I spent an hour this morning going through edits to my soon-to-be released commercial version of Death Speaks Loudest... It will serve as a prelude to my soon-to-be-released Urban Fantasy book, The Chosen Must Fall.
My wife who has some experience with book manuscript preparation was helping me. She is ruthless! This afternoon she showed me a news story on Yahoo! Finance about another writer finding "unconventional" success through self-publishing. "How I Became a Best-Selling Author" has all the usual plot points: writer in her spare time creates a novel; traditional publishers take a pass; the manuscript languishes inside a dusty desk drawer until the writer takes a chance on e-publishing; against the odds, the said-book becomes a bestseller online.
If you are an aspiring writer stuck in the conventional wisdom that says you need an agent or a traditional publisher to make your dreams of success a reality, then read the article. It confirms everything I have discovered in my research over the past four months: you can succeed as a self-published writer.
Now I'm not saying everyone who goes down the self-publishing road will succeed, or that the self-pub road is a downhill stroll on a lovely summer's day. It's more like an uphill hike during a blinding blizzard. I have yet to reach the summit of my hike, but I'm still on the road.
And that's all I'm encouraging. Don't settle for conventional wisdom. In fact, you'd be surprised how many great writers and poets began their "greatness" as self-published wannabes.
I don't know how my hike will end, but I'm still trudging forward one step at a time until I find out.
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