@Devney Perry the jury is still out. Atticus appears to offer more control over formatting but Reedsy is free and offers collaboration with editors, freelancers for cover design, beta readers, etc. (its business model is a collaboration marketplace). So I am right now leaning towards Reedsy.

@Devney Perry I don't really know yet, although I've been actively thinking about it. I'm going to play it by ear for now. It is a dark romantic techno-horror story (definitely a hybrid genre), so this will demand a certain type of cover art that I still haven't settled on (or even figured out) yet.

I am writing my first book (a pair of novelettes that I plan to self-publish as one work). My career up to now has been in engineering, but I've burned out doing that. Technical writing (precise, deterministic, factual) has been what I've been producing, and making the shift to fictional prose has been very challenging (I've been forced to break 20 years of conditioning for how I write). Note that in undergraduate school, I was required to take English literature as part of my engineering major's distribution requirement and my English professor almost begged me to switch my major to English Literature saying: "You’re too talented to become a 'grease monkey' ". At the time I was somewhat insulted because I loved technology, but now, I've decided to return once again to creative writing. The "Guerrilla Publishing" channel has been inspiring and opened my eyes to the fact that a book is no different than any other technical IP I've created, and I therefore must plan to own it completely. Originally my plan was to just use KDP, but now... thanks to the channel... I will buy the 10-pack of ISBNs from Bowker Identifier Services and use multiple platforms, including creating my own imprint (a Wyoming LLC) with a website, to publish. I have 3 additional works in the pipeline. Hopefully this new career direction will be successful before my budget (a savings cushion set aside to go in a different direction) is exhausted (my friends think I've gone crazy). Wish me luck! Helena

@Lara Helmling Thank you! One big change in mindset for technical IP (patents) vs. creative IP (novels) is that with the former, the idea is what is protected and the text serves to describe the idea, but with the latter, the idea is not protected, and instead the text that brings the idea to life is. I understand why this is (ideas in creative writing cannot be protected without completely stifling the creative process).