5:56pm

I didn’t sit here and watch the clock spin, just so I could begin this post at this time. I swear I didn’t. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t make me chuckle, though.

Right, then!

So, I’ve hinted around at this in previous posts (I think), but I’m consolidating sites. I’ve been working on it for a couple of weeks now, and I hit a point where I needed to update all my titles on Draft2Digital, which is an ebook aggregator/distributor that a lot of indie authors use. I really like them, and the process of uploading a new book or updating an existing one is flawless, especially when compared to some of the other storefronts I’ve used. Smashwords was horrid, but fortunately, Draft2Digital bought them… which means I can now publish to Smashwords as part of the Draft2Digital publishing/uploading process.

So, why am I writing this post?

Well, it doesn’t make sense to update my titles only at Draft2Digital, especially since I have to update them everywhere… which means that people may come here looking for book links or book pages that are not 100% ready to go live yet.

As much as I like the idea of consolidating sites, I don’t want to do each step of this process multiple times. So, I’m just going to embrace the suckiness of having partially completed book pages and put a notification banner at the top of my site asking everyone to read this post before proceeding.

I’m also going to “pin” this post at the top of my homepage (between the menu bar and the main content) to increase the odds of the people visiting my site actually reading it.  😉🤣

All I ask is that you please bear with me during the ‘growing pains’ portion of this process. When the notification banner and the ‘pinned’ post go away, the site switchover is complete.

Have you ever worked on a project that had a list of “core/necessary” outcomes but also a list of “nice to have” outcomes?

Well, this one is no exception.

What I discussed above are the core outcomes that I absolutely will have. Series and Book pages. Newsletter signup landing pages. Fully operational battle… oh, wait… I mean… fully operable e-commerce experience. None of these are negotiable.

When I complete these, I will make a full site backup (files & database). Then, I’ll try for my “nice to have” list.

Namely, transferring the users and order history over from Knightsfall Press to here. I think I can make it happen, but I’m not about to try without that complete site backup… just in case.

If I tried to import those database tables from Knightsfall Press and the import broke my personal site without having a backup of all this work I’ve done? Yeah… I’d cry and go wander off into the woods to live without any technology for a while.

I’d like to think I’d make it at least a couple days before I tried making a pizza oven out of rock and homemade daub.  🤣

Okay. That’s all I have for you.

If you’re reading this, thanks for sticking with me.

I hope the days treat you and yours well. Stay safe out there.