I thought it only appropriate to stop at my own blog on my very first blog tour. I wanted to pop back here for this post because I feel it is an important topic for me to cover on my writing blog.

Why self-publish?

Like many other authors, I dreamt for a long time of being published. I had no dreams of becoming a bestseller. For me, it was about having my print book in my hands to be able to show myself that I had done it. I wanted to see my title on the cover and to be able to have my characters preserved within.

When I finally finished my novel on last New Year’s Eve (I haven’t had the balls or the time to revise my high school stuff yet even years later) and looked at the publishing world, I saw how much things had changed. I could go the traditional route, but I could also take more control. But the more control, the more possibility of being burned.

Even so, I decided that at this point traditional publishing wasn’t the way I wanted to go. I knew some people who would look down on me for it, but in the end it came down to me and what I wanted. I knew that I didn’t want to slog it out with hundreds (if not thousands) of other writers in various slush piles around Australia. And, if I managed to be one of the lucky few, still have to wait a long time to see my book in print.

First decision made, now came self-publishing or e-publishers.

I had read a lot of self-published and e-publisher books and knew that Echo Falls was better than some things out there. But as I said to my husband, “I know my book is better in writing strength than plenty of things I have read, but I can’t count on my readers having read what I have.”

I finally had decided that an e-publisher who also put books into print would be for me. I wouldn’t have to wait as long as I would with traditional publishing but I would still get the confirmation that someone other than my beta readers thought I was worthy of getting published.

Then I had a chat with Susan Helene Gottfried.

Susan has been self-publishing nearly as long as I have known her and asked me why I wasn’t doing it myself. When I searched my heart, I realised it came down to this: I didn’t have the guts.

Self-publishing puts you out there for the world to see with no one else to blame. While I had been looking at various epublishers, I had been avoiding the simple truth of being afraid of rejection.

Susan gave me a simple run down of Indie 101, which included inviting me to BestSellerBound.com (which I highly recommend for readers and writers). She talked me through the little niggle questions I had about the process and finally convinced me that I could do this ‘indie thing’.

In the end, it wasn’t so much the convincing as the taking stock of what I really wanted that decided it for me. I didn’t want to wait years for my book. I like the idea of being able to control the sales/business side as well as the creative side. I don’t expect to become any sort of famous. Family and friends reading my book will make me happy.

I think any author or potential author still has to respect the process. (Write. Edit. Write. Edit. Edit more. Have others edit. Edit some more. Then one more time. Publish.) But I also think that self-publishing provides an avenue for those of us who have meager dreams, plans for only one book, books on niche subjects, so on and so forth.

These days I don’t worry about whether or not I’m doing the right thing; I’m worried about normal author things like bad reviews and my cover art.

It feels good to be an author.