OK so I just self published my first book and I'm surprised to find it feeling a little odd that strangers are reading it. I get very attached to my characters and in the main it's lovely that people are talking about them and loving the nice ones. However there's another side of me that feels like someone is rifling through my knicker drawer! Anyone else feel that way or is it just me? Also is it permissible to post links to my book on Kindle anywhere here?
a) I have read the same advice from 2 respected authors. Paraphrased: "You should write your book as if nobody is ever going to read it... not even yourself. That's the only way to be 100% honest."
b) Of course then, after you've written your 100% honest book, you have 3 options:
1) burning it;
2) storing it in some way that it'll only be read after you're dead and beyond feeling exposed;
3) allowing strangers to rifle through your knickers drawer.
Others have already congratulated you on being published. I want to congratulate you on being brave enough to choose the 3rd option.
c) As for whether it's permissible to advertise your book's Kindle link here, I see no problem. I have several times linked to my "publishing hut" (http://la-granota.com) here on Q&As and Admin has never come down on me about it. In fact, I asked if I could announce a writing competion in a blog and suggested an alternative of mentioning it here on Q&As. They replied that creating blogs was off-limits for us mere mortals (of course, they didn't state it like that), but raised no objection to the advertising on Q&As.
TROUBLE IS, Q&As soon disappear into the back pages which (I suspect) few members look up once they're buried under enough new questions. I'd suggest that you mention it in your profile AS WELL, for more permanence. (Though I wonder whether I'm one of the few who surf others' profiles.) And if you give us a sample in "shared works", I'd include a link there. Ask Admin directly if you want to make sure beforehand, but I can't see why they'd object. As Colin pointed out, if we put a bit of effort into it, we could locate it ourselves.
So why should Admin object to your saving us a bit of time?
Congratulations Heather.
I hope it's successful and your hard work pays off. Regarding posting a link here-well you could just tell us the title then we can look on Kindle for ourselves.
Jealous,
Colin
Congratulations! You've thrust your creations out there into the big bad world, which is the whole point of writing it. It takes guts and a certain ignorance to do that - as in, you can't know how it feels until you've done it. If you did, you might never let go of the manuscript, and never press 'send'.
You've spent the last however many months locked up on your own with these characters. They're part of you, they come from inside you and so represent something in you, and you've set them loose for other people - people whom you will never meet - to gawp at. It's perfectly natural to feel that you've put a private part of yourself on show - because you have!
You have to learn now to let them be out there on their own, so that you can move on to the next novel and its cast list. Criticism will feel intensely personal too, but it really isn't (most of the time). The reader doesn't know s/he is reading what is an extension of yourself, only a story about people they've never met before. Chin up and turn the page!
Lorraine