The Lavender Dawn

When life gives you lemons…make lemonade.

I’ve seen this saying on countless tea towels, stickers, signs, posters, clothes, and advertisements. Sometimes life likes to chuck lemons at us. Your best friend isn’t able to make it to your party. It rains on the day of your youth group firepit night. Your deadline is closer than you thought it was for your upcoming school project.

Things rarely go as planned. Trust me, I know. That’s why I’m not too surprised at this “lemon” in my book launch plan. I had written a manuscript, hired an illustrator, worked with a cover designer, and uploaded my book to Amazon KDP. I had reached out individually to over 100 families about my book launch. I set up an email list. I did everything, and there was no knot in my plans. It was going to go smoothly after all. Then came the lemon.

I logged into my Amazon KDP account on November 11th, ready to check on my manuscript to see if it was ready to be published when a notification caught my eye: “Scheduled to be published November 17th”. WHAT?! I internally freaked out. “No, no, my book is supposed to be published on November 16th! Not the 17th!” I told everyone that it would be released on the 16th. I told my friends, my family, my subscribers, my neighbors, everyone.

Here’s what went wrong: What I didn’t know was that with a scheduled Amazon KDP release, you have to push the publish button of your book at least a week before the scheduled release date. When I published my novella, Tales from Bethlehem, I didn’t do a scheduled release and instead published it right away. Once I hit that publish button, Amazon reviewed my document, approved it, and then listed it for sale on its marketplace. Naturally, I thought that the same thing would happen when I pressed the daunting “Publish” button.

For all those who hope to publish a book on Amazon! If you are planning to have a scheduled release, you have to push the publish button at least a week before the launch date!

That was my lemon. But here’s my lemonade: I have learned from my experiences and am now ready for my next book launch. I can avoid this happening in future releases. Having my book launch moved to the next day isn’t the end of the world. The Hidden Haven will still be available to readers worldwide by this weekend!

See you on the next page!