New Site

I have a new site! It's at: http://strangerealm.com/ and it is awesome.

And this site has my blog in it. And it's mine. Which is why I will no longer write in this blog. If you are interested in reading whatever it is I have to say about my writing, please go to my new site! It has blog posts and a newsletter widget and an "about" page and... uh, well, that's pretty much it for now.

So go there, keep following my progress as I transform from aspiring indie author to a beautiful butterfly.

(This is a true fact. Indie authors wrap themselves in a cocoon made of delusions of grandeur and dreams, and weeks later they hatch as butterflies. Butterflies with E-books for wings, who drink book reviews. When they mate, they create anthologies)

Onward and Upward!

So up until now, my next immediate step was in a gray area. Would Sleepless be published with Kindle Scout? Will it be me? When, why and how?

Now I can answer the questions to myself and to anyone who's interested:

Q: Will Sleepless ever be published?

A: Of course, silly questioning person. It'll be published in the next two months. Initially, I will probably only publish it on amazon.

Q: Why two months? Isn't it ready? You said it's ready!

A: Calm down, crazy questioning person. It's ready... but there are some small points to tie up:

1. Sleepless has links within it to the blog of the protagonist. Those links actually work... except they don't. I still need to create the blog. The content is all there. It's all a matter of some design, domain acquisition and hosting
2. I don't have a website yet, but I want to have one when Sleepless is published, so that I can redirect people from within the ending of the book to my website, so that they can register to my mailing list. So that has to happen too.
3. There's some virtual paperwork to handle before I can publish my book. Tax... stuff. Some people are afraid of spiders, some of heights, some of clowns. I'm afraid of bureaucracy. But I'll get it done.

Q: Are you crying at night because you wanted to be published by Kindle Scout?

A: You're an annoying imaginary questioning person. I don't cry at night, I do my crying during the day. And not over this. This will probably be for the best, and is really no biggie.

Q: What is the meaning of...

A: And that's all for my Q&A between me and myself.

Q: Awww.

Oh Well...

So... No kindle scout for me. Not for Sleepless, anyway.

Disappointed?  A bit. Not dramatically. I've written five books before Sleepless. I've received 6-9 rejection letters for each of them (three were published). I'm used to rejection letters. The only thing different in this one is the e-mail I got straight afterwards:

Dear Michael Omer,

We wanted to let you know that your Kindle Scout nomination, "Sleepless", was not selected for publication. The author, Michael Omer, wanted to make sure you received this thank you message:

“Thank you, this means a lot to me...

This is, of course, the e-mail that all people who nominated my book receive. I nominated my own book (Not because I'm biased. I read the first 5000 words, and I thought it was awesome), so I received the same e-mail.

This is a decent thing. Kindle Scout lets an author send the people who nominated him to his blog or website, where he can update them regarding the book. However, since all my family and friends nominated my book, this is also a bit like publicly slipping on a banana peel.

So, to reassure everyone: I am not incredibly upset. I wasn't sure at all that this was the right thing for my book, and now the decision, for better or worse was made for me. The book will be published, hopefully in the next two months, and it will all be awesome.