You have your manuscript ready, it’s been read by your best friend, your mother’s bridge partner, the hot UPS guy. It’s hopefully as error free as you’re going to get it, and hell, by now you’re probably so sick of looking at it, you don’t give a crap if it is or isn’t.  Okay,  you care, but you’re not going to read it again to find them. Maybe.

There are a couple things you need before you publish, so you might as well gather them together now, or be forced to pause in the middle of publishing, and that won’t be any fun.

I had my author photo taken a couple months ago. It’s why I’m in a sweater when my book was released in July. Oh, here it is. My brother-in-law took it and he did a pretty good job. This was taken in the breezeway of our local library. There was great lighting and the tables were for their little cafe.  Anyway, so you want to do that, because you’ll need it for your book and your author pages on Amazon, Goodreads, Facebook, and wherever else you want to splash your pretty face!  (I’ve read it’s good to keep your picture the same on all social media so your fans can find you. My picture is the same on Goodreads, Amazon, and my Facebook Author page. It’s different on Twitter and my personal Facebook account, though the picture for those two sites is the same as well.)

You’ll need a blurb (AKA a teaser) for the back of your book and to use as the description on Goodreads and CreateSpace/Kindle, or any other sites you’re going to sell your book. I’ve heard this is the hardest thing to write, and I had the help of a few people I trusted to give me their opinions as I wrote it. I also used this website which helped a lot. It gives you a formula and explains all the elements of a good blurb.

Write a copyright page. I took the traditionally published book I was reading at the time and copied it, just changing the information to reflect my own book.

Write your acknowledgments.  I miraculously kept mine down to one page.

Write your dedication to your family, friends, and the cat who kept getting in your face while you were trying to type the book you’re going to publish.

That’s all I’ll go into for now. Next, I’ll talk about imprints and ISBN numbers. I kinda wanted to write about it tonight, but @JewelELeonard  warned me to keep my posts short so by the end, you’re not staring at your laptop glassy-eyed with drool dripping out of your mouth.

Goodnight!