THE ROAD TO SELF-PUBLISHING

                                                                               

On December 19, 2012, I received an early Christmas present – a box delivered by UPS holding 20 copies of my first book; The Blue Rose, A Catherine Jewell mystery published through CreateSpace. The cover looked more beautiful than the picture of it on my computer. I skimmed through it and could find no problems. Even though I read, reread and edited it over and over for the last ten years, and I should be able to recite the whole book from memory, there’s something special about reading it as a real book.

I first decided to self-publish a year ago. I’d been considering it even longer than that after reading articles in The Writer, Writer’s Digest and Time. I started reading some blogs about the benefits of self-publishing, like Dean Wesley Smith’s blog, and I ordered mysteries by self-published Guppies. I’d long heard negative comments about those who self-published, but I found almost all those I ordered very well done. Not all were to my taste, but that’s a personal thing and not related to the quality of the book. Over the years, I’d certainly bought lots of traditionally published books that have disappointed me, and I’d found just as many minor glitches in those books as in the self-published ones.

I think a lot of the negativity of self-publishing goes back to vanity presses which authors paid to have books published, and from what I’d heard, many self-published books are not well written or well edited  so I can understand why some hesitate to buy them or to go that route themselves for publication.

Why did I choose to do this? It certainly would be easier to have someone else handle all the work required to self-publish. Partly it was the age factor. I was tired of waiting to get it published. I wanted to see my first book and others published before I said my last good-bye.  I started The Blue Rose under a different title over ten years ago. I sent numerous queries out over the years, although not nearly as many as other dedicated authors do. After each rejection, I’d quit querying for a while to tend my garden and do other things before I’d start to query again.

Meanwhile I kept writing because I could not let go of Portage Falls and my characters. Plots kept jiggling around in my head before I went to sleep, while walking in the woods, gardening or driving someplace. I finished two more books in the series as well as a middle-grade mystery. I also continued writing poetry and started writing short stories. And still except for some of my poetry and short stories, my books gathered dust waiting for someone other than my critique partners and beta readers to read them. It’s getting harder and harder to get the attention of the big publishers or agents. I tried a few small publishers. Most wanted a shorter mystery than mine, and I was not willing to make such drastic cuts to hit the required word limit. Then I stopped querying even the small publishers, when I considered the time frame and the pressure to sell so many books before they’d consider the second book. Even if I reached that quota, it would be another year or two before the second book was published and the same time frame for the third book.

I love writing, but I enjoy so many other things, too. I don’t want to neglect family and friends, my social activities, gardening, walks, concerts, plays, reading and the list goes on and on. I know promotion is a big part of being published, and I intend to do that, but with self-publishing I don’t have the pressure of having to sell several hundred books or more before my publisher will publish my next book. When I think my book is as polished as it can be, I can publish it. I can slowly build a reader base and not worry about how many books are sold. Beyond my blog commitment, I have only self-imposed deadlines to meet for my books. I’m not a wealthy person by any means, but financially my only goal is to break even with a small profit to report to the IRS.

Why did it take me almost a year to do this? It was partly the fear factor and partly learning how to format for both a print and e-book. I’d asked one of my grand-daughters, a graphic artist, if she’d create my cover. She enthusiastically agreed, but since she’d never done a book cover before it engendered much procrastination since she was unsure of the process and worked full time. She had to learn to draw roses. Then she needed a picture of a dead body. She got that when I asked my son to pose as a dead person. This past year a  lot of things happened that took up my time, but it was worth the wait to unpack that box of 20 books and hold one in my hands.

The Blue Rose as a print book can be ordered through Amazon and my e-books through Smashwords or Amazon Kindle.