A New Writing Adventure...

...Is Worth It!

Whether you are frustrated by the publishing industry today, have something to send into the world that isn’t an easy sell to traditional publishers, have backlist books that have gone out of print – wherever you are in your publishing journey, you’ve surely thought about self-publishing.

Which, as I said in my last post, is something I’m embarking on for all the reasons above. Yes, I have a wonderful agent, and yes, I still have books coming, and yes, I have had success with traditional publishing, but sometimes it pays to at least understand the alternatives.

As I gear up to create this new short story collection and then self-publish it, and also because of the holiday/summer distractions (not to mention what’s going on in the world…ugh…) I thought I’d share my early groundwork. Back next week with more writing craft/publishing talk.

Note please that I’m not an expert – if you’d like real in-depth notes on self-publishing, especially in the picture book arena (which is tough as a self-pubbed author) I encourage you to check out Darcy Pattison’s boatload of information including her posts here on Substack. She’s a true pro with lots of good information.

Initial Steps

Here are the initial steps I’m following:

Have a good reason to pursue this option. For me that was the reality that as a midlist author creating my own YA short story collection, a book like this would be a tough sell. I don’t want to wait months for rejections, even if my agent thought it was worth trying. I’m being pragmatic. Plus…it’s a great experiment.

Be emotionally invested. The best part of this project is that I get to play. I may even include poems and photos – all my own – in the collection. I’m having a ton of fun with being able to design exactly what I want.

Do the work. Just because I’m going to self-publish these stories doesn’t mean I get to publish badly executed writing. I’m not going to be lazy about this project. I’m sharing it with my critique partners, and at some point, I will likely hire someone to do an edit round.

Technical Issues

I’m also trying to keep expenses to a minimum, so I’m having to understand how to handle all the technical details. There are a lot of options out there, and I’ll be exploring to find the one I like. So far I’ve done two things:

Created an initial cover in Canva. I’m not an illustrator, and for this project I can’t afford to hire someone to design the cover, so I created my own (not using AI). I love it, but it might not be the final cover as I finish the project.

Uploaded the Vellum app. Actually I did that years ago when I first discovered it, so all I needed was an upgrade, but it is the formatting app for Mac users to create an EPUB digital copy that works on all the platforms. I can typeset the manuscript in many different font styles, set the page formatting, add end notes and title page – in other words, customize the layout.

I’m also already looking into publishing platforms. My self-published son (who will be my consultant all the way through) uses Draft to Digital to upload his books on all outlet platforms. Of course, there’s also Ingram Spark, Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Apple Books, and Kobo Writing Life, among many other apps that connect books with outlets.

Lots To Consider

The images may increase the cost of the book…I’ll have to think about advertising…the best print (versus digital) options are constantly changing and can be pricy…

But I’m having fun with my writing for the first time in a while.

I hope you are, too - and even if you just try something different/write something different, it may spark something new in your craft.

Keep writing!