After the Book Launch

Oh boy, it's finally done! (Just kidding, somehow it's still only just begun.)

But look at us go, with a published book and everything. I've had a few days to reflect on how lovely the book launch was and how wonderful it was to catch up with old friends, readers, and meet some new faces. This has been a long time coming, but I'm so happy to share it all with you.

Now toward the next steps. Things I probably should have thought through before the launch, but I am a procrastinator by nature and was therefore short on time and money. I'm really struggling with the decision between a print-on-demand resource that will take me out of the process, and ship direct to readers from the printers, or in buying a big chunk of back stock and doing my own shipping.

There are pros and cons to each option. Maybe you can help me decide?

As someone who works full time and then some outside of writing, it would be lovely to have things shipped quickly from the source any time someone wanted a book. Less lag time between purchase and shipping, and less stress on my behalf. It's much less personalized, and printers would obviously take their cut of the profits.

However, as an indie author, there's something about the lovely personalization that people can have from buying direct from the author. Hand-written notes, personalized signings, wrapped all unique from me to you. It would take more time, and there would likely have to be one day a week where I did shipments, meaning the delay from purchase to receiving would be more significant.

What do y'all think? Go full-on indie publisher and do my own shipping, or protect my peace and have less personalized touches on the shipping process?

Either way, I'll be making a decision and having books to sell online soon! Within 2-3 weeks, most likely.

~ Madeline