I love to write. For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved to write. I went to college to become better at it. And I’ve gotten paid to write, albeit technical and instructional writing, but it was nonetheless writing. And I got paid doing something I loved. It doesn’t get much better than that. But, while I still enjoy technical writing, I have always loved creative writing more. That, too, is what I’ve written for many, many years. Stories, books, poems, songs, journals. That writing was always much more personal, much more private. While I’ve made some of my songs public, playing them for friends and family, other things were written knowing the words would never see the light of day.
And then I started on this one particular writing project. It was a story that had been stuck in my head for nearly twenty years. It was personal, close to my heart, and I had avoided writing it because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to do it. I didn’t know if I could get it down as the story I truly felt I needed to tell. I didn’t want to find out that I couldn’t.
Well, apparently, I could. I spent a few months getting the initial story down on paper (literally; I typed the first draft on a typewriter) and then spent the better part of a year editing, revising, getting feedback, and revising some more. And I think it might just be good enough for it to see the light of day. And that’s where the whole thing came to a screeching halt.
Every writer will tell you they do it because they love to write. I just spent a couple of paragraphs saying that myself. In the end, though, what’s the point of writing the story if no one will ever read it. As Colin Hay sings in “Next Year People”:
“You can’t live without hope that things will change for the better,
You can’t live without the dream of someone reading your letter”
So, this time I want people to read my letter. But when it comes to the business of writing, it’s hard to hope things will change for the better. Just getting a reply from an agent seems an impossible task. Are they even reading the email of an unknown author? If they don’t even read my email, what are the chances they are going to read an entire manuscript?
Of course, in these days of print-on-demand, ebooks, and self-publishing, it’s easy to skip the traditional route altogether. I found myself giving this new route some serious thought. It requires thinking about a lot of things, from formatting for print to creating a cover to learning the ins and outs of creating ebooks to wondering if I could narrate my own audiobook. The internet is awash with information and web sites and links that send you down a rabbit hole for hours at a time! And most of it is very good and very informative (even the stuff that’s not so good).
Am I ready to self-publish? Maybe. The more I read, the more I consider the idea of not exactly self-publishing but creating my own publishing house that will publish my book. That may seem like overkill and it might be if I were only planning to publish this one book. But the more I consider it, the more I think starting a business is the way to go. It gives my effort a certain legitimacy, gives me ample opportunity to publish more, and it has some tax benefits since I’d be treating my writing as a business rather than a hobby.
I’ve still got plenty to learn before I go all in on this endeavor, but it’s been fun so far. I see no reason to stop now. I guess I’ll press on (pun fully intended)!