Week 10: Metaphors Be With You
Taylor P -
Hi, friends, and welcome to the last week of my senior project! I feel like it was just yesterday that I walked into BASIS as a little fourth-grade student not knowing who or what I was going to become. Now, I can officially say that I am a published author, and in a few weeks, I’ll be graduating high school. What a whirlwind this has been! I’m grateful for every minute of it.
So, to begin, I published my book this week.
No big deal, right?
Just kidding—it’s a really big deal to me, and I’m crying about it.
I was so excited to finally submit my manuscript and get it approved for sales on Amazon. For this last blog post, I want to walk you through my publishing process on Amazon KDP. It took a lot less time than I expected, so that was a relief!
First, I had to make an account on KDP. I had to input my tax information, author information, and bank account information. Since I’m considered a small business owner now, Amazon reports all my sales to the IRS under that category. After I finished with my personal information, it was time to move on to my book metadata. Book metadata is everything that makes a book: a title, an ISBN, an age range, a page number count, font size, font type, etc. All that information is what Amazon puts on their website so that shoppers can find all the data they need. That part took only about thirty minutes for me to complete!
Next, I uploaded my manuscript and book cover. This step took the longest since processing a manuscript takes a lot of time. I chose whether I wanted a glossy or matte cover, and I chose whether I wanted cream or white paper. Those were difficult choices for me! I went with a glossy cover and white paper. KDP then had me go through every single page, ensure the format was correct, and approve of it.
After that, I chose all the pricing information. I chose whether or not I wanted my book to be available worldwide, and I chose the price. I settled with $9.99, because personally, that’s how much I would pay for my own book. Then, after finishing pricing, I submitted everything to Amazon KDP for approval. That step took about three days—a little longer than expected. I submitted everything on Monday, and by Thursday, I had been published.
However, I ran into a problem! I bought a proof copy from Amazon, and when it arrived on Wednesday, I realized my book cover was completely misaligned. Good thing that was an easy fix—on Thursday, I went in an adjusted my cover. I sent it to Amazon, and they approved it Friday morning. Then, I was finished, and I became a published author!
Honestly, I cannot even describe how it felt to open the first copy of my book.
Feeling the pages in my hands and seeing my work on a published book really healed the inner child within me that wanted nothing more than to publish a book. I can’t believe I made it! It was a lot of work, but this journey has been completely worth it. If you want to buy my book, you can get it here!
For this last week, I also finished writing my report on the data I collected from authors. If you would like to read the report, you can see it here! I was so grateful to speak with such experienced writers and hope that, one day, I can be as accomplished as them. They motivated me to get my book finished and helped me learn more about the publishing process.
So, thank you all for joining me on this project! I satisfied many goals by publishing a book, and I know this is only the first step on a long, fulfilling journey. I owe my publication to many people, from my family to my teachers, so I am extremely grateful for all the support. I hope all of you will purchase a copy of my book and spread the word! My final project presentation will be Thursday, May 9th at 5:00pm at BASIS Prescott. Feel free to come watch my classmates and I as we present our projects to the public! I will have copies of my book available for purchase there, too.
This has been quite a journey with you all! Until I see you again, in the words of Lord Elrond, farewell, and may the blessing of Elves and Men and all Free Folk go with you. May the stars shine upon your faces!
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