Okay, elephant in the room. If you read my last post, I ended it with
“Tune in next week for the rest of the story!”
That was three months ago. My bad. A lot has been going on these past couple months. My computer quit on me and I had to buy a new one. I started a new job, which requires me to work early in the morning and has taken some getting used to.
Anyways, my apologies.
Last time, I wrote about some of the events in my life that lead to me writing my first book. If you haven’t read about them, you can here. But it ended like this (spoilers), I’d come to the realization that I could publish a book via Amazon’s Kindle.
Now up until this point, it had always been a dream to have my own book published. But I didn’t have the first idea on where to start. I knew I would need a publisher, but to get a publisher, you need an agent, right? How do you get an agent? These were things I pondered. And to be honest, if I found out then what the process of being published entailed, I probably wouldn’t have even attempted.
Basically, this is how it works. You write your manuscript and then you mail it off to the publishers. (Yes, the old way.) But you also have to send a query letter, which has to be formatted a certain way to even be accepted. The publisher then reads your query letter, which sums up your manuscript (you know, the one you poured hours of your life into), and based on that, they decide whether to even read your novel or not. If they don’t, you get a nice letter saying how you’re not what they’re looking for.
Do not pass go.
Do not collect $200.
You then continue this process until you find a publisher who will give your book a chance. If you don’t, well, write another book. Not saying the one you wrote isn’t good, it’s just not what the publishers are looking for.
Amazon changed all this.
Yes, there were eBooks before Amazon, but the Kindle did what iTunes did for music:
It made it instantly accessible.
And not only instantly accessible to the consumer, but accessible to the producers as well.
Authors could now directly publish to Kindle and have their written word out in the world. You no longer had to get past the gatekeepers of Publishers and Agents. You went straight to your readers.
It was like the printing press all over again.
So much to the point that right now, Amazon is having it out with Major Publishing Houses. You can read about it from guys who know tons more than I do like, David Gaughran or Hugh Howey. There’s this whole friction between Traditional Publishing and Self-Publishing, between what’s established and those who seek to find a new path.
And how does this all tie back into my story?
When I set set out to publish A New Death via Amazon, it wasn’t because I thought Self-Publishing was the way to go. To be more accurate, I stumbled into it. I thought to myself, “Hey, I can do this.”
And then I got to it. I began reading books (on my Kindle, of course) about writing fiction, publishing on Kindle, eBook formatting, selling on Amazon, and just soaked in whatever I could. But as much as I read, I just did. (There is no try, only do.) I went through the process of writing, editing, publishing, and marketing my book. I set up social media for it. I created a website and blog. I started off knowing nothing about publishing.
And look at me now.
I am by no means a famous author. I’ve been on a few bestseller lists of some slightly obscure categories, but nothing too crazy. (Yeah,Metaphysical category!)
But I’ve sold books. Books that I have written. Books that people give five-star reviews and ask, “When’s the next one coming out?”
That is awesome.
A dream come true.
So why did I choose to Self-Publish?
Because sometimes, you have to do things on your own to find out what you’re capable of.
Josh
