I’m Doing It My Way…(hopefully)

Photo by: Rommel Davila @rommeldav22

So I’ve written a book. A fun little sci-fi adventure story, that’s a bit Wizard of Oz, a bit Raiders of the Lost Ark, with a dash of Flash Gordon thrown in. Or as my #PitMad pitch describes it….

It's 1942. WWII. Nazis, Space Pirates, 12' tall alien cats, the Hungry Death. Two sisters must face them all to rescue the mother they long thought dead but who was really kidnapped by the Lord of the Other Worlds.

Anyway, I have spent the past year querying agents, and piling up rejections. I stopped counting after 50 rejections or so. That is just the number the people that actually responded to reject me. I’m not counting the crickets of those agents who didn’t.

Now some people might be demoralized by this. I’m not particularly put out by it. I realize it is a tough business, and there is a lot of competition for scarce resources.

Then there are other people who say, “Pshaw! You have only 50 rejections, so and so had 100 zillion before they got a deal, and now they are famous. You need to hang in there.”

Maybe, but the reality is I’m impatient.

I want this project done and out there so I can move on to the next thing. So I’ve decided to self-publish it.

I mostly wanted to find an agent and go through a publishing company because I thought they know the business, and as this is my first book, I would like to rely on their expertise as I learn about publishing. Really, what I wanted was someone to hold my hand.

But I’m a big kid now, and I’m going to look both ways and cross the street on my own.

Technology has allowed us mere mortals access to the heavens. Self-publishing is (from what I can tell) jumping through a series of hoops.

Hoop 1: Write the damn book.

Hoop 2: Edit the damn book.

Hoop 3: Publish the damn book.

Hoop 4-100+: Marketing the damn book.

Now I’m speaking as someone who has no idea how to do any of this after Hoop 2. Maybe it isn’t that simple. Who knows. Not me. But I’m going to find out.

And I invite you to follow along with me to see what sort of terrible mistakes I make, or perhaps I’ll figure it out and it will be wonderful, and my book will get out there, become a bestseller, and get made into a Netflix series.

There I said it. My goals out loud.

Let’s see what happens.

My next post I’ll review what I’ve done so far regarding Hoops 1 and 2. I’m working on Hoop 3 right now, and will also write about that.