Afternoon, Monday, April 14, 2025, Miami, Florida
“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
I’m a novelist now. I’ve been at it for just over a week. On April 5, I published Reunion: Coda through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) as a Kindle e-book. So far, I’ve sold eight copies of the Kindle edition, including one for myself, along with four copies of Reunion: A Story, the first book of my Reunion Duology.
This morning started with a mixed bag of emails from KDP. The first one was pure joy, congratulating me and announcing that the hardcover edition went live around 10:15 PM last night. (I was asleep then, which turned out to be a good thing. Knowing the first print edition was available might have kept me up all night.)
But the second email, which landed at 4:59 AM, wasn’t as fun:
Hi!
We checked your files and found issues you need to fix before your book can be published on KDP:
Cover
Update your cover file so that all text is unobstructed and fully legible, and does not blend with similar colors in the background.
Interior
Update the ISBN in your manuscript so that it matches the ISBN you entered during setup. See examples on PDF page(s) 2.
Where possible, we give page numbers with examples. To make sure your entire book meets our guidelines, please review your entire manuscript file and fix all issues.
To update book details, go to your KDP Bookshelf. If you update your manuscript or cover, you’ll have to upload the revised file to KDP. We’ll review your book again to ensure it meets our requirements.
The folks at KDP sure know how to keep you on your toes, don’t they? So, instead of having the Kindle, hardcover, and paperback editions on Amazon today, I’ve only got the first two available for readers to buy…and hopefully enjoy.
The email was sent only a few minutes before I read it at 5:07 AM, so I opened my Kindle Create app and went to the Self-Publish with Us page on Amazon, made sure the ISBN on the copyright page matched the one KDP had assigned to the paperback, uploaded the revised file for what seemed to be the millionth time, checked with bleary eyes to see if the cover art was okay, looked at the book’s content on the Print Preview screen, and approved everything. Then, hoping this would be the last time I tinkered with Reunion: Coda, I clicked on the Submit button with a mix of relief and dread.
Of course, now I’m a tired, worried, but happy novelist.
To anyone considering picking up Reunion: Coda, I extend my heartfelt gratitude. This novel represents two years of unwavering effort and dedication to craft a story that resonates deeply and offers a unique literary experience. While I might not be Stephen King, Ernest Hemingway, or Dave Barry, I promise you an engaging read, meticulously written and edited with care. Your support means the world to me, and I hope you find as much joy in reading Reunion: Coda as I did in creating it. Thank you for giving my work a chance.
A Certain Point of View, Too 
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