Self Publishing

I've finished something.  Sounds crazy, right?  A writer who
can finish a story...weird.  But I did it, all the same.  It's a little ghost story that, I've been told, will give you the willies, not of the wet variety though so if you're looking for that there's a whole universe of internet sites out there to fit the bill.

It's a strange position to be in.  Back in the day, a finished short story would mean that I would start to send out manuscripts and hope some magazine, somewhere, would pick it up, or even better, an anthology of some kind.  Now, in this modern digital world, I don't have to wait for the approval of some person sitting in a cubicle.  I don't really know if those people sit in cubicles, it just helps, in my mind, if I imagine them sitting there, reading my work.  Now, though, I can, if I wanted, shove this thing onto the kindle store and people could start downloading it within minutes.  Doesn't mean people will, of course, but they could if they were so inclined to.

I'm of the mind that traditional publishing is dead.  Why publish when you can do it yourself.  Sure they give you some advertising, if you hit all their buttons right, but nothings guaranteed.  I know plenty of authors who got themselves an agent and then got signed and then got buried under the releases of other books, to never be seen again.

We live in a time when I'm surprised that big bands and musicians don't release their own work.  Imagine if U2 were to release an album on their website?  Cut out the middle man and you have complete artistic freedom and you get more of the dollars.  Win, win.  It's just scary to cut the cord, push yourself off the publishing rocket and spin out into zero gravity, all the while hoping that people decide to read or buy your stuff.

It's what I'm going to do, though.  I'm done thinking I can succeed at the 9-5 job, my mind is always in my stories.  I might be at work but, in my head, I'm wondering what that guys going to do with his new-found super powers, especially when the villain has just killed the city's previous hero. ( the current thing I'm working on.)

It's time for me to move closer to cutting the cord, see if anything can sell, see if there's a future for me as an author and see if the stories running through my head resonate with anyone out there.

Over the next few posts, I'll keep y'all informed of what it's like to push oneself through the self publishing hole.  I hope you read along and laugh and cry and shake angry sticks and preform publishing dances from long lost literary cultures. 

Thanks,

:)