Sharing via My Self-Publishing Journey
Self-publishing Adventures Begin with a Story
The self-publishing adventure begins with a story worth publishing and the will to persevere. How do you know if your story is worth publishing? Share it with others and get their feedback. But don’t count on all feedback being positive.
Over the years I wrote many stories. One person I shared some of them with commented, “Well, at least your family might enjoy reading them.” Ouch! Still, that told me my stories needed work, a few changes, more honing, and further evaluation. I persevered. I shared them with a few other people and they told me, “John, these stories need to be published, they’re great!”
Still, at that point they still weren’t well-written enough to be publishable. I’ve spent years rewriting and honing, thinking I’m there, then reading, shaking my head, and rewriting and honing again. Sometimes the process seems never ending, and perhaps it is.
At various times I submitted stories to publishers and they too told me they should be published. However, they also told me they were not the kind of story they published, or they had just published a similar story, or the story was too short for their requirements, etc. Their feedback was both encouraging and discouraging!
At that point my self-publishing adventure came into play (link is to an article on self-publishing). But I found that the traditional self-publishing options—vanity presses—was expensive. And frankly speaking, I couldn’t fit it into my budget. Now what?