Jumping into the Deep End

Final edits complete and waiting only for a cover artist's scheduling, FAIZAH'S DESTINY is looking like a distant, yet distinct, possibility for a spring release.

Again, MuseItUp Publishing is taking on one of my fantasy books for young adults. And yet again, this book had a previous life as a self-published book. Since I'm impatient (no, really, ask my husband), I played General Sherman marching through the Southlands, laying waste to my many books by jumping on the self-publishing bandwagon.

This gives me an opening to define self-publishing for those of you who still believe convincing a fickle agent of your worth, and then waiting in vain for a publishing contract is the only way to have your work placed before the public. If there are any of you out there who still hold this mistaken, and I'd have to say somewhat pitiful, notion, rest assured you, too, can jump in publishing and STILL end up with a traditional publisher in the future. In the meantime, while you're waiting for the magical fairy dust to settled on your head, you could be building your own reputation as an author.

Will you sell hundreds or thousands of books? Most likely you won't, but you will have gained experience with self-promotion, learned how to create a blog and a website, dive into networking with other authors, and generally learning how to be a published author...without a single agent or traditional publisher anywhere in sight.

To believe you must take the traditional route to publishing is like becoming a baseball player (people love sports analogies), yet never playing an actual game. No, you jump in as an amateur and learn from your experience. If you're any good, you will eventually get a contract with any of the dozens of ebook publishers now in operation. That's what I did, and I'm proud to be in on the conception of MuseItUp Publishing. Their success is growing and, with their success, I have no doubt my success will go along for the ride.

An interesting side note (interesting to me at least) is that my absolutely best selling book has never even passed through a slush pile. Tales of a Texas Boy continues to sell in large print paperback and a good clip. I love January when I collect a relatively large revenue check from CreateSpace.

Since reposts of my blogs look so much better with a graphic, I leave you with the cover of my best-selling book of all time, Tales of  a Texas Boy. In a few days, I'll post a video with a new Eddie story narrated by the old guy himself.