“Dance of Souls” Published*

With great fanfare (blaring of trumpets, ringing of gongs, huzzahs, etc.) I am pleased to announce the publication of my novel “Dance of Souls.”

Those of you familiar with traditional publishing methods resulting in a printed book displayed for sale in a bookstore may quibble with my use of the word “publication.” After all, I did not submit a paper manuscript to an agent who then sent it along to many publishing companies. I did not receive a contract from the publishing company. I did not spend months of back-and-forth with an editor, reviewing galley proofs and submitting AAs (Author’s Alterations). I did not breathlessly await the arrival of the UPS truck bearing a carton filled with copies of my work, beautifully printed and exuding that wonderful new-book smell.

Instead, I have dived head first into the new way of doing things. I published the book myself for Amazon’s Kindle.

The technical part wasn’t that hard. I did rely on the advice of a few self-publishing gurus (Aaron Shepherd’s “From Word to Kindle” and Guido Henkel’s series “Take Pride in Your e-Book Formatting“), as well as suggestions from my husband (who began his professional life as a typesetter, if anyone remembers what that was). The hard part was giving up my lifelong dream of publishing fiction in that old-fashioned way.

But the more I think about it, the more okay I am with this new way of doing things. I write fiction because it’s one of the ways I make sense of the world. Now that I’ve honed my craft to the point where I think others may get value and enjoyment from what I write, I’d like to share my words. Now, instead of waiting months or years to reach readers, I can do it right now.

Want to start reading Dance of Souls? There’s a free sample here. You can purchase the whole book from Amazon’s Kindle store (US $7).

— Audrey

P.S. I know not everyone has a Kindle. I’ll be investigating other eBook publishing platforms soon.

*See above for explanation.