ePublishing with Bookbaby – Part II

It is actually happening – the publishing bit! I wrote about the nerve-racking submission, now more nervousness!  Not all retailers take as long as the two listed below, as you will see later. The MM/DD/YYYY date format throws me, but that is part of dealing with USA companies!

Publishing Status

Here is my hint to first-timers, especially those in other time zones than the USA. Make 100%, positively, absolutely, categorically (have I missed any?) sure you upload the right meta data. The delay was entirely my fault – I uploaded the wrong version of my author bio initially. Luckily I spotted it before approving the proofs, but I could have saved myself some grief and Bookbaby some work if I had triple checked!

As we all know, email communication can be fraught with interpretation issues. In this case, that happened. Add on the time zone difference and a strategically timed weekend and we lost a few days!

However, it is now happening and I learnt a valuable lesson! Triple check BEFORE pushing that submit button!

Bookbaby were terrific and we got the show on the road.

The timings for the stores are given as:

Amazon Kindle: Your eBook should be up for sale in approximately 2-4 business days from when we deliver to them.
iBookstore: Your eBook should be up for sale in approximately 3-6 weeks from when we deliver to them.
Barnes & Noble: Your eBook should be up for sale in approximately 2-4 weeks from when we deliver to them.
Sony: Your eBook should be up for sale in approximately 4-6 weeks from when we deliver to them.
Kobo: Your eBook should be up for sale in approximately 2-3 weeks from when we deliver to them.
Copia: We do not currently have an estimate for eBooks going live at Copia. We are delivering eBooks to them but there is a delay in their process for making a delivered ebook available for purchase on their site.
Gardners: Your eBook should be listed in their catalog in approximately 3-4 weeks from when we deliver to them.
Baker & Taylor: Your eBook should be listed in their catalog in approximately 2-3 weeks from when we deliver to them.
eBookPie: Your eBook should be up for sale in approximately 2-3 weeks from when we deliver to them.

You will notice many of the statuses above are “Delivery Requested”. I have a feeling this may mean Bookbaby have requested permission to deliver and I have no indication how long it may take to get that permission although the iBookstore was within a few hours so it will be interesting to see!

Being a systems person, I am as interested in the process as I am in actually seeing my book up there ready to be bought. I’m interested in the functionality and usability of the Bookbaby website as well and was, as already stated, very happy with both aspects of the website.

It took just six days for Bookbaby to complete the conversion and send through the first proof, well inside the quoted “up to 10 days”.

So now I sit and wait nervously!

Any other authors out there going through the same process?  Please share your experience!

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