Taking a Huge Step Here – Vellum

I am taking a short story writing class from Holly Lisle, and my birthday is coming up.  So I decided to take a HUGE STEP and request Vellum for my birthday so that I can test my nerves and publish a short story!

Vellum is a Mac Only publishing software that allows you, in addition to formatting your files for publication, to see what your file will look like on a myriad of devices.  This is hugely attractive, because it can prevent formatting errors that will get you bad reviews.  I want to give readers the easiest experience possible, and bad formatting isn’t that!

It’s not cheap.

I don’t have a Mac, but I found a work around in MacinCloud which SHOULD allow me to run it.  If not, I’d have to borrow my mother-in-law’s Mac.

But here’s the thing… I need thick skin to be an author, and I need to be able to take bad reviews.  I’ll do my best on the short story, but I figured it would help build up my tolerance if I published some short stories rather than my novel straight up.  That way I can get bad reviews and teach myself how to deal with them.  The short stories aren’t my babies, if that makes sense?  I only spend a month or more on them… not a year or more like the novels.

And I need to actually test the waters.  Not just talk about publishing, but actually let someone other than my beta reader read my work!  I’m such a scaredy-cat.

So, I’ll let you know how this goes.  It’ll probably be a disaster, but it’s worth trying!  I intend to post that story in Kindle Unlimited, and I’ll post here when I publish.  *crosses fingers*

Do you write?  Have you published anything?  How did you learn to deal with bad reviews?  How do you deal with bad blog comments?  Inquiring minds want to know!  *smile*