It’s been a TON of work, but the self-publishing process is a learning experience, and if you’re a jack-of-all-trades and a DIY’er like me, it’s a natural fit. I’d spent so many years incubating this book–and then actually writing it–that I didn’t want to wait years more for it to be chosen by a big five publisher, and then a few more years to go through the process and get on the market.
Self-publishing has progressed leaps and bounds since the early days of corny self-made covers and un-proofread work. It’s just as big a business now as traditional publishing, with lots of services popping up to provide covers, editing, formatting, and marketing.
But maybe the thing I like the most about it is that it’s essentially democratic. Anyone can publish a book on Amazon, completely for FREE. That’s right, totally free. You can spend as much as you want, but if your budget is zero, the access is still there. Whether it will sell any copies is another matter. But your fate is in your hands, along with most of the profit (usually 70%). And the popularity of your book is in the people’s hands too. It’s a totally grassroots enterprise, except that it’s facilitated by a giant corporation that’s considered by lots of people to be a mom-and-pop business-killing monopoly. Life is full of contradictions.
But either way, October’s Fire is out now, available as an ebook, paperback, or free to read if you belong to Kindle Unlimited.
As promised in my blog post “Cover Love“, I’ll soon be doing a post revealing all of the progressions of my cover, from thumbnail sketches through final artwork.
