Not for Resale

 So says my author proofs, finally shipped to me on the slow boat after friends had received their paperback copies.

However, you know what is for sale? The paperback version of Unstable Felicity, available at fine Amazon retailers everywhere. And I can attest that the cover is velvety matte and delightful to the touch -- an important part of the reading experience.

Many of you are avidly following our adventures in self-publishing for research purposes, so here's my two cents on putting together an Amazon page for one's book through Author Central. The Kindle book and the paperback are two separate links, and each needs to be formatted. The Kindle version of the book contains the correct formatting for the book blurb:

Jill O'Leary's December has all the hallmarks of a feel-good holiday special. She's a successful Los Angeles career woman summoned home to small town Ohio to save the family business. There, she'll have to navigate a White Elephant gift exchange, decorate the tree, and meet not one but two tall dark handsome strangers.

But it will take a miracle to make this Christmas merry and bright. Jill's baggage is waiting for her at home: Regina, the demanding mother she hasn't talked to since her father's funeral four months ago; Reagan and Del, her sisters with their own agendas; Garrett French, a local real-estate mogul trying to snap up her family's inn; and Heath Albany, the married ex-boyfriend who's suspiciously eager to reconcile with her. 

Jill is determined to get in, fix the family finances by herself, and get back to the big city as soon as possible. But keeping her mother from turning Christmas into a tragedy proves more drama than she can handle on her own. It's going to take her conniving sisters, the division of an empire, sudden blindness, a journey through a pitiless storm, and an unlikely hero to give this tragicomic tale a happy ending. 

When you cross a conventional Christmas plot with Shakespeare's King Lear, you get Unstable Felicity.

The paperback page has the same text, but it will not format into paragraphs. I have copied and pasted; I have entered html code; I have retyped the text. The formatting has not, so far, taken. I recall that Darwin had this problem too putting together his pages for If You Can Get It, so I'm optimistic that my paragraphing will finally be accepted by the powers that be.

Also, a taste of marketing: part of Darwin's marketing plan involves running time-sensitive promotions at discount sites that blast out to huge mailing lists. However, one needs to have a minimum of ten Amazon reviews on a book to list. So far, due to a late-night solicitation of friends, I have eleven reviews. But more is better! So again, let me entreat my devoted early readers to post an Amazon review -- you, my friends, have been built into our marketing strategy.

And thank you for all the kind words I've received so far. I'm grateful for all your literary support!