WELL I should be embarrassed! It's been so long since I've blogged here. I am surprise I knew how to find my blog space! But, although I have been absent from blogging about my progress to finishing my book and becoming published I have not been idle. Yes, I know I've been working on this book for years and should have BEEN finished. Sigh. I beat my self up about that ALL the time.
But I can't help but be excited to tell you that I am on the final chapter of my book and I only have about 4 pages of writing left! I plan to have those pages done with in the next week. It really should only take an hour to get those pages done but you KNOW how that is? Life has definitely been lived on this end. I have been through so many things and my experiences has helped me become a more passionate and experienced writer! I can't wait to finish this project so that I can get started on the next one! I tried writing two books at once and that didn't go too well for me, maybe sometime in the future I will perfect it.
So what have I been doing.. Since my last blog post? Some of everything! But as it pertains to writing, I never really stop writing. I blog all the time. As well as write for other projects here and there. I will admit even though I wasn't writing in this book it was ALWAYS on my mind, and that was a burden to my spirit. I also got hung up on trying to find a professional/reasonable editor. I decided to try someone I found on Fivver.com and he was pretty good. I enjoyed his edits and critiques. However, I didn't get the entire book done because I fell behind trying address the critiques and suggestions of the editor. There were a lot!
With me having a full time job I rarely wanted to spend my free time trying to edit my book. It seem the more time I spent on editing, the less I was actually writing. Then, I started researching different publishing companies trying to see which direction I wanted to go. Self publishing, Traditional or Print on Demand. There was so much out there I was starting to get overwhelmed with it all, and that induced another break from my book!
There were people who were Pro Traditional publishing because they are a big name company that can back you up and take care of all the upfront cost. They can give you a full package deal and offer great marketing and get you in the doors of popular bookstores, etc., AND they pay you Sounds great! They also said it was really difficult for a first time published Author to get a traditional publishing contract.
Not that I doubt I could get into a traditional publishing company, but with this first book I really want to get it out soon. I don't want it to get hung up in a bunch of red tape and the politics of big shot publishing companies. It's not completely off the table, its just the thing that has me on the fence about the traditional route for my first published book. What to do Lord, what to do?
This book was inspired by God, and I KNOW He told me to write this book years ago. So if it wasn't for the fact that I felt I have dragged my heels on this one, maybe I'd be more patient. The time for this book is right now!
Self publishing seems appealing because I love the idea of controlling every aspect of my book, however there are so many things that I'd have to ala carte with going this route, that I don't want to mess up! You have to do everything on your own. Editing, my cover, printing, Isbn number, marketing, website, everything is on you. And some say self-published books are not respected by popular book stores. I don't know if that bothers me all that much because there are always exceptions to the rule and with Amazon and Kindle and all of the different way people purchase books now, I don't necessarily feel I HAVE to have a big time book store carry my books right off. Now , if it happened I would be thrilled! Lets be real?
Independent Publishing- These companies offer you customized publishing deals that vary in cost depending on what you want. Basically if you have the money they will publish the book for you, and exactly how you want it. They take care of everything at these companies as well, but you have to be smart with your contract, royalties etc. With these publishers being independent they all can offer you something different so a lot of research there trying to find your best match. The pros and cons could vary between independent publishing companies. They can also get expensive! The Independent company at the conference was up to $6000.00 to publish one book with some of those packages! And if you had certain things already done they would cut you a break, but still, that was just crazy to me. I do know that there are some companies that aren't as pricey.
Okay this blog post has gotten long, so I better stop here! See what happens when I take long breaks? If you made it this far then it means, you MUST be on the same journey and completely understand lol. I will try to seek the advice of some successful published Authors that are willing to share what they know with me, one on one! Do you know of anyone like that?
Well UNTIL NEXT TIME!
