So, here we are fifty years to the day that The Beatles were introduced to America on the Ed Sullivan Show and it seems appropriate for me to borrow the title from one of their last hits. On April 25, 1990, I struck the first key stroke for my novel, The Railroad Man, after conceptualizing and fleshing out its details for about five months before. On February 8, 2014, I struck my last key stroke. It was a simple correction of a typo, a missing article on page 28 of my manuscript (The word, THE). I uploaded my files to Kindle Direct and Create Space some time after 2 AM this morning.
Today, as of 7:57 this morning, my novel, The Railroad Man, went live and is now available on Kindle Direct. Here’s the link to it:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IBUGZ9Q
If you’ve read my earlier posts, you’ll know it’s truly been a long and winding road to get here. I really don’t know how I feel. This story has been a part of me for 24 years, and after I uploaded the files, I felt a little strange, like I was watching one of my kids move out of the house for good. Anyway, for better or worse, my story is now finally out for the public to view. Maybe they’ll hate it. Hopefully they’ll love it.
I also uploaded to Create Space for the production of a traditional soft cover book. This is what they call POD – Print On Demand. Thanks to computers, the files are simply held at Amazon and when someone orders a copy of my novel in book form, the order goes down to the print shop and just like that, a copy of my novel is typeset, printed and shipped out, along with dozens, maybe hundreds of other titles that have also been ordered by other readers. Hopefully, they’ll be printing dozens and dozens of copies just of The Railroad Man! This is subject to their standard review process. The soft cover versions will not be available for a couple of days at least, so we’ll just have to wait for them to give me the green light and send me a proof. Now that will be exciting. As you may have figured out, I’m kind of old school. I won’t really feel like my novel has actually been published until I’ve got a copy of it in book form in my hands.
And so, here we go on the next, final leg of this long, long journey. It all comes down to promotion, and some luck. I hope to get some traction in both camps. Until then, if any of you do download and read my novel, and like it, which I believe you will, please let your friends and family know. Spread the word. Leave comments here. And like my Facebook page for the novel at The Railroad Man. Thanks to everyone who have stood by me along the long and winding road. And thanks to those of you who may be just joining me here on my continuing odyssey called life.
