The Neverending Story, Or The Flexibility of Indie Authorship
It's never too late for indie authors to fix a foul-up
I must start by confessing that this post has nothing to do with the classic novel or film. I simply borrowed the title because removed from its original context, it aptly summarizes the truth the following anecdote will illustrate.
After releasing my paranormal novel That the Dead May Rest, I’ve decided to return to a very different genre, historical romance, and in particular my Cowbird Creek series. Since I still haven’t put together a series bible, there are always details I’ve forgotten and must hunt down in one or another of the existing books. In the course of searching my files for a searchable copy of the first book (What Heals the Heart), I came upon an excerpt from it, one of my favorite light-hearted scenes, in which widow and enthusiastic matchmaker Freida Blum insists on feeding main character Joshua Gibbs two helpings of chicken soup. The details I needed wouldn’t be in that excerpt, but I paused to read it anyway.
To my dismay, I found two quite noticeable formatting errors. Did those errors appear in the actual book? I quickly checked and was relieved to find they did not. But if they had, I would still, six years later, have been able to fix them. All I’d have to do was fix the source file and upload it to Amazon and to IngramSpark (which distributes to multiple other retailers). I made just this sort of correction in the fourth book in the series, What Wakes the Heart, which I’d consulted for the same reason.
If, however, I’d been a traditionally published author, I’d have had no recourse but to grind my teeth, put the books aside, and try to move on. (It may be different for the most indulged celebrity authors, which I would never have been even in my most farfetched daydreams.)
As for that excerpt? I fixed it and uploaded it to my blog, here. You may enjoy reading it if you’re in need of a smile.