Self Publishing

For over thirty years I worked on a novel and in 2003 submitted three chapters for the first time. The young editor kindly wrote that 699 pages was too long for a first-time author. My dreams were crushed until my cousin suggested I turn it into three books—one for each generation of the family saga.

I submitted chapters of the first book to several publishers and received no encouragement. Again, my dreams were crushed until I heard about e-book publishing at our Ancient City Writers' group. I uploaded the first two books, Molly and Brothers to Kindle Direct Publishing and made a number of sales to friends and friends of family and friends. Then the sales fizzled out.

Self-Publishing has both advantages and disadvantages. It gives the writer much more of the price of sales, but it requires the writer to become a salesperson. So I embark on learning new skills, much harder ones for me, to sell books.