’ve only dreamed I’d ever do something like this. But truly, getting the book published doesn’t mean I’m done with the book. Actually, you are never really done.

After the Fire, took me almost four years to the exact date from the infancy of the novel, until I pushed publish on the website for Kindle Direct Publishing, when I created both my eBook and paperback versions. You can find my Author Central Page here, on Amazon. If you’ve followed along with me on this blog from the beginning, you understand I had to learn a lot to get to this point. I imagine my next book will take less than half that time since I now understand the industry much better, but the thing with self publishing is you are everyone! I’m the publicist, marketing director, and secretary. Still, it’s very exciting work.

I’ve heard, “Now you can make money! Remember us little people when you are rich and famous!” But in reality, there are so many people on the planet every day publishing books, the rich and famous part are few and far between. I’d just like to pay the bills with my writing. That would make me very happy. But currently, my reality is that just publishing the book set me back quite a bit of dough! So marketing is the next very important thing. By sharing my book info, all of you are helping me with that.

I consider myself successful because I accomplished my goal of getting published. If I am to be financially successful, I will need to be in the black and as of now, I most definitely am not. But my husband always says, “If it were easy, everyone would do it.” He’s right. It’s not and I still did it! After the Fire, is doing pretty darn good for just being released, (averaging 5 stars in the reviews), and it’s because I’ve worked hard and I DO have a good product. I’m very grateful you wonderful people have believed in me.

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The above shots are shared photos from people who have purchased my book and sent their new arrival pics to Facebook for everyone to see. I have several more and will be sharing more each blog post. I cannot tell you how much it warms my heart to see these, so please, KEEP SHARING. These are from Coree, Anthony, and Becky in the above three. Thank you guys.

I am going to have an AP announcement locally soon, as well as start the process of getting my books carried in northern California indie bookstores. These things take time and since I’m still at my full time day job as public school librarian, I get delayed periodically. But if you’d like to help, share my content with your friends. Share this blog, comment on this blog, share to social media my status when you see it, and it ALWAYS HELPS!

Follow me on Instagram @pattidiener, on Facebook at Patti Diener, and on Twitter @pattidiener. If you want to comment on this post, please share something about the book if you’ve read it already. If you haven’t, that’s ok. I welcome your feedback.

Remember, After the Fire, makes a great Christmas gift. You can order on Amazon here. There is a holiday element in the book so the timing is perfect for curling up in front of a fire and having a cup of coffee, tea, or glass of wine. This romance novel is the first of many to come from me, and if you continue to follow along, I will post my first chapter of a new novel in early 2020.

Thank you all for reading. Thank you all for your support.

It’s only been four years, but it seems like it’s been a decade since I started this project. From the burning desire to write this story, to my interview process, and developing my characters, it’s all been a labor of love. The long days and nights of editing, the re-editing, (my least favorite part, but it helped me grow as a writer), and the fantastic people I met along the way all helped to teach me about the publishing industry. HERE IT IS!

I have this wonderful book cover, designed by Chrissy at Damonza, that I am totally in love with. She was patient and kind as I sent back several other options for covers. She never let me down when I became specific about the models. After much back and forth, we chose this one to be the cover for my debut novel, After the Fire.

People ask me how I found my book cover designer and I have to tell the truth. I have followed a very inspirational person for a few years named Kristen Martin. She is a best selling author and creative entrepreneur who helps new authors to navigate the self publishing world. She is the one who suggested Damonza and when someone as successful as she is recommended this company, I thought it was worth looking into. It was a great idea and I am very happy I did.

If you are a writer or interested in starting a business that requires you become more disciplined with your time management, she’s your gal. It’s been hard on me trying to find the time to write my book while working a full time job. Even harder still, when I decided to self-publish my book. But I’m not sorry I made that choice now. It’s been very educational and I love the work.

So what’s next? MARKETING! I have the wonderfully daunting task of going out and about to find indie bookstores that will want to carry my book. I have to organize some kind of press release, and talk y’all into promoting the heck out of this beautiful love story that came out of The Valley Fire, here in Lake County.

If you want to help, you can share this post. Share, share, share! Share my blog posts, share my social media posts, and use the hashtag #AFTERTHEFIRE. Start a new craze using #AFTERTHEFIRE! For any of you who don’t understand how my book could be about the Valley Fire and be a love story, please click here to read how this all came to be.

