Why I am going with E-Publishing

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If you have been a long time follower...you know like a whole year...then you know that I have this book I have been droning on about. This little beauty was finished last year and has been rewritten so many times it isn't the same book it started out being. It has doubled in size, multiplied in the number of subplots and don't get me started on those characters...we are practically related.

This last year I have done what I believed every good writer should...I started the steps to traditional publishing.
It looked like this:
Step 1. Write a book
Step 2. Edit book
Step 3. Write a query letter (a single page summarization of the world that has lived in your head.)
Step 4. Send out query letter to literary agents to begin the publishing process.
Step 5. Receive rejection letter, (repeat step 2)
Step 6. Do more research (repeat step 3, and go back to step 2)

Step 6 is where I am and have been stuck for the last 4 months. It was only after seeing the book in the "completed" form that I could see my weaknesses blaring at me.  Thinking that I needed to strengthen the first part of the book for sending out I went a little crazy on Amazon.  After reading Noah Lukeman's First Five Pages, I learned that I needed to strengthen my characters and dialogue. Although the book's title is the first five...don't be fooled.  Next on the list on the list was Writing the Next Breakout Novel, Donald Maass.  I loved this book.  It really is amazing about comparing the differences between a not bad book and a breakout success.  I was inspired after reading it and went right back into monster rewrites.

E-Publishing
In the middle of waiting for letters to come back from editors/agents and the rewrites I looked into what is going on with the publishing industry...pretty sure it would have been a better to do this earlier. It did not take long for me to realize the giant mess and transition that has engulfed the industry.  One site, I have mentioned before, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing, by Joe Konrath has been shouting at the wind about the exciting things that are coming and that he is experiencing with e-publishing.  At first I was skeptical, I attribute it to my distrustful nature.  As a veteran of the publishing industry and a midlist writer he has been through the wringer and now is leading the newbies and the midlisters to the promise land. If you have not checked out his site you owe it to yourself if you have any plan of publishing a book.

Another site that I have found is Write to Publish,  by Robin Sullivan.  Robin has a series of post that are tracking the changing top 50 list  for Amazon and the changes that are coming.  She is clear to the point and has crunched the math...not my strong suit.  If reading these two sites does not get you excited...well I don't know what will.

Being a natural entrepreneur at heart, the idea of being in charge of my own book and writing career really is appealing to me. I have hated sending my baby off to overworked strangers that see it as a part of stack that needs to be cleared from an inbox. I want to be proactive and do what I can to determine my own success.  I have dreamed of owning my own business since I was a little girl. E-Publishing, or Indie publishing has minimal start up coast and requires mainly a huge investment of time.  I got time.

The new goal is to have the book ready for e-publishing by July. It is close, but I think I can do it....ha haa..do it.  You, my dear readers will be hearing more as we get closer to release time.