Why be scared of self publishing?

I spent many hours wondering about the sense of going alone.  I read extensively spoke to many people – opinion is split fairly evenly.

Don’t under any circumstances self-publish – agents, publishing houses only way to go; security, well oiled machine working for you. 

Do  self publish – keep control of the whole, the book, and the profits.

Would it be stupid to go alone?

Suddenly I realised this is what I do.  All my life.  Want something, do something.

When I wanted to travel in my youth and found all my friends were after careers, mortgages and security, I travelled alone, for twenty years.   I took control of where, what and how I lived. After the first scary months, enjoying almost every minute of it and discovering new friends along the way.

When I came home and still found careers boring I went the craft route and wandered the agriculture and craft shows of the country selling my sculptures and silk clothes.  Controlling my work hours and ethics and my enjoyment of work. After the first scary weeks, I enjoyed almost every minute of it and discovered a whole new world on my doorstep that I knew nothing of.

Then, after saying once too often I wished I had had the opportunity to go to University, I yelled at myself to ‘just do it’.  Menopausal hiccup or whatever, I did.  I was in control of my mind. After the first scary days, I enjoyed almost every minute of it and discovered science and anthropology.

So, coming up to retirement and thinking a little sourly of old age racing towards me, I started wondering about how to try and control the environment and make life a bit safer. Looking around the world of bungalows I decided that, to do what I felt was needed, I had to self-build.  Control as many aspects of building as was legally possible.  Scary yes and I cannot truthfully say I enjoyed any of the process – very stressful!  But living in the new abode? I am enjoying almost every minute of it.

So why should I be scared of self-publishing – okay, it has been, still is, a new learning curve – but surely I can do it.  Keep control of my novel, of its production and distribution.  And I’m hopeful I shall continue to enjoy almost every minute of it.

this is a revised edition of a blog first posted on  20.03.10 on the following blogsite

http://didyoueverkissafrog.typepad.com/  

(where I blog on anything that takes my fancy)

I also blog mainly about books and reading on

http://sefuty.livejournal.com/

Self Publishing - what to do?

Well the book was written. Now what?  Oh the advice that came in was overwhelming and contradictory.  I’d re-read the great work – I'd considered the man hours involved, not just mine but those of my friends who had read, corrected, edited and commented.  The trees destroyed in the copying of different drafts, electricity used to power the computer.  Those 250 pages were the result, so then what to do with it?

Publish of course!  Isn’t that what we all want having put pen to paper – well finger to keyboard.  Print and go straight to Hollywood.  Another blockbuster. Another millionaire.

Back in the real world, on this planet, the doubts set in.  Publish, who would want to do so? I wrote it so it can’t be worth publishing, can it?  I re-read it again; I had by then re-read the dratted thing so often I could quote it word for word.  Well I would have been able to if I hadn’t  kept changing things.  I had to confess I liked the story.  Should I? Should I have enjoyed writing it so much?  I felt maybe I was fooling myself.  Not everyone liked it, my best friend, of oh I have lost count of how many decades, has read it almost as many times as I had and she did not like it. The subject matter interested her not at all, my style of writing grates on her nerves, she had been editing it for me and there was nothing about the book she liked, which actually made her a very good editor  Equally other friends who had been helping with the editing did like it.

I made a decision; I would try and get it out there. So then all the problems really began.  I  short listed the agencies who might be interested.  The first and most major  of stumbling blocks.  I had not written a ‘genre specific’ story.  I had just wrote a story.  I had drawn on interests and experiences of my own, as we are all advised to do.  Influences from other authors? Probably, I had been reading hungrily for over half a century.  My reading tastes were catholic and my interests and experiences were wide ranging.

Was my story science fiction?  Many said yes because it is set in the future and amongst other things deals with genetic manipulation.  I wasn't so sure , where were the space flights!  It certainly wasn't science fantasy - not a single dragon in sight!  My story was a romance but no bodice ripper.  I liked to think it is General Fiction but those agents are eagle eyed on time periods and if it isn’t set in contemporary life, General Fiction it is not.  I liked to think it was a little bit historical as it was looking backwards from 150 years in the future to 100 years in the future, but if it’s ahead of our times it is not historical. Ah well it was worth a try.

I put it on hold for a few weeks while I read novels set in the future.  I read Margaret Attwood, Ballard  and Maggie Gee amongst many in a whole long list.  They came into General Fiction as well as being Science Fiction, I could, I thought, slot myself in with them.  Who did think I was kidding? An unknown author trying to nestle in with the greats - I don’t think so.  Should I rework my story to fit in?  I have never been easy with fitting in.  So should I go it alone?

 Scary!

first published on
http://www.albertaross.co.uk/

see my other blog

http://wwwdidyoueverkissafrog.typepad.com/
(on all sorts!)

http://www.sefuty.livejournal.com/
(on reading and books mainly)

Ellen's Tale: her birth.

Ellen was one of those short stories – well she was intended as one.

Ellen might appear at first to be quiet and well behaved but right from the beginning she’s had a mind of her own. 

Ellen leapt onto the page ready made and named, Bix following so close behind her heels were almost trampled.  I told them firmly they were ‘short’.  I reminded them of it at regular intervals.  They took not a blind bit of notice.  I hastily researched among friends and text books, how long a sort story was, Ellen and Bix had romped well pass the mark, maybe a novella?  They were not having any of it, they took over the keyboard and raced on.  I gave in as gracefully as I knew how and Ellen and Bix slid to a gentle halt when they were ready. 

Proving yet again I was rubbish at ‘short’.  Ah well.

Thinking about Ellen and how she came about is a lesson in how the different influences in one’s life all meld together in the mind.  When I settled down that day to start her Tale I had just finished reading a book about the global food market throughout history.  Fascinating read.  No real leap of the imagination to see the idea of the Sefuty Line being seeded then.

Then those that rode the line had to be bold and brave Heros because . . .? What kind of world would they inhabit?  Well we had been living through a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, following a century of such. . . you get the picture  . . . a world at war.  After that it was easy, my  long held concerns of planet trashing, the horror of modern warfare brought both the reason and the land mines. 

Once the new world was created, it was a matter of thinking about the lack of resources.  On my travels I had often been in places where these lacks are apparent.  Think about super foods and medicine based originally on plants but now manufactured in factories, project into the future and I had pastiles, artificial food. 

I am a confirmed carnivore, so much so that some friends have expressed concern at being shipwrecked with me! Many times travelling through areas of want, meat has not been on the menu, while respecting the reasons I did miss it, (I am sorry if I offend).  I just had to think how much I would miss my roast meat to summon up Grans dying request.

Whilst pruning the Buddleia I was thinking about another interest in my life Family History, and was prompted ponder on the wonder that are ‘The Archives’. I was preparing a small speech about them for a meeting. I host a group, in our local U3A, on Living History where we have been writing about our lives. Among the many passions of my life ‘archives’ loom large. The hidden stories concealed within them fascinate.  A recurring rant of mine at the meetings is for all of us to preserve our memories in the archives for future generations.  Of course Ellen and Bix would be archival material. 

She might have been intended as a short story but Ellen in her determined way has led me into different pasture indeed.  A series of ‘Sefuty Chronicles’ now jostle for space in my head, for room on my computer.

this post was originally published as two on my website.  http://www.albertaross.co.uk/

I also blog about almost anything on
http://www.didyoueverkissafrog.typepad.com/

and mostly about books and reading on
http://www.sefuty.livejournal.com/