As you know, my book FOREVER SAFE released at the beginning of June. It’s the 4th book in my Beacons of Hope lighthouse series.
I’ve been delighted to discover that readers are enjoying this particular book just as much as the previous books in the serious. In fact, some readers are liking it even better:
“Every book I read by Jody Hedlund is a winner and this one may be my favorite one yet.”
“I loved the whole series but this book really captured my interest and I love the way the story flowed.”
“I absolutely loved this book. And I think, okay I know it was my favorite so far.”
While I always appreciate compliments on my stories (what writer doesn’t!?), the high praise for this particular book really means a lot to me.
Why does the praise this time mean so much, you might be asking?
Well, FOREVER SAFE is the first book I’ve published independently. Instead of going the traditional route as I have for all my other books, I decided that it would be fun to publish a book non-traditionally.
Nowadays there are many authors who are opting to release books independently (aka indie or self-publishing). I’d listened to their experiences and watched from the sidelines for a while. But it always seemed like too much work. And quite frankly I was scared by all of the new stuff that I would need to learn (and told myself I didn’t have the time to learn it).
But as I mentioned in a previous post, I was interested in continuing my lighthouse series and already had ideas percolating. At the same time, my publisher was encouraging me to move on to a new series (which starts next summer). In the interim, I decided to go ahead and write another lighthouse book and give indie publishing a try.
I won’t lie and say it was easy. Because it wasn’t. And I won’t lie and say it didn’t take a lot of time. Because it did. I had a lot to learn and I made a lot of mistakes along the way.
But thankfully I also had a lot of help. I found fantastic editors who did a top notch job. My cover designer was incredible—and went above and beyond to match the new cover with the other books in the series. My formatter was as patient as a saint. My virtual assistant took care of a million details. And there were others who helped me navigate my new venture.
As you can see, indie publishing doesn’t mean publishing ALONE. All writers whether going the traditional route or non-traditional have to work with a team to put out the best possible book.
When the first reviews began to roll in, I didn’t want to look. But I knew I had to eventually. So when I finally dared to peek and saw that they were positive, I exhaled a huge breath of relief.
Then I rolled up my sleeves and began planning the next indie book.
Yes, I’m doing it again. I’m publishing a 5th and final book in the Beacons of Hope lighthouse series! It will release in January of 2017.
It won’t require any less work on my part. I’ll still need a team of people to help me. But I’m looking forward to the adventure of bringing another book to life!
How about YOU? Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts on indie publishing! So, what’s on your TBR pile this summer!?
Jody Hedlund
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Loved reading this. And I’m SO excited to hear there is one more book coming in the series!!
Thank you, Linda! I’m so glad that you’re excited about another book in the series! 🙂
Eek!! YESSS!!! I’m so excited that you’re adding more to the Lighthouse series!!!!
Ps. I’m one of the influencers for Forever Safe, and I’ve already done a review, but I don’t have a form to submit all of the links to you yet. Or you already sent it out and I missed it or something.
No worries, Callie! I’ll post a link to the form in our Facebook Group to make it easy for everyone! Thanks for being excited with me for the next book! 🙂
I’m not ok Facebook; I hope you send out an email link! 🙂 And I hope you see this comment LOL.
Way to go, Jody!! I self-published a short story called The Proposal last November that ties in to my Porter Family series. Like you, I wanted to make sure that the cover ‘fit’ with the books in the series. And like you, I was daunted by all the new things I’d have to learn.
In the end, I’m so glad that I made the effort to do and try something new. I’d love to publish more stories myself! I have unpublished manuscripts sitting around and a novella idea. It’s become a matter of figuring out if and when I have time to turn my attention to self publishing them.
Hi Becky! I didn’t realize you’d published a short story yourself! I can relate to the feeling of accomplishment that comes from trying something new. And I can also relate to finding the time for indie publishing. I had to come up with a spreadsheet with due dates, etc. And even then, it’s going to be very tight squeezing in everything that I have going on!
This is a great post! Thanks for sharing with us.
Thank you for stopping by! 🙂
Oooooooohhhh my goodness! I was all, “oh, what an interesting article,” “Jody did such a great job with matching this to the traditionally published books in the series,” then “Wait, whoa! A 5th book! Hooray!”
Jody, I thought Forever Safe matched the rest of the series stylistically in terms of writing and the cover – I can’t wait to get my hands on a print copy to make my collection complete. 🙂
Beth
Thank you for the very sweet words, Beth. That means so much to hear your thoughts about the book fitting in to the rest of the series!
Who did you use for your cover? What indie publisher or formatter (is that a word?) did you use?
I used Indie Cover Design for my cover and BB ebooks for my formatting. Both were excellent!
I haven’t read this series, but it sounds interesting, and I love lighthouse books.
Kudos to you for self-publishing! Two of my favorite authors stopped their popular series when publishers told them to move on to other things. Fans were up in arms and would have loved more in both series. That was the first time I realized how much control publishers have. Another author from the UK couldn’t find an American publisher to continue her series after 4 tremendous books. She published her 5th and now 6th book in the UK only, so I order from there.
Best wishes to you for continued success!
Yes, indie publishing can definitely lend some flexibility to what an author is doing! I love being able to carry on this series because not only because readers were loving the series, but also because I personally was having so much fun writing it!
So glad to have another Beacons of Hope book! And one to anticipate!
I have a rather large TBR pile. Two book shelves full and about 75 books in the cloud of my Kindle Fire. Current I will be reading the last book of Beverly Lewis’s Abrams Daughters series. This is my second time to read this series and I’ve enjoyed it as much this time as the first time that I read it. I keep busy with my reading as I pull out books from the library too. I just read what I want to read, although I try to complete all series I start.
Do you have a recommendation for an editing service?