There’s something incredibly rewarding about finally publishing a book. All the late nights. All the edits. All the rewrites. All the moments you questioned if it was even good enough. Then you hit publish. Your book goes live. Your name is on Amazon. Your ideas are finally out in the world. It’s an amazing feeling every single time. But here’s what I’ve realised… Publishing the book is not the end, it's the beginning of the end and the start of something new. Now comes the real journey. Getting reviews Building awareness Learning what worksImproving the next book Growing your audience No matter how many books you publish, that launch moment never gets old. What’s been the most rewarding part of publishing for you? 📚

I screen recorded the process of uploading a simple paperback to KDP (edited down to 13 minutes). This was for a poetry book written by Astronaut Dr. Sian Proctor. We filmed this to share at a "how to publish your book" workshop at the Analog Astronaut Conference (AAC) held each May at Biosphere II in Arizona.

First off, it's NOT the same as formatting a novel! With a novel, as long as you set the correct guidelines up front, all you really need to do is upload the text and everything will fall into place...for the most part. Not with children's books! There are so many moving parts when it comes to the design especially if the illustrator does not include the text in the picture. (TIP- if this is your first children's book, find an illustrator that will fully incorporate the text! This will save you time and money.) Are you formatting yourself? If so, what platform and tools are you using?

Don’t forget to save it to your calendar; tomorrow morning we will be discussing Amazon ads!! We will share tips to help you understand and succeed. If you’ve struggled with ads before, you need to be here for this call. 💯 If you’ve never done ads but will be in the future…JOIN THE CALL! Leave any questions you’d like answered/discussed in the comments below. SATURDAY MORNING @ 10AM EST!!

For those seeing sales: What made the biggest difference in your sales ? A) Cover? B) Blurb? C) Keywords? D) Ads? E) Publishing more books? For me, the real shift happened when I started treating each release as part of a long term catalog instead of a one time launch, I'm curious what moved the needle for you? And for those not seeing results yet: What do you think is holding your book back right now? Let’s make this practical. Real answers only.