The Adventure…So Far – Part 1

I’m serious. No, really. For people who know me well beyond the screen, serious is a relative term. I can be serious—but I refuse to take myself too seriously.

Because here’s the thing: learning means making mistakes. And yes, I know that. But knowing it and accepting it? Two different things. I hate making mistakes. Always have. But I’m learning to live with the fact that I can’t master everything about writing, publishing, selling stories, and blogging without fumbling a bit.

This whole adventure of getting my stories into readers’ hands is a brand-new world—new technology, new norms, new expectations. And that means I’m gonna screw up.

So, for those of you thinking about publishing your own work, consider this my open book. Hats off to those who pay for the soup-to-nuts publishing experience, but I’m frugal (to excess) and determined to learn how to do things myself. Because if I want to shake things up and do things differently, I first need to understand how it’s done now.

You know the old saying: learn the rules, then break them where you can.

Step One: Building the Foundation

Since I’m planning to go wide (which means selling my books and stories through multiple platforms instead of just Amazon), I started with the hardest part first—building my website and shop. That took a minute, but here’s the basic ecosystem I’ve put together so far:

• Wix – Website with built-in shop features

• Avalara – Sales tax calculations (because taxes, ugh)

• Bookvault US – Print-on-demand (if I get fancy, I may need to use Bookvault UK—fantastic support team, by the way)

What I’ve Learned So Far

Wix – Piece of cake to learn and design a website. Plenty of tutorials and resources. If you’re new to website building, this is a solid place to start.

Canva – Fun and intuitive. Great for creating marketing graphics and social media visuals.

Social Media (Oof.) – This remains my biggest hurdle because, well… introvert problems. But I’m focusing on:

• Instagram – Visual-heavy, easy to share book aesthetics and updates

• Pinterest – Great for driving traffic to my website (or so they tell me)

• X (Twitter) – Testing the waters, jury’s still out

Amazon KDP – Account setup was a pain, but manageable.

Apple Creator – An even bigger pain because their system hates my phone numbers. I’ll keep y’all posted.

BookFunnel – LOVE IT. Easy to learn, set up, and use. Fantastic tutorials and an engaged community.

MailerLite – Super user-friendly. Tons of helpful online guides and videos to walk you through email marketing setup.

Pro Tip: Work with AI, Not for AI

If you’re unfamiliar with technology, business planning, market analysis, social media, or launching ad campaigns, let me introduce you to the one tool that’s been a game-changer for me: ChatGPT (or, as I call my version—Charlie).

Listen, what I don’t know about genre categories, market positioning, or keyword research would take me days to figure out. Charlie does it in two minutes or less.

But here’s the deal—I don’t use AI to write. I use AI to work smarter. There’s a difference. Don’t be afraid of AI. Learn how to work with it.

What’s Next?

The fun (read: frustrating) part—securing my distribution channels. They’re a pain to set up, but I’m determined to make it happen. If you want to talk about this adventure, ping me on Instagram and start a conversation.

So, here’s to the next phase of this adventure—learning, failing, adjusting, and figuring it all out one step at a time.

Cheers, y’all. 🥂