My Journey Toward Self-Publishing

For the last couple of months, I can’t really say I’ve been in my writing hole. It’s probably closer to the truth to say I’ve been in my project management hole. But I’m out now, and I want to talk about my experience. See, I am self-publishing my debut novel. I came to this conclusion after a minor incident with a small publisher. Sitting there last fall, trying to figure out how everything had fallen through, I realized a couple of things that I wanted to share with you.

1.) Nobody was going to care more about my story than me. Nobody. So if I didn’t advocate for my story, who would?

2.) Just because my story didn’t fit into a genre slot didn’t mean there wasn’t an audience out there for it. I just had to find that audience.

3.) Whether I was traditionally or independently published, I was going to have to do the marketing myself.

4.) Learning the skills an independent publisher has to know would always make me a better consumer further down the road.

So why did it take me so long to decide to self-publish? Fear.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Fear can be a positive motivator. Most of us have had that experience at work, where project X needs to be done by a certain time or we’re all fired. So everyone bucks up and gets it done. I have personally had that hard conversation with a boss because I was slacking and didn’t realize it. I redoubled my efforts and learned I was capable of more. In that sense, fear can be good.

But not my fear.

I was afraid of what I didn’t know. I was afraid of the work that might be involved. I was afraid I was going to fail.

Let’s take formatting as an example. I write in Microsoft Word; I have since I was in middle school. (When I was in 8^th grade, it was called junior high. But I digress.) So when I decided to self-publish, I knew formatting was going to be an issue. Reason number one was because I couldn’t afford what some people wanted to charge ($500 or more). Reason number two was all the horror stories people told me about trying to format in Word. (I call them the Scrivener-Vellum Syndicate. But I tease!)

So I procrastinated until the end of the school year (I’m a substitute teacher at my day job). When I finally got around to formatting my novel for print and ebook, it took a day and a half. Around 15 hours. That was it. Did I make some mistakes? Yes. But after installing Kindle Add-in for Microsoft Word and watching a couple of hours of Youtube videos on formatting in Word, I figured it out.

It was challenging, frustrating, and deflating at times. But not only do both versions of my debut novel, The Gallowglass, look good, I now have a new skill set. I understand how to format in Word. I know how to use Styles and how to take out tab indents (go to Replace and type in ^t, then replace it with nothing). I know how to format a table of contents and create styles of my own. I will use these skills when I publish my second novel, and the process will get a little easier.

If you’ve been hesitant about finishing your book, if you’ve feared you don’t have the skills to self-publish or the money to pay professionals along the way, don’t be discouraged. There are some things you can learn to do yourself. Just be patient with yourself and realize it’s not going to be perfect. (Even traditionally published books have typos!) Remember, suffering leads to endurance, which leads to character, which leads to hope. Your book will be awesome, and your next one will be even better.

My debut novel, The Gallowglass, releases July 10^th. Find out more information here.