No one ever said this indie author gig was going to be easy. But I want to take just a quick moment to whinge loudly about Amazon.
Now, I’m normally a proud supporter of Amazon and the Kindle platform. Frankly, I’d be out of a job if Amazon hadn’t launched a service that allowed indie authors like me to connect directly to readers. They pretty much single-handedly changed the book publishing industry, and arguably, in a good way. So gold star to Amazon.
The thing that boggles my mind is this, well actually, a little back story first . . .
Watcher is my first novel. Ever. So there’s a bit of a steep learning curve * in trying to figure out what the hell you’re doing, and how to do it well. I overestimated my abilities to pull the whole thing together by myself ** and ta da – I sent my dysfunctional spawn out into the universe.
No content editor. No copy editor. No professional formatter. Big mistake.
Shortly after giving birth to this thing, I decided that for everyone’s sake and my professional sanity, I’d yank it from the shelves and give it to a content editor, Bev Rosenbaum. Of course, this was after I’d already written 2/3rds of Protector, but hey, I don’t like to take the easy way! <sarcasm>
Bev had many good points and a lot of hard, home truths, so Watcher got a massive overhaul, something like cutting out 20,000 words. That’s a lot of blood, sweat, and tears right there. But I didn’t stop at Bev. Oh no. Bev recommended that I go to a copy editor, someone who was going to help me “pretty up” my actual words, not just the concepts. Already burnt out and not relishing the impact it was going to have on Protector, I was worn down enough that I was like, “What the hell. It’s only my sanity, right?” In came Amanda Sumner and POOF! Another 10,000 words disappeared. Yep, what started out as 128K words dropped to 103K then a final trim to just under 80K. Ouch.
But hey for the greater good, right? And so what if I had to re-write all of Protector again and push it back by two years?
So anyhow, back to Amazon.
I’ve busted my ass to get everything ready for Protector‘s release this week. I mean I’ve been on fire and I’ve had some very talented people behind me to make this happen (thank you, Amanda and Guido). Everything should’ve been perfect – final files uploaded, covers tweaked, paperback proofs ordered, blog and author pages updated everywhere. I was riding the high of my life.
Except for one tiny issue. Amazon doesn’t automatically update a book file for a previous purchaser.
Yep.
What that means is that everyone who was an early adopter of Watcher the first time around currently cannot download the new, revised edition of Watcher, which is actually a big deal because . . . THE ENTIRE ENDING HAS CHANGED. THERE ARE CHARACTERS THAT DON’T EVEN EXIST ANYMORE. KILL ME NOW.
All of my perfect planning and ramping up to Protector‘s release on Sunday goes crashing to the floor. If people try to read Protector without reading the new version of Watcher first they’re going to be like, “What the hell was that?” And frankly, I don’t blame them.
Because it makes no sense that Amazon, with all its capabilities, doesn’t automatically do the update or worse case scenario, let’s the author do it.
So my apologies in advance for those who are daze and confused by this entire post. The upshot is I’m waiting on Amazon to decide whether or not my changes warrant an update. Once they’ve made a decision, I’ll let you know if and when Watcher version 2.0 can be downloaded.
Now I need a drink.
* understatement of the year
