So some of you may already know, and some may not, but I published a novel this week.

A lot of writing advice boils down to: write the book you want to read. So that’s what I did with We Could Be Villains. It’s primarily a lighthearted action/adventure story, with elements of superheroes, sci-fi, heists, and chick lit. (If you’ve read any of Scott’s books, you already know that ours is not a household dealing in super-serious dramatic works.)

At first I referred to it as “a geek girl beach read,” but half of the early readers were guys who enjoyed it. Plus, beach reads were more of a thing back in June, when I started writing. Anyhoo, if it sounds like something you might enjoy, the book is currently available on Kindle, with the paper version coming in the next week or two (it takes more time to get the print formatting just right). And it’s available through Kindle Unlimited as well.

This was my first foray into the self-publishing world. I actually didn’t even consider going through the process of trying to get a literary agent, who would then try to get a book deal at a big publishing house. Self-pubbing means keeping all of my rights, and getting better royalties.

I’d watched Scott go through the entire self-publishing process a couple of years ago, when he first put out Off to Be the Wizard. But I didn’t really pay close attention to all of the necessary steps, from cover design to layout to formatting to uploading. So I got to learn most of the steps through my own trial and error, and by using tutorials and blog posts online.

I figured I’d add to that pile of blog posts, since they’re what I found the most helpful. I’m putting together a list of topics — things I had to learn in order to get this book out to the masses — and I’ll be doing some posts on those topics in the near future. If there’s any part of the process you’ve wondered about, let me know!