If you missed the first post of my new 'Countdown to publishing', click The Countdown Starts to get caught up. Go on, I'll wait.
All good? Good.
*****Disclaimer - these OPINIONS are my own, and that's all they are OPINIONS, so it's alright if we don't agree, and it's likely we don't. You do you, and I'll do me.
So, as I've been on this weird journey the past year, there were times that I thought about how cool it would be to be traditionally published, but as I looked around and read more and learned more, I determined it wasn't the road for me. Sure, it'd be nice to be a household name and recognized, but that's not my goal, at least right now. I'm writing for the enjoyment of it, and to see if anyone likes my stories, and that's about it.
Because of that, I decided to self-publish. The reasons being:
- I have total control over what I want
- I'm a new writer, and in no way perfect, and not polished -yet- but the thought of anyone telling me to remove something or change something in my book? No thank you. Can't do it. I'm not talking edits, I'm talking substance. Good or bad, I want what I want in it - I'll deal with what that means when it's in the world. And that's not to say I wouldn't listen to a suggestion, I have and did change things because of betas, I'm talking about the horror stories I've heard of editors completely changing the story. Nope, not gonna happen.
- Likewise, I would't want anyone telling me not to use my cover because it's not "standard" to erotica. Maybe I don't want to be standard. Maybe I want to stand apart. If that means less sales because my cover doesn't look like everyone else's, so be it. It looks DAMN better than the "cover creator" at KDP. I'm sorry but those options are AWFUL. If you're an erotica writer, and have only used it, let me help you do something, anything, better. I'm not an artist, but I can work with Photoshop and I love my cover. Sure, it's different and not "typical" of erotica, but that's not a bad thing in my eyes.
- I have control over when to publish
- I can't fathom getting a book deal, and being all excited about it and then being all "your publish date is 2 years away". That would drive me NUTS! Sure, if you're established and you have a backlog of books - no biggie, but just starting out and trying to get out there? Nah. It's nuts.
- I have the time to dedicate to marketing
- Am I going crazy with it? Probably not. But if I should choose to, I could. I have time, and I have computer knowledge for blogs or creating advertising and such. Do I want to do more than I have - sure, and I will. I'm not anal about it. I've been enjoying editing the past few months and now I've been working on the formatting of my book. Instead of "Chapter 1" each chapter, I have a graphic, and today I was inserting the graphics. I also have a graphic denoting time passing in the book during chapters, so I inserted those. I've been wanting to do more here, so hence these blog posts. I do what I wanna do when I wanna do it, with the book and marketing.
- Royalties
- So I'm not writing to make money - like I don't think I'll be a best seller and make life changing or even life sustaining money. Hey, never say never, and if that's what happens well I'll be joyous, but if I was just to make some spending money on a few sales then I'll be thrilled. That said, I don't wanna share that with anyone else. If my book sells 10 copies, 100 copies or if it sold 1000 copies, I'll be glad no matter what. But that's MY hard work and no one else's, so I'll be glad to take my royalties from those 10, 100 or 1000 copies.
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