Change is in the wind.....

I've been going back and forth as to whether I should write this post or not, then I decided...what the hell?! Someone may actually benefit from it!

For over a year I had pursued the road to traditional publishing; you know, find an agent, shop the editors, sign with a publishing house. Just like every other author before me, I had dreams of signing with a big NY house, and someday watching a movie based on my NYT best-selling book. But, something changed for me. I started researching the publishing world to the point of giving myself a headache, day in and day out. What I found was a little disheartening.

The chances of landing a publishing deal are very small, even for the best authors, which I don't proclaim to be. Then, if you land a deal, you wait for up to two years to see your book in print. After your book has been published and is sitting on the shelves of a bookstore, there's absolutely no guarantee it'll get picked up by anyone.

When you've been published, even if it's by Penguin, or Simon &Schuster, you are still responsible for marketing yourself. Of course, for some authors there is a chunk of money put aside for PR, but for the majority of us, it sits in our hands. Which, by the way, is fine with me. Besides, who loves and knows our work as much as we do?!

So, after thinking about all of this I started researching self-publishing. I've come across countless articles focusing on the pros and cons of this new trend. But I've found more in favor of this phenomenon than against.

I've never been one to seek fame and fortune, in fact, I have no desire to be famous. I like my privacy, thank you very much. However, I do want my work read. I don't find myself needing to make millions a year, just enough to keep food on the table, and a roof over our heads. I had endless conversations with some published friends of mine, all of whom went through the traditional route of publishing before switching the 'other side'. The moral of this story is I've decided to self-publish.

Now before you get excited, my paperback won't be available on shelves anytime in the near future, though it will be available in ebook as soon as this week. I'm going to post a few figures I found in an ebook I purchased last night. Hopefully, Mr. Konrath won't take any offense to my using an excerpt from his book Newbies Guide to Publishing.

I tried to copy and paste a specific chapter of Mr. JA Konrath's book, but it wouldn't let me, so let me break it down for you:

In 2009 Mr. Konrath $2008 in pocket from his ebooks sold through a publisher. That's in six months and four books worth.

While I'm not sure if these totals are in the same year, they are the same books and also a six month total. The money Mr. Konrath made after self-publishing was $6860. That's a huge jump!

But, CL, it's not all about the money! Okay, so why do you write? Are you writing just for the creative aspect? I personally don't sweat blood every day just to look at the pretty words sprawled across the monitor. I want to make a living doing something I love. And to make a I have to get paid!

So, as of today, February 28, 2011, my novel A Repeating Life can be found and purchased on Smashwords. Sometime this week, it'll be available through Kindle, Amazon, etc, etc, etc. And unlike publishing through a big house which would force to me to price my ebooks at $6+ I can price my book at whatever I want...and I've chosen $0.99. Yep, you read that right, you can read my novel for under one dollar.

I'm still learning about the world of self-publishing, but thanks to wonderful people like my good friend Norma Beishir, and Ruth Ann Nordin (both of whom have books through Amazon), I'm one step further than I was last week!

Through the next few weeks I will be adding blogs, posts, links, and such on the world of self-pubbing for those of you who wish to learn more. For now, head over to http://selfpubauthors.wordpress.com/ and learn more. There are some brilliant authors on that page who know WAY more than I do!

Until next time, happy writing!!!!

Sample and purchase my novel, A Repeating Life, here:

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/clparks