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Well, "Focused Fandom: Cosplay, Costuming, and Careers" is edited, it's in my publishing que, and it should be fine and ready to go.  Reviewers have copies (and if you want to review, let me know).

So what's next?  Oh right – the web.

First of all, there's updating my sites for my books (Fan To Pro, Convention Career Connection, Best Of Fan To Pro).  See, my sites often have author profiles, so I need to update my work on them.  But of course, not launch them because the book isn't out yet.

Then there's the book's site.  That has to be updated – oh, but not fully complete yet, because I have to process and update a few things.

Then, finally, my site.

So I have to get all this ready and qued up, in different forms of completion.  Then I have to update them more or less all at once when the book is out.

But done yet?  No!  I have to update my LinkedIn profile.  I have to consider some Facebook pages.  I will inevitably find errors.

Then as reviews drift in, I have to link sites . . . you get the idea.

The web is an inevitable part of any book launch self-published or not.  There's a bit of effort here, needless to say.

I'm starting to think I need to outsource this a bit more . . .

– Steven Savage

Here we are, T-4 days for "Focused Fandom: Cosplay, Costuming, and Careers"

OK, maybe it was not a good idea to go to Japantown of San Jose today.

Or maybe it was.

Here's the thing, I needed a break, so I figured why not go there for a few hours for their "Spirit of Japantown" festival.  I had fun and it was nice.

Though now I'm in the final phase of formatting the PDF and my legs hurt.

It's weird really, there are many ways I could have planned the publishing of this book in a far more anal-retentive manner.  At the same time, I really wouldn't have granted myself the freedom to . . . well, stay sane.

Planning on something like this is a peculiar art.  I'm not even sure if I'm as good a planner as I could be on creating books – though I suppose doing one in 3 months is a good sign.

So, now the Kindle and ePub formats are basically working, back to PDF.  I know it'll work, but I have to format it closer to a print book, so back at it . . .

– Steven Savage

Well last night I was busy formatting the ePub and Kindle versions for "Focused Fandom: Cosplay, Costuming, and Careers"

It worked.

Oh it wasn't easy.  The books are loaded with links, which required endless checking and editing, and the discovery that some don't always convert well.  Yes, I probably clicked on 150+ links to test them out.  Through 2 different iterations.

Then there's the fun of viewing devices.  People read Kindle books on different devices, and the amount of ePub devices  . . . is even wider.  So just to be safe I view my books on everything I can.

This is where I'm kind of bad.  See I got into the habit of knowing when to stop editing, but I get terrified of different formats and potential issues with the – made worse by the fact that, with many devices, I can never be sure my best job of formatting worked anyway.

My guess is all my experience with print formatting made me over-paranoid about e-Formatting.

But, still, in the end, it all looks pretty good.  So next up is a few tweaks and checks, then on to the PDF formatting . . .

– Steven Savage