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Or Maybe It's Me
It’s a good thing that I love writing, because this journey of self-publishing my first novel is insane. I’m working on getting my first book of poetry and prose published and now I remember why I put it off for so long. My website has been up for a while, but now I’m working on getting a newsletter and email marketing set up. It took me a week just to figure out how to connect the website and email marketing. I’ve been researching the best avenue for publishing that is right for me. So now that I’ve decided the self-publishing route, I’m finding there is a lot to do.
· Book written – check
· Book edited – check
· Formatting and designing book for print and epub – working on it
· Creating an email list – work in progress
· Deciding on Amazon or Ingram Sparks – next on list
· Marketing social media and email campaigns – Uggghh
· Get it all done by target date for book launch - Uhhhhh
· Plan a book launch party and hope that people will show up – does hiding in my closet count?
Okay, I might be a little dramatic. It’s not all that bad, I’m just in a learning curve. As a creative, I would love to just hand all the “businessy” stuff off to my magic personal assistant, but I’m choosing to look at it as a learning opportunity. I’ve watched a ton of tutorials, read articles, pondered on the meaning of life and often lamented as to why in the world I am doing this.
Now, I’m pretty sure I have my eyes wide open when it comes to profitability with a self-published, first-time author poetry book. I don’t expect to be able to retire on my own private island with the proceeds. But that’s not the reason I decided to publish. I’ve always dreamed of being a published author. I never thought that it would be a book of poetry and prose. I always imagined it being this bestselling, bad @$$ fictional virtuoso, with amazing characters and riveting plot. And, hey, that might still happen.
But this baby I’ve been gestating is a labor of love and growth. The collection of poems and musings became an integral part of my growth, as a person and as an author. It opened me up in ways I can’t even quantify. So, when I look at my to do list of the practical parts, I need to remember the why.
I’m sure I’m not the first writer on the planet to go through these growing pains of the current landscape of self- publishing. I bet I’m going to make mistakes, while expanding my knowledge base on all sorts of things. But this is a long-time dream realized. This is a commitment I am making to myself to follow through. And while my Inner Critic still whispers little doubts in my ear, my Muse is pushing me to the other side.
And this is just another part of my journey as a writer.
Previously published on my page at Medium.com.
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