I am very pleased to host the Rave Reviews Book Club spotlight Author Kenneth J. Starr. Like me, Ken started writing after a career in business and has published two novels. He has an interesting story about his self-publishing journey. If you would like more information about Rave Review Book Club just click HERE and you will be taken to the website. Welcome Ken.

About the Author

Hi. My pen name is Kenneth J. Kerr, but most people call me Ken. I am retired after a successful business career, which included extensive international travel and living overseas in Hong Kong and Tokyo, Japan for almost a decade. After retirement, I lived in Russia for a year as a Peace Corps volunteer. I began my writing career ‘late in life,’ just over two years ago. My second novel, “The First Madam President (and the dirty bombs)” was published in May 2014 and is available as an e-book or paperback on Amazon and as an e-book in all formats at Smashwords.

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JYKNS3S
Smashwords:  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/432665
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/thefirstmadampresident
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/kkerr19963
Website:  http://kkerr19963.wordpress.com

My journey in the self-publishing world

When I decided to write my first book in 2012, I gave little thought to the publishing process. I was more concerned if I could write enough words to make a whole book. Finally, after several months I had a manuscript that had been written and re-written and edited by me a few times. Now it was time to go get it published. I spent time on the internet investigating the conventional publishing process, realized I needed to find a literary agent first and sent off a few letters to literary agents introducing myself and my book. Not surprisingly, I got no interest, a couple polite turn downs, but mostly no responses. I quickly concluded an unknown author and a first book face an almost impossible uphill climb to get into the conventional publishing world. So, I started learning about self-publishing, again online, and found this looked like a better alternative. I chose Xlibris, a company in Indiana, who offered me a variety of services at different prices. I chose a package of copy-editing, cover design, copyright and ISBN services, some limited marketing assistance and publishing my book as an e-book, paperback, and hard cover. My evaluation is that Xlibris did a good job of the publishing process and produced quality books for me. The marketing services were basic and, in hindsight, were not as valuable as I had hoped.

Since that initial experience I have learned a great deal about the business of self-publishing. For my second book, “The First Madam President (and the dirty bombs)” I used three self-publishing companies; CreateSpace.com for the paperback, and KDP and Smashwords for the e-book. I used KDP for the Kindle e-book and Smashwords for all the other e-book formats. All three companies offer a wide variety of services for a fee, but if you are willing to do your own formatting and editing and cover design, etc. all three companies offer their self-publishing services for FREE. I am very happy with the products they published for me.

Book Excerpt

The President had only met Ann once before, but her initial impressions of the young lady were very positive. She smiled inwardly realizing that the CIA Director had given Ann a more important role in this meeting.

“Ann, you and your Director were here previously on the suspected plot, and I said come back when you have more evidence that will stand up in court. Do you think we are there yet?”

Ann responded, “Madam President, with all due respect, you may be using the wrong standard. My team is tasked with following Al Qaeda, collecting intelligence, analyzing the intelligence and the situation, and preventing another terrorist attack on the United States. Sometimes we collect intelligence in ways that would not meet the standard required in a court of law. We may have that situation facing us now. It is highly likely that a cell of terrorists plan to attack sites in Washington D.C soon. It could be tomorrow, or the next day or several days from now. Hopefully, they are using fake explosives and will be unsuccessful. I don’t want to take that chance. And Madam President, I don’t think you should take that chance either. We have reliable intelligence that indicates an attack is imminent. I don’t believe you want to be known as the President who had intel about an attack and did not act. There are times when the standard for evidence useable in a trial, may be too high. This may be one of those times.”

The President stared at Ann. Everyone else in the room was dead silent, wondering how the President would respond to Ann’s comments.