Learning the Nuts and Bolts of Self-Publishing

I've spent the last day and a half, on and off, figuring out how to format my manuscript to match the specifications required for CreateSpace, which basically is all about the margins needing to be a certain size to be able to construct the actual book, and a few other things. I still need to adjust the cover, and since it takes up to 24 hours to review the files, every time I've made a change it's prolonged this process. 

Still...I'm unbothered on the whole because I've still yet to finish my press release, still yet to have a conference call with Mother Juan Aviance and another member of the House of Aviance who will be reviewing the book and giving me a blurb, and then discuss the media outlets I might be able to use to publicize the book. 

I had a little back and forth with @YasmineGalenorn, who is lovely, which was precipitated by her Tweeting a nearly audible sigh after 13 hours of doing admin and press stuff. Even for a major author with a big-press career there are nuts and bolts, though her's don't necessarily involve the margins. 

Was reading Nathan Bransford's blog and this was one of the things that turned him off to self-publishing. Aside from the cachet of being published by one of the Penguin Group imprints, it's a big benefit to have them handle all the nuts and bolts, and, possibly, marketing. Certainly getting published by a Penguin imprint has a big benefit in access to bookstores as well as making it more likely that you'll get reviews and press. When I'm finished with rewrites to my novel, I'll shop it around to the big press places, but in the meantime, Three By Moonlight will be my first foray into self-publishing. It's giving me experience, if nothing else.