Pressing The Go Button

I've never been so eager yet scared to press that 'go' button.

I did it today, a Sunday here in Australia. The formatting company I'm using, Bookbaby.com. says I should be getting my PDF proofs 'within approximately 10 business days' .

Here's my immediate problem. I've been telling the world the book will be on sale June 21. That's exactly 10 business days from now.

Ooops.

Obviously, I don't want to be a liar. BUT, I do need to read the proof first, just to make sure the ebook works the way an ebook should. This one (and the three to follow) have footnotes. I need them to work.

I'm sorry the book release could be delayed. This is completely my fault. This is my first venture into independent publishing and I'm making mistakes as I go along. But these are all mistakes I'm making at home, BEFORE the book gets out there.

I would much rather the book be late but gorgeous, instead of having it out there on an arbitrarily selected date but it then doesn't satisfy the readers.

Releasing the first two titles are a little like trial runs, to see how it all works. After bookbaby delivers the book, it takes 2 - 4 days for Amazon to load the book onto their sales pages. That's fine by me. BUT it can take  3 - 6 WEEKS to go on sale at the ibookstore.

If I want to get things all ready to be on sale at the same time across all formats, I have to work back 6 weeks from going 'live' and an extra 10 business days (another 2 weeks) for formatting. Which means I need to have things ready at least 2 months, preferably 10 weeks, ahead of time.

Looks like the rest of my year will be something of a blur.