Figuring out there was a world of opportunity open in self-publishing and, more importantly, e-publishing was an awakening to me, as it should be to any aspiring writer. Today anyone with something to say can get their message out. No longer do they need to have an agent, or catch the attention of one of the huge publishing houses. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that route, if you can pull it off. But publishers are becoming fewer and farther between and their output is diminishing as well, so that path is becoming more and more improbable. Not to mention, merely being published on paper is no guarantee of your work being seen,let alone living the high-life of a latter day Hemingway or Fitzgerald.
As well, to have even a shot at such traditional success, a beginning writer has to more or less follow all the “rules”. Their work must be “easily accessible” and fit neatly into one of the preordained big-selling genres. If you write romance, for example, the girl has to get the hero in the end; if murder mysteries are your thing, the sleuth has to figure it out and explain it letter by letter about 300 pages in. If you write stories about ordinary people in pretty ordinary circumstances, your name better be Douglas Coupland or else your manuscripts will be lining a whole lot of editors birdcages. The brave new world of e-publishing changes that. If you can forgo the big publishing houses, you can forgo the big publishing houses rules and let your creativity run free. As long as you're willing to put in a little work- and not expect to get rich like a king (or a Stephen King) from your efforts.
Which is not to say big, mainstream success can't happen to the self-published. A recent USA Today best-seller's list featured a book by Kristen Ashley, The Promise, sitting at #38 overall, a little ahead of recent efforts by Dean Koontz and Dan Brown. The Promise was self-published by its author and released for Kindle only as an e-book. But the promise of matching The Promise's commercial success is likely matched by the promise of cashing in big-time from a single Powerball ticket.
Which leads me to my new e-book. The Mockingbird Speaks is an idea I've had germinating for five years or so, but it didn't lend itself well to traditional methods of publishing. It's not overly long - in a PDF format, only 50 pages. That is with it fleshed out a little from its original form, which was perhaps half that length. Too long for any magazine to run as an article, too in-depth to pare down to 2000 words so it could fit them; too short to be a standalone book (Who Moved My Cheese? notwithstanding.) Not to mention the book's content itself wasn't precisely honed to mass appeal. A motivational book by an unknown without a TV show or successful public speaking career; a book that looks at songbirds and their behavior but is far from a nature field guide or biology text. I believed in what I had to say, what the book could teach... but knew that if it was going to be seen, I'd have to be the one to make it so.
So began my path to self-publishing.
...TO BE CONTINUED
As well, to have even a shot at such traditional success, a beginning writer has to more or less follow all the “rules”. Their work must be “easily accessible” and fit neatly into one of the preordained big-selling genres. If you write romance, for example, the girl has to get the hero in the end; if murder mysteries are your thing, the sleuth has to figure it out and explain it letter by letter about 300 pages in. If you write stories about ordinary people in pretty ordinary circumstances, your name better be Douglas Coupland or else your manuscripts will be lining a whole lot of editors birdcages. The brave new world of e-publishing changes that. If you can forgo the big publishing houses, you can forgo the big publishing houses rules and let your creativity run free. As long as you're willing to put in a little work- and not expect to get rich like a king (or a Stephen King) from your efforts.
Which is not to say big, mainstream success can't happen to the self-published. A recent USA Today best-seller's list featured a book by Kristen Ashley, The Promise, sitting at #38 overall, a little ahead of recent efforts by Dean Koontz and Dan Brown. The Promise was self-published by its author and released for Kindle only as an e-book. But the promise of matching The Promise's commercial success is likely matched by the promise of cashing in big-time from a single Powerball ticket.
Which leads me to my new e-book. The Mockingbird Speaks is an idea I've had germinating for five years or so, but it didn't lend itself well to traditional methods of publishing. It's not overly long - in a PDF format, only 50 pages. That is with it fleshed out a little from its original form, which was perhaps half that length. Too long for any magazine to run as an article, too in-depth to pare down to 2000 words so it could fit them; too short to be a standalone book (Who Moved My Cheese? notwithstanding.) Not to mention the book's content itself wasn't precisely honed to mass appeal. A motivational book by an unknown without a TV show or successful public speaking career; a book that looks at songbirds and their behavior but is far from a nature field guide or biology text. I believed in what I had to say, what the book could teach... but knew that if it was going to be seen, I'd have to be the one to make it so.
So began my path to self-publishing.
...TO BE CONTINUED