C. M. Skiera's Blog

Here's a little statistical research-in-progress, just to give you an idea of what to expect, should you do the same.  I've e-mailed approximately 25 requests to online book reviewers to see if they would be interested in reading and reviewing Crimson & Cream.  So far, I've had 2-3 people e-mail back politely declining for various reasons.  I've also heard back from 7 people indicating they were adding my ebook to their list.  So far, no reviews, but it's been less than two weeks since I started soliciting for them.  Many reviewers estimate a backlog of a month or more before they can get to your book.  Patience is key.

I mentioned in a prior post that I used the AutoCrit Editing Wizard for my novel Crimson & Cream.  Before I purchased the service, I did some research on online editing tools.  They seem to be very polarizing to people, with a lot of haters.  Personally, I thought it was a helpful tool and I feel like I got my worth $77 for a year's subscription.  I'm not going to walk you through the mechanics of the service (that's all available on their website), however, I will mention some of the features I found useful:

I thought I'd document my progress in online self-publishing and (hopefully) selling my first ebook.  Maybe other authors would find a chronology of the process helpful, or maybe point out some of the opportunities I might be missing.  Anyway, here goes. I finished writing a fantasy novel in 2001 that I was unable to get published after about 3 years of trying.  I liked the story and thought "Why not self-publish?"  The book was just sitting on my hard drive anyway.  Once online publishing got my attention in 2011, I decided that was the route for me. Even though I was on my 10th draft when I decided to self-publish, I hadn't read my book in over six years, so fresh eyes instigated completion of my 11th and 12th drafts.  I wanted to have my book professionally copy read/edited, but after searching online and seeing the costs involved, I decided to self-edit the book using the AutoCrit Editing Wizard.  At $77 a year, it was much cheaper th...