Into the dreaming...

So sometimes I'll wake up and know maybe it's time to listen to my subconscious. I've been agonizing lately, do I pursue NY and agents or do I just go the self pub route? I've read tons of self published books lately and am majorly impressed at the sheer talent I've stumbled onto. Yeah sure, some of the stuff is awful and could really benefit from a good editing, but for the most part I'm super excited at the quality out there. Used to be that there was a stigma attached to self publishing, back in its infancy people would tend to look down on you for going that route. Only quitters did that, only people unable to hack it with NY or smaller pubs would go that way, less and less do I feel that's the case.

I'm reading people who could easily publish with NY, their stuff is really that good, and yet they're choosing to do it themselves and I gotta say there's something to be said for not having to wait months, sometimes even a year! before a project gets published. Also with so many bookstore's folding up it seems more and more digital is the wave of the future.

I always considered myself a purist, preferring the smell of books, the tangible presence of it in my hand. But even I, dinosaur that I am, have switched over to kindle. I rarely go to bookstores anymore, mainly because on this small island there's only one B&N still open and it's a fair distance from my house. The only other bookstore's are for locally published books, which is fine, just not what I read. I hate to say this, but maybe I've been wrong pursuing NY like a rabid dog. I write good. I know I'll have an audience out there, problem is I've never been able to interest NY so I have a pile of books on my hard drive gathering dust and being unread. Writers say the key to generating a semi-decent income comes from having a backlist...well, I have that. Boy do I! About 12 books, only 4 of which ever got published and I doubt more than friends and family read those because the small e-presses they went through have long since folded and disappeared.

I woke up this morning, my dream fresh in my mind...what was that dream? That I took my career into my own hands and stopped being scared to take the plunge into self-publishing.

I guess that means I have some work to do. *wink*

P.S. The agent search contest (yes, I know the irony of entering when I've written what I did today..lol) is going on right now. Please jump on over to Mrs. Snark's first victim blog and judge. Because I know a lot of people don't read this blog, I'll just say it here..I'm number 15. ;)

Happy writing!
Linda