I'm going to self-publish next year...maybe? [want to talk to you]

The Chatters
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I haven’t told anyone what I’m up to now. Not even my partner yet. But I want to talk to you guys.

These past few months, I’ve been moving along to try to self-publish something to have something with my name on it that I can be proud of.

I was initially going to self-publish “Lunar Heart, Shadow Bound” as my debut. Some of you might be familiar with Pinti and the world of Elgana. But as I was editing, I realized I really needed to rethink, restructure, and rewrite the entire book. I already have a cover that I had made by a professional cover artist (Uwe Jarling, actually, who was my dream cover artist :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: ), but the book is nowhere near ready.

But I thought, I don’t want to wait for Pinti’s story to be done to finally publish something. I also remembered a writer on IG saying, “What’s holding you back? Why wait to publish something if you can?”

And I thought, yeah, why not? I’ll self-publish “Between Roses” because it was the most done out of all the books I’ve written. So, I got betas and I’m also having a cover artist make a cool mixed media cover.

To be very honest, this is a really selfish move because I’m going to publish it because I want to :stuck_out_tongue: Not really because anyone said they wanted to read it and I’m not caring about what the market is like right now. In terms of the plot, I’m pretty confident it’s not going to change, so after betas and a bit more self-editing, I’ll be sending it off for line editing.

But again, why wait and do nothing about publishing any else? So, I decided to practice formatting by myself at the same time as putting out a book of poetry. A thing that appears in my novels is at least one poem. Since I did start out as a poet, I always put poems in my stories. Call it a signature move, maybe? :stuck_out_tongue:

It would make sense for me to have some poetry collections, right?

Idk if Between Roses or a book of poetry will win, but one of them will be self-published next year.

Maybe.

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I often think about self-publishing myself, but money wise I don’t think I can and overall I think the stress will get to me.

Traditional publishing, in thought, is also a stressful endeavor because it’s a waiting game.

sigh

Whatever you decide to do for next year, good luck to you and your journey, my friend.

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Not just that, but querying is a beast. I know because I did trad first. Getting a query letter right is a hurdle, finding an agent that might be interested in you is a hurdle, and then sending all the letters out and waiting, and then getting rejected and doing the whole thing over again…

Also, good chance you will not get to choose what your book looks like and might even come across problems with a publisher’s editor…will you really be able to make a book that you want? Questionable.

On the other hand, if you find marketing and cover making and formatting and all the costs to be daunting, the only problem is finding an agent and waiting and being rejected but not giving up.

Self-publishing and trad publishing both have their pros and cons depending on what you think you can do or afford.

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True, very true.

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I think about just writing something in YA or Romance and sticking it on Kindle sometimes :joy:

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No one’s stopping you :wink:

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Good for you! Personally I think it’s a good move to get your name out there and start generating interest in your work.

The Pinti book is part of a series, isn’t it? It might be wiser to wait on that one, then, until you finish the sequels. Depending on how many books are in the series you might want to hold all the books in the series until the whole series is done, just in case you have to rewrite something in the early books because you changed something later on. Then you can rapid release them, one every six months or so to keep your fans looking out for the next release.

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Well, yes, as a duology. Pinti’s book has been separated into two parts. My plan is to get the first one out and then work on the second one. The second one will be a lot quicker, actually, because everything that happens in the first has paved the way, and not a lot will be different.

The big rewrite is really in the first 6-7 chapters of Book One.

Hmm, that is an option. It’s only a duology, but there are other books taking place in the same world of Elgana (like one about a fox Hybrid that’s been calling my name to edit it).

I could maybe work on all the Elgana books at once…and then rapid release them.

That’s a thought.

I do have time to think about this because I’m doing NaNo and editing at the same time (rather, trying to edit).

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As someone who is self-published, I say do whatever the heck makes you happy :joy: Just remember that self-publishing is a lot of work 'cause it’s not just the publishing aspect you’re in charge of :+1:

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I mean, no one is stopping you from doing what you want to do, so why not? Many people self-publish a product just so they can have it in their hands, on their shelf, so why not?

And above all else, everyone has a different goal when it comes to writing and publishing. Some people who want to publish want to make it into a career—whether part-time or full-time—while others want to do it just so they can make a few extra cents. And there’s many more options, too.

I’m the kind of person who would love to self-publish something on Amazon or through Ingram Spark, but I also want it to look the best that it can be with professional eyes and artwork, and therefore, some money thrown into it… money I don’t have. Which is why if I ever did publish, it’d be through traditional publishing because it’s free. It’s harder and longer, but it’d be free. I’d only be wasting tears and time. xD

And who knows, maybe along the route, I could self-publish other books under a pen-name or something? I don’t know.

But that’s just me.

If you want to self-publish, no matter your goal or reasons, go for it. Do you. At the end of the day, congratulations! :partying_face: :blush:

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Awesome!

I’m incredibly happy for you and yes, you’re right!

Why are we waiting around when we can finally take action on our most heartfelt desires? As someone who is a serial waiter, seeing this post from you is divine timing and a wonderful signal that I should also do the same with the books that I do have lying around.

As many have said, there are many more aspects to self-publishing than the writing itself but I’ll go against the grain here and say to focus on your writing for the while because self-publishing happens in cycles. The writing, editing, formatting, design, etc. Don’t stress yourself out on the other things quite yet (i.e. outsource them, if you can or dedicate like about one hour a day to learning about them).

I’ve been published before and I ended up giving up because I focused on trying to get the word out instead of building up my catalogue. If I had written more in the first couple years of my first self-pub attempt, I probably would’ve been more successful in any promotion attempts.

My second publishing attempt will be vastly different because this time, I’m not so outcome-focused.

Every journey is different so don’t get disappointed if you’re not on the fast track yet. Do it for the love and you will be rewarded. I wish you all the best :smile:

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Yes, I know autocorrect changed it from serial writer, but I’m now picturing an evil waiter moving from table to table, putting a knife to each customer’s throat as he demands, “Do you want more coffee? Choose carefully!”

I’m thinking this would make an awesomely popular anime… ☜(ˆ▿ˆc)

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LMAO!

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Thank you for the encouragement!

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Oh no, I literally meant WAITER lol!

Love the joke but hopefully, you got what I mean by only waiting and never doing haha. Glad to inspire your imagination.

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