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Originally posted by Golden_eyes

@dark mage, did you ever end up publishing your books? I, too, am writing my own series, and I am leaning towards self-publishing. Have you ever thought of self-publishing?

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When I last posted here I was working in a lousy job that I hated with a passion and I had just applied to University. I had a lot going on in my life and not getting any response from publishers just kind of defeated me. After that University pretty much consumed my life and I had very little time for any of the things that I enjoyed which included my writing. Since then other life things have gotten in the way and...well long story short no I never did publish my books. I dont know if I ever will which makes me really sad but...I just dont know what to do.

I had thought about that but at the time when I thought about doing it seriously I did not have the money and I still kind of dont. I also just dont know if I have the force of will to pitch my books to stores so they can be sold. I also feel like people look down on self publishers.

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Originally posted by Golden_eyes

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When I last posted here I was working in a lousy job that I hated with a passion and I had just applied to University. I had a lot going on in my life and not getting any response from publishers just kind of defeated me. After that University pretty much consumed my life and I had very little time for any of the things that I enjoyed which included my writing. Since then other life things have gotten in the way and...well long story short no I never did publish my books. I dont know if I ever will which makes me really sad but...I just dont know what to do.

I had thought about that but at the time when I thought about doing it seriously I did not have the money and I still kind of dont. I also just dont know if I have the force of will to pitch my books to stores so they can be sold. I also feel like people look down on self publishers.

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Yes, I understand what you mean, I stopped posting here because I was in College and didn't have the time. I went into film production so I was doing a lot of night and weekend shoots, and it was just too much at the time. Then, of course, you try to start your career afterwards, and that's a whole other set of problems.

HOWEVER! Don't give up on your writing. If you enjoyed writing it, you're still thinking about it, and especially if it makes you sad that it wasn't published, you clearly have something to share with the world. Imagine if Tracy and Margaret never published their books... this community would have never been created! Writing, in itself, is a magical thing.

When I was in high school, I had a horrible experience with an art teacher and I almost stopped producing art. Now I own my own Graphic Design business and am successful. In college, I had a horrible script-writing teacher, and so I transitioned to another focus (which is very sad as well), but now I've written my own book and am well on my way to writing a quadrilogy. It wasn't easy, it's verging on 6 years and I've had to work on it in the wee hours of the morning because I've been so busy (12am-6am, I was up writing)--but you know who else did this? J.R.R. Tolkien. Yes, he was a professor, father, linguist, artist, general creative genius amongst us lowly humans--he was a very busy man, so he only had time to write after his family went to bed. Sometimes, he wrote so long he didn't even get to sleep and had to go straight to morning classes! Could you image a world without The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit? Please think about it. Let's try another one. J.K. Rowling. A famous story, as I'm sure you know. Today she is one of the most influential and wealthiest writers, yet before her novel she was a single mom caught up in the welfare system.

It's always been a dream of mine to write a book, so I'm just going to do it, and actually, I don't think the traditional publishing route is right for me anyways. Traditional publishing entails making your publishers happy. They don't like one of your side characters? They make you get rid of them. They don't like your ending? They make you change it to whatever they think works. 3rd party point of view books aren't popular right now? Change it to 1st person or they won't even look at it. Your book is very similar to their top-selling author? They will bury your book so it doesn't conflict! Oh, by the way, here is a $5000 cash advance for the hours and hours you've put into your book, if you don't make this in two years, you need to pay us back

Traditional publishing is tricky. It's a business for publishing houses, but are your really going to let them stop you? No one will ever care as much about your book as you do. Don't have a money to self-publish? Okay, there's this fancy thing called crowd-funding

Ultimately, it's your call whether you want other people into your world, and for as much time as you've probably worked on it, I think it's worth it. There's lots of authors on YouTube and in writing forums that can help you. And just because people may "look down" on self-publishing, well, it just shows their inexperience. The world is changing, and just because creatives no longer want to be a slave to a publishing house and prefer to tell their story their way, doesn't mean their work is irrelevant.

My father-in-law's girlfriend is a well-established mystery writer and writing professor at several colleges/universities. I have not read her work. Went I told her I was writing a book, she seemed to be poking some holes in the pitch I gave her--I'm thinking, "Lady, you are a mystery writer, not fantasy. Do you even know how hard it is to create an entire world? My elevator pitch doesn't even scratch the surface." It reminded me of my college script-writing experience. Then when I told her I might go the self-publishing route she sort of laughed and referred to it as "vanity publishing". And that's fine, because in her experience traditional publishing was the only way, they didn't have online support like we do today--we are very lucky. Creatives always relied on another business to promote them. And now-a-days publishing houses won't even look at you unless you have an established online presence (Yes, it's true!!!). So I find this example a bit laughable. Back in the 70s/80s who could have ever dreamed that a child opening toys online and reviewing them as an "influencer" would be making millions of dollars a year. Do you know how many people thought bottled water was a joke when it was first presented? So to the naysayers, I say, "Whatever, let's see what happens then." At least my book will actually be published and out there for people to read instead of getting constantly rejected because it doesn't "fit their parameters".

It might take some time and a lot of sweat and tears, but hey, do you think your book is important?

LOL, sorry for going on the rant, you seemed very upset from the outcome of your writing aspirations. I hope my message inspired you a bit. I am not saying that self-publishing is for everyone, but in hearing what happened for you, I think you should at least consider it And hey, PM me if you'd like a critique partner. Maybe we can swap stories (although I am currently doing an extremely deep edit on mine since I wrote most of it when I couldn't sleep lol)

Here are some videos that might interest you about self-publishing. I personally enjoy these author channels. I really, REALLY encourage you to at least watch the first video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26-9uvuKA-o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnF5FB9jukc&t=615s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkgNTCV9gFk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtPn9oPqnmk

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