I want to thank you all for your continued support. I am very excited to say that now with both my books formatting done and book covers complete, I can upload my book to Amazon this weekend and order my Advance Reader Copies, (ARC’s) to proof the paperback in print, and also get some reviews. As soon as I see that everything prints fine and there are not errors, within days my book will be available for purchase. YAY!

Stay tuned readers! This has been a wild ride.

*Photo of Kristen Martin, by Kristen Martin

I have to tell you that when I logged onto the government website with the intention of copyrighting my romance novel, I was about to put my head through a wall. You know that feeling when you can actually feel the blood whisking throughout your body, and your eyes narrow, you start to feel a tightening within your chest and throat, and you clench your teeth? Yeah, that was me. There are SO MANY THINGS TO NAVIGATE!

Being a librarian, I think of myself as fairly tech savvy. I can usually figure out how to maneuver through any website and figure out what to do and reach my goal. Well the website I was on for copyright.gov was NOT at all helpful. Then I realized why…

I WAS ON THE WRONG WEBSITE! If you are trying to get your work protected through copyright, you need to go to ECO.copyright.gov and then log onto Youtube. I found the absolute best tutorial there.

What I did that was super helpful, was after finding Alessandra Torre’s fantastic tutorial on Youtube, I had the video open on one tab, and the ECO.copyright.gov open on another tab and would watch a little of the video, pause, then go to the copyright website and do what I learned. I did this step-by-step!

Self publishing for the first time by yourself is really daunting. There are so many steps that you have to do and in order no less. Something else I found out is about the ISBN numbers. You know, the numbers above the barcode on the back of the books you buy? Well, I thought when I bought the ISBN, (International Standard Book Number), that it came with the barcode. NOPE! You have to purchase the barcode separately. UGH!

But all in all, I am still super excited to be on this journey. I am buying my ISBN numbers this week. I was successful in getting my copyright for After The Fire, and next on the check list is getting my book cover designed and formatting done. These things will be done by the same company so that’s a load off my mind. They will be doing it for both ebook and paperback. More on that with my next blog post.

Thanks to everyone for supporting me and I promise to keep you all in the loop for the next steps with my self publishing project. Hopefully I will be able to give you all a sneak peek at the book cover design very soon. My goal is to have the book available by Christmas this year. Fingers crossed.

Happy reading!

On a November weekend in 2015, I sat at my hotel desk in Fort Bragg, California, and started to write a short story for a contest. It had to be something important to me. Something that would grip me enough that I would write passionately about it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the recent tragic fire from my community out of my mind. Then it hit me! I had to write something for the people of my community that would lift their spirits. I had to tell their stories. I decided to write a love story for my people, and give it a happy ending. That’s what we all felt we needed so desperately, after the Valley Fire, in Lake County, California.

It’s been three and a half years. I have written this story and it morphed into a full blown romance novel of 80,500 words, (so much for a short story), and it’s my debut novel as an author. After going to several conferences, been to writing classes, I’ve joined a writing group, and edited this book three times, including had it professionally edited by a romance genre editor, IT’S DONE!

There simply isn’t anything more I can do to this story because it’s a good story! Some have said it’s a very special story, and I am ready to share it with the world. But sadly, I cannot find an agent that is willing to give it a chance because it’s different. One even said I’m possibly trying to, “do too much with the story.” Well, I have integrated real life stories into my romance novel, things that actually happened to folks because of this fire. I wasn’t willing to edit these stories out of the book. They drive the story and they make the situation folks were going through REAL,…because it was.

If you remember the movie, The Titanic, my characters are to The Valley Fire, what Jack and Rose were to The Titanic. I have a central love story that is set in the aftermath of The Valley Fire. Remove the fire stories, and you just have any run-of-the-mill love story. It’s no longer special. I’d not categorize it as trying to do too much with the story. I’d say adding the fire stories is not only WHY I wrote the book, but it gives the story it’s individuality. After all, aren’t agents and publishing houses always looking for a fresh, new story? So why on Earth, would I try to fit into some cookie cutter mold for romance novels?

So when it hit me, and I realized I was going to have to either work the system for possibly years trying to convince some agent and publishing house to print my book, (anything unconventional agents shy away from because they need to sell it before they make money), or I could do it myself. Guess which won out? I’m going to do it myself!

