Beer Instead of Champagne

2015 is the year that I accomplished a relative milestone of getting four of my books published on Amazon. Yes, they were self-published and yes two of them were novelettes, but I think they still count because I put in the effort to get them out there. Now, I’m trying to squeeze in a fifth book before writing the sequel to Parallax and avoiding looking at the sales ranks on Amazon. I’ll tell you why that is:

Up until this year, I was mailing query letters to prospective publishers and agents and waiting for responses. The industry as I’ve come to know it frowns on simultaneous submissions because they all want to feel that they are the only game in town. That equates to tying up a manuscript for months with potentially no response given and in the worst case scenario, a nice boiler plate rejection form letter describing how it isn’t for them. After a while, that sort of brush-off tends to be demoralizing and I almost quit writing altogether a few times before a friend suggested that I try Amazon and get my work out there.

Self-publishing is a mixed bag of fun. Yes, I’m being sarcastic there because having to wear many hats isn’t always the fun fest that you would think it would be. You have to be an Editor, Accountant, Business Manager and Personal Taskmaster in addition to being the fun-loving carefree fiction writer that responds to messages, emails and the like. Then there’s the cost in Time and Money because unless you have a solid financial base to support your activities, you are forced to juggle a Day Job while you toil to make the writing pay for itself. It’s a long game to be sure.

I’m not going through a philosophical shift or anything, just a little release of frustration that I’ve allowed to build up unresolved over the past ten months. It’s what happens when you fight to maintain focus on projects when part of you wants to go outside and play. However, keeping one’s eyes on the prize is paramount when you are trying to accomplish an important goal. It still sucks when little by little, that wonderful little fantasy in the back of your mind dies piece by piece because Reality dictates a different life memo.

I’m not going anywhere. In fact, I just expanded my social media reach to Tumblr (gasp) and I plan on doing more with Reddit in the future. Now please pass me a beer. 😉

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