Publishing online is not easy. There are a lot of questions that continue to frustrate me. Why, if I’m a Canadian writing a book that takes place in Canada, is my Kindle book listed on Amazon.com but not on on Amazon.ca? Where do I send people to order my CreateSpace publish-on-demand novel? Why, since CreateSpace and Amazon are essentially the same company, does Amazon not offer the print version of my book?  Why does CreateSpace require an EIN number (American Employee Identification Number), while other services do not? Why does the iBookstore require I have a Mac computer before I can upload an eBook, yet I can distribute it at the iBookstore via Lulu without one? And how long does it take for it to be published at the iBookstore (and for the “pending” status to be removed)?

And then there are the questions that have nothing to do with the actual publishing, but with the publicity aspect of publishing. Where can I send my press release so that it actually gets published in the print media? What do I post to my blog or web page or Twitter feed or Facebook page, Pintrest, Google+, etc. that will make people take notice? How many social media outlets are too many to which to subscribe? How many online eBook publishers? What is a good price point at which to set my eBook? My paperback?

The learning curve for this experience has definitely skyrocketed, and it continues to soar with each new day. It’s been almost a week and I still haven’t lost my sales virginity yet. I’m hoping to get all of the kinks out this time around and make any mistakes I’m going to make now so that the process will be smooth sailing for the next time.