Dipping My Toe in the Water

My Venture into Self-Publishing

I went and did it.  I have an e-book on Amazon Kindle.  It took less than thirty minutes.  Not the writing the book part, that took months of writing and rewriting.  I had given up trying to sell it, because it’s a shorter length than most publishers want.  It’s a quirky mystery, a humorous cozy that pokes fun at the genre.  After getting rejections from several small presses, it looked like I needed to find an agent, since most publishers of mysteries will not accept unsolicited manuscripts.  Did you know that a lot of agents will only respond to you if they are interested?  They no longer send out rejections (and I’m talking about email, there is no postage cost here).  So you send out your queries and hear nothing at all, and wonder if they even got it.  That’s very disheartening.

This is not to say that I’ve given up on the idea of traditional publishing.  Far from it.  I want to see a book of mine in print, available at bookstores and libraries.  I see  (successful) self-publishing as the equivalent of selling short stories- a step in the right direction.

I set up an account with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.  I set the price of the ebook, and they give me a 35% royalty on each sale.  It was strange to set prices internationally, to imagine that someone in Germany might read something I wrote.  From what I have read of the contract, I am allowed to publish my ebook in other formats as well unless I sign up for their exclusive program called Kindle Select.  So I should investigate Barnes and Noble’s program next.  I am not expecting any miracles here.  If I sell any copies to someone other than friends and family, I will be pleased.  I am looking to earn money for Dragoncon.

I will keep you apprised of this experiment, and let you know how it works out for me.