Ramblings on Publishing

I’ve been trying to work on my discipline since my motivation seems to be on vacation. I wish it would’ve taken me with it because it’s been gone a while. Maybe it’s the monotony of life. Teaching a three year old to potty train is not fun, but necessary. Like so many other mundane things or, I should say, things that become mundane. Things like cooking and cleaning and even writing and working out. 

But overall things have been good. And this month, I’ll push myself to work on my web design portfolio and some more short stories. Seeing some of the news around traditional publishing has been disheartening. It takes an immense amount of work to write the thing and then query and then get rejected potentially hundreds of times before going on to getting an agent, editing your book, getting published, and seeing your work in a bookstore. Read that again. And now one of the major book sellers we have left is not stocking debut books for new authors until they’re declared bestsellers. Seeing your book in a bookstore isn’t the only fuel to a writer’s fire, but I dare say you will be hard-pressed to find one who hasn’t walked in a bookstore, smelled the brand new books, and imagined their book there. It’s just another hurdle writers have to deal with. 

I’m definitely leaning toward self-publishing, at least for my first book.  I have heard mixed things about self-publishing and then going into traditional publishing, primarily due to publishers considering your indie (independent book) book sales. Sometimes I worry that I just don’t want to trust the process. It’s a good process that’s birthed many brilliant books, but it’s a long process. Even if you get an agent, it could take years before you get a contract. And then it could take years for you to actually hold your physical book. And I’m a bit impatient. But even with self-publishing, I wouldn’t just write the book and send it off. A lot of indie writers take their time. They draft several times, they edit, they get beta readers and sensitivity readers. They do the work. It just comes out of their pocket. And not having the funds to self-publish is definitely a deterrent. 

So if any agents stumble upon this blog post, I’m still open to traditional publishing lol. And if I got anything wrong, please correct me. I’m trying not to add to any misinformation out there in regards to traditional publishing and what all is going on over at that one bookstore.

I’m thinking about getting back into submitting to literary journals and magazines. I just have to prepare for the sting of rejection. It comes with the job unfortunately.

Let me know what you’re working on, your thoughts on traditional and self-publishing, and if you know any good places to send submissions. I’ll get back to baking and stories this month. 

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