Let’s get real for a minute, all of this is new to me and I’m figuring everything out along the way. I’ve been doing intense research for the last two years, trying to figure out the publishing industry, marketing, and self-publishing, and once I set my mind to it, information comes pretty freely. My struggle has been to make Fire’s Hope look completely professional and give it the highest quality treatment I could get my hands on.

I made the “risky” decision to design my own cover but I was confident since I’ve been doing graphic design for many years now and the cover looks incredible! I also completely formatted the interior by myself, and I’m incredibly pleased with how it looks. So far, Fire’s Hope fulfills my vision I’ve had for a long time, and I’m happy.

So happy and so excited I nearly flubbed everything up!

Apparently, Createspace doesn’t have the ability to set up preorders for the paperback, and how I didn’t figure that out until now is beyond me, and I only realized it when I nearly let the paperback go live and ended up calling tech support, having them “retire” the title, and losing my ISBN! It’s the biggest mistake I’ve made so far.

But I choose to believe that everything happens in my life for my ultimate good, so I’m going to roll with it and figure this out.

After a long, frustrated, late night call, I used one of my other ISBNs, reassigned it, editing the FH doc, and finally started research on how to set up preorders. I had already decided at the time of the Ebook launch that I was going to wait two weeks to release the paperback so I have time to set everything up and the physical copies of FH will be available for preorder on September 15.

And on the bright side, I was able to mostly fix my Goodreads mistake of setting a “temporary” cover to my book, which I didn’t know I was unable to change to the official cover. So everything works out for good.

Advance Reader Copies

I sent off the files to createspace, put in an order for 5 proofs, which would be my first batch of ARCs, and TADA!!! I’m ready to begin seeking ARC reviews!

There will be more ARCs coming and I’m planning to give some away on Instagram very soon so keep your eyes peeled for Giveaways!

If you’re interested in signing up to receive an ARC in exchange for an honest review please feel free to fill out the form here and spread the word!

Last night I was overwhelmed with the amount of messages I got from friends and strangers, asking how they could get an ARC and when it would be available to buy! I had just gotten off work, I was tired, but I want to be a full-time author so there I was, doing 2 hours of work on my book at 11pm. To everyone who messaged me and emailed me yesterday, thank you so much! I’m absolutely floored at the support I’ve gotten for Fire’s Hope!

Finally in other news, I have completed 6 lovely portraits of my characters for FH, and they are all up on Instagram and on my website at ekathrynsshadows.com/the-shadows-fires-hope/