My Self-Publishing Journey: To Boldly Go–

Yesterday I had lunch with three fantastic women: Kathleen Kirkwood, Caroline Mickelson, and Tara Simone; all authors who are also taking their own self-publishing journeys. And while we can’t say that we are going where no one has gone before, we are still explorers in a mostly undiscovered landscape. A landscape that is changing so rapidly that our efforts to map it may only be useful for a short time.

The landscape may be mostly undiscovered and changing, but there’s no lack of advice out there about the best route to take. Some of it is better, some not as much. We met to compare notes, and share insight and experience.

What we discovered yesterday is that despite the fact that we write in diverse genres (historical romance, cozy mystery, erotica, and paranormal romance), we mostly see eye to eye on what is important. We discussed a variety of topics yesterday, including pricing, editing, covers, and branding. We compared opinions on the best use of our time and the benefits of using social media for marketing.

Two things we agreed on unanimously was that 1) having a supportive group to compare notes with was priceless, and 2) the freedom and control granted by self-publishing is well worth any extra effort it requires. We are all so much happier with where we are now than when we were on the tradpub treadmill getting nowhere. We all had doubts going in. A couple of us worried about being seen as “giving up” or “not good enough to make it in traditional publishing,” but now that we’re here we have no regrets.

It really is an exciting time to be a writer!