Up until now, only family members have read Brett's books, but he recently took the plunge and published "Auric the Great" so everyone can enjoy it! It is available on Amazon.com as a softcover book (click here) and for Kindle (click here) as well as on Barnes and Noble as an e-pub (click here). Check it out! It's really a great book, and I'm not just saying that because my husband wrote it. This one is a farce and it will keep you laughing from beginning to end!
Brett calls his books his "babies" and I think it took almost as much blood, sweat and tears (as well as time!) to get this book written and out for the world to read as it does a real baby. Many late nights writing, being pre-occupied with how exactly pieces of the story fit together, waking up in the middle of the night with the perfect idea, the hours upon hours of writing and re-writing, the fear of criticism as he sends a part of him out for the world to judge. I couldn't be more proud of all his hard work creating this book.
And then after the actual creating of the book, there was a lot to do to get it published and out to the world. Ready for a walk through our self-publishing adventure? (I call it "our" adventure because I do take ownership of Brett's books. He definitely does the hard part in writing them (and did the hard part of publishing, too) but I'm right there supporting him.)
When Brett first decided to publish his book, we started the debate of whether or not to use a pen name. You'll notice we finally decided to use Brett Kelberry for the main reason that Okelberry is constantly misspelled and we wanted people to be able to search for and find the book(s) easily. Choosing the pen name was as hard as naming a child! How close should it be to his real name? How could people misspell it? Killberry sounds too much like killing and burying someone. Is there already someone famous with that name? What if you just use your real name? On and on and on... But now it's done and just might help people spell our real last name correctly (el not le).
Coming up with the blurb for the back cover was a big deal, too! It had to be short but still give the gist of the story but not give too much away. Here's what Brett, his brother, and his brother's girlfriend all worked together to come up with:
Auric the Great is a hero of legends. Strong, handsome, brave … everything except punctual. When he fails to show up for his quest, it is up to a scheming history wizard, a blind bard, and a replacement Auric – the broom-toting store clerk – to finagle their way through the predestined adventure in his behalf. What could possibly go wrong?
Pretty good, eh? Got your attention?
Getting the design for the cover of the book was fun. Brett had been "stalking" (we wanted to make sure it was legit before we gave them our money) a site called 99designs that uses crowd sourcing. Basically, he put up the information for what he was looking for in a cover and then a bunch of designers submitted their creations. (We had 17 designers make over 40 designs.) Then Brett gave feedback, we had family members look at the submissions and give their opinions, and then we narrowed it down to a few finalists and chose our favorite design. We couldn't be happier with the result!
You know those bar codes on the back of books? Those are ISBN numbers (although I think the N stands for number so sorry if I'm being repetitive). And you have to buy them. One for each version of the book. Since we know Brett has at least 4 more books waiting the wings, and you get a better deal if you buy them in groups, it made the most financial sense to buy 100 ISBN numbers. They are only $5.75 that way! So if anyone is interested in publishing a book, let us know. We have a few to spare! :)
I read through the book one more time right before we published it. I loved getting to read it again and straight through. I read as Brett writes which is super fun, but it also means I read a few pages a night spread out over a few months. So it was nice to get to keep reading - especially when it got to the exciting parts. I can't tell you how many times I've stayed up late and read over Brett's shoulder while he writes because I need to know what happens next!
Anyway, after my final read through, we changed a few things I'd found and then we were ready to go....fill out a bunch of online forms to get the book up. Just the ISBN form took 15 minutes checking all sorts of boxes so they know what kind of book it is. And when all the forms were finally done (this is a big deal for Brett who hates filling out forms, btw), the sites sent us e-mails saying the book was available online! Only it wasn't there. Apparently, it takes 2-10 days after they send the e-mail for it to really be available. (Why can't they say that in in the e-mail? Brett had to search to find that out. Silly.)
But, now, my friends, now it is available! I am so proud of Brett for having the creativity to come up with great stories, the persistence to write them from start to finish, the courage to share his "baby" with the world, and the patience to self-publish. I'm excited for others to enjoy this book and laugh out loud at the characters. Then they, too, can become good friends with the voices in Brett's head. :)
