It wasn’t so very long ago that I decided to part ways with my publisher and strike out on my own. At that time, I was content with the idea of my publishing days being in the past. Substack seemed like a good place to throw out stories and build a little audience. Buy Me A Coffee seemed like a decent place for my old books to reside and perhaps sell a copy or two.
Something changed, though, and I decided that a return to Amazon was the way to go. My wife had been at me to do so for a minute, but I am a stubborn old bugger, and it has to make sense in my head before I pull the trigger on anything. Have I mentioned that my wife knows me better than I know myself?
Since I had already accumulated over 300 drabbles during my time here on Substack, I thought putting those together was a decent way to get back into publishing and to actually figure out how to do it. When you have a good publisher, as I did for so many years, all you need to worry about is writing.
The Tiny Terrors Drabbles book hit the Amazon store on August 18 and is admittedly rough. I thought about painstakingly editing it, but it occurred to me that I liked the idea of these little tales appearing exactly as I typed them. Sure, it will probably get me hammered in reviews, but I am okay with that.
Now, moving forward, it will be all professional covers and editing, so this venture has to pay for itself. My old editor from my publishing days is on board, plus I have a couple of HUMAN designers that I can turn to. That said, releasing a new book is going to cost me about $200 every time. What that means is that any money I make here on Substack or BMAC or Amazon will be getting funneled right back into publishing. If I have a finished story and no funds for a cover or an edit, it waits until I do, no matter how good I think it might be.
The fun part now is that I get to share this journey with you guys. I will share my self-publishing experience, warts and all, and hopefully help you guys avoid the inevitable mistakes I am going to make. Prepare for highs and low and a whole lot of venting. I hope you will all join me on the journey.
Wishing you the best!
John,
I think it's great that you are diving back in and taking your work with you. Going by the title, I think we both pulled out of the same publisher. I had a 8k story that was on the schedule but I canceled it.
I also have a wife that is the driving force behind my artistic endeavors, and she's the one who got me writing again. So I know that feeling well.
I wish you the best of luck with Tiny Terrors (I just picked up a copy) and everything else you go on to publish.