This means creating a publishing company, a business account, copy writing it myself, establishing the ISBN# and formatting, book cover design, pricing, marketing, and setting up an account with printing company, (such as Amazon), and all the costs that go with this. It’s pretty daunting, but I believe I’m up for the task. It’s just expensive.

I realize I will most likely make mistakes. I’m going to try not to but I’m certain after I’m done I will say things like, “I wish I’d not done X,Y,Z.” But with research, friends that have already done it, and keeping in close contact with my local indie book stores, I’m sure I can sell this book. I already have folks like you, waiting to read it.

So thank you for following along with my endeavor and you might be interested to know, that I’m already well into another book. One that will be the first in a three book series. More on that to come.

So now you are caught up. I’m going to make it my mission to get this book on the shelves of book stores, and Kindle ready through Amazon. Keep reading, and keep watching for a book called AFTER THE FIRE. There will no doubt be a lot I still need to do before getting it to a store, (or Kindle), near you, but at least now I know what my plan is. Self publishing.

Warm regards and happy reading.

*Photos by me, Patti Diener

Quirky, (often caffeinated or soaked in wine), writer of romance, and or, women’s fiction, seeks literary agent with ability to counsel, laugh with, and get her book published sometime before all her hair falls out from stress! Must like chocolate, (or just give me a box). It’s been three years folks! I want the book in print.

I’ve learned a lot about myself while going through this journey to get my book published. I’ve become more patient than I ever realized I’d have to be. I’ve also found out just how much I really didn’t know. Now that I’ve studied the industry and spent lots of money on conferences, classes, and found my own writing process, I’m certain my next book (already in the works) will go a bit smoother…. Alas, I still need an agent.

Since I was in the fifth grade, I’ve dreamed of being a novelist. Can one really call themselves a novelist if they’ve written a book, actually finished the entire manuscript, but haven’t been published? I think not. It’s still incomplete, if it’s not available for everyone to read. I am a writer,though. That is for certain. A writer writes, no matter what the circumstances. I cannot fathom a life without writing. So that’s something I guess.

Someone told me the other day, “Don’t forget us when you are rich and famous.” I laughed. I don’t even care about that part, because let’s be honest, most writers do NOT become either. It’s simply inside of us and has to come out. It’s like rain water for plants. We’d wither without writing.

The creative process of writing, (not to be confused with editing, which I hate), is something like magic. I go into a trance-like mode where my mind is where ever the writing is. I see it, smell it, feel it, and taste it. I actually live in the moment of that particular writing piece and barely acknowledge my true surroundings. God, I love it when that happens.

But here I still am, unpublished, and it feels somewhat of a failure. Not that the book has failed, because it hasn’t even been given the chance, but at my age, I’d have thought I’d have had at least one book published by now. Life just sort of happened, and it didn’t take me to the place where I could write or concentrate on my writing until this time. Practice more patience.

So I will keep at it. Something new I’m trying is to pursue a male agent. Yes, who knew men wanted to represent the romance genre, but as it turns out, I’ve found a few that sound like they would be a great fit! I’m even pretty hopeful because of what they might bring to the table in perspective. New horizons!

Thanks for being in my corner, and waiting as patiently as you all have for AFTER THE FIRE, to come out. As I’ve promised, if I do not find just the right agent, I will self publish, but yikes! I’d really rather not go it alone out there. An agent would be my first choice.

Have a lovely rest of your Sunday and as always, happy reading.

*The second picture with laptop was taken from Google Images

There is nothing more terrifying than the moment after you click the SUBMIT BUTTON, when sending off your baby, your manuscript, to a literary agent. That’s when all the tormenting questions in your head begin.

Did I edit enough? Did I polish it until it shined? Did I cut the right parts? Will she like my style? Is my story intriguing enough? Am I good enough?

The thing about submitting is you never know the answer to these questions but if you don’t take a chance, if you don’t jump off into the deep end of the pool, you will never swim, darling.

To paraphrase something a literary agent said to a sea of anxious writers at the San Francisco Writers Conference, they are looking for writers to work with. They need stories to sell, so agents need writers as much as writers need agents. Sometimes even more, because today in the world of publishing, an author can self publish without using an agent at all. So that being said, if you seek the road to traditional publishing, just keeping that in mind and it helps tremendously.

Still you cannot just pick an agent out of a hat and hope for the best. It’s crucial to take your time to find an agent that is interested in your genre. Three words; DO YOUR RESEARCH. Even if the agent has in their bio that they work with the genre your manuscript falls under, you still need to find out if they are currently taking submissions or if they are flooded in that particular category at the time you will be submitting.

I tell you, the number one thing that has helped me throughout my writing process, and my journey to traditional publishing, is going to conferences. In the last three years, I’ve gone to three conferences, (twice to the San Francisco Writers Conference, and once to the Redwood Writers Conference). That is where you will meet folks from all avenues of the writing world, and from all over the world. Collaborating with these people will help you to hone your skills and most importantly, help you decide what you plan to do with your writing.

Another great way to improve your writing, and to glean wonderful ideas, is to join a writing group. Listening to others and asking advice, sharing stories and using prompts to dig deeper into yourself, have all been very beneficial to me. Besides, you will never feel more camaraderie than when surrounded by other writers. It’s like a safety net for your vulnerable emotions before you attempt to share with the public. Baby steps to taking that leap of faith, (like into the deep end).

I am currently waiting to hear back from one particular agent, but will be submitting to another this weekend. I hope to get my manuscript out to ten agents within the next few weeks, but I started with my best bet and hope first, because she has had the most interest in it. She is also the one that has given me advice and I’ve built up a relationship with her that makes me feel comfortable enough to think, hey I like this gal and can see myself working with her. Personalities mean a lot if you plan to be working intimately with someone on a project as personal as your book!

For information about my book, AFTER THE FIRE, click the link here, and find out what started this whole journey. I’ve been blogging about it since I started my book in November 2015, right after the Valley Fire, in Lake County, California. Consequently, when I started writing, our horrific experience was one of the worst California had ever seen. Sadly, since then, there have been fires that were worse in terms of property and life lost. My heart goes out to all of those who have suffered from these terrible tragedies. 

Thanks for reading and I will keep you all posted on my progress.

Wishing you all well.

*Photos by Patti Diener

I’m done on this side, turn me over. Even though I have a long haul in front of me, I feel extremely accomplished in that I set out to write a book and I actually finished one. Now comes the next hurdle. Getting it published.

First off, I have to say that I’ve learned so much about this industry. It keeps changing so fast that I have to constantly educate myself. It changes almost as often as Apple comes out with a new Iphone and that’s pretty much every six months right?

Here is the good news though, I am hooking up with really helpful people that are pointing me in all the right directions, (thus far). Other than all the wonderful people I’ve met in all my classes, and conferences I’ve attended, I mostly have to thank my editor Jen, for enlightening me on genre writing. She’s explained what publishing houses are looking for and how they will market a book. What it boils down to is you want to submit a book they can sell.

What’s next? I have a particular agent I am going to submit the manuscript to, but I cannot put all my eggs in one basket. I’d like to research about ten agents to submit to and once I have my query letter and a synopsis polished, I will send my baby out into the world and pray someone can get me a contract.

It’s not as easy as mailing off ten copies of your book and saying, “hey, wanna work with me?” You have to really research how the agent wants submissions. Some will just want the query and if they like it, then you can send off either the first ten pages, or some want the first chapter, or first three chapters. They are all different and if you sway from their requirements,… you can forget it.

My decision to try to get my book traditionally published is because even though it might take me longer this way, it will also give me a team of people helping me along. It’s so much nicer to have people to bounce ideas off of and ask questions to when it comes down to making important decisions. If I self-publish, then it’s all on me. Everything.

Still, those of you that have followed me from the beginning, back in 2015, are asking me when you can get your hands on a copy of my book. Well, I thank those of you for your patience. It’s really a process and life happens in between times. I’m just hoping my next book, (yes I’m already starting a new one), will go faster because I’ve learned what to do with this first one.

I’m very grateful to all of you for your support during my writing process. I’m also grateful to those that allowed me to interview you. I hope my romance novel will shine a positive light onto our community. I feel very blessed we have so many wonderful people here in Lake County. If my book actually sells, (positive thinking), then the rest of the world will know Lake County, California. I’d like to put us on the map in a good light of a place where you really can have a happily ever after. 

* Gratitude rock pic is from Google images.