The Insecure Writer's Support Group is brought to us by that blogger extraordinaire (and ninja captain) Alex J. Cavanaugh. Follow the links to find a list of all participants.Back in January, I stated my goal to publish Effigy. If the world's going to end in December, I said, I wanted to make sure I went out with a book (instead of a bang. Get it?). I then made the decision to go the self publishing route because, as it turns out, the publishing industry is just not that into me. I have so many rejection slips I'm a little afraid I may be personally responsible for the de-forestration of America.
And since I can't seem to get a shiny invitation to the big dance, I've decided to go stag.
I realize that saying, "Hey, read my book that no one wanted to publish!" is probably a little like saying, "Hey, this milk tastes funny. You should try it." But that's what I'm going to be doing.
For better or for worse.
Some days I feel very good about this decision. Well, maybe 'days' is a bit of a stretch. Some hours I feel very good about this decision. The rest of the time, I'm fighting the urge to crawl under my desk and stay there. The important part is that I haven't crawled under my desk and built a home there. Instead, I am crawling toward the promised land.
The original plan was for me to put the book out by the end of June but since I'm still in the editing phase, that's not going to happen. I started the year off strong but got sidetracked in March. I let myself get sidetracked in March and it's taken me a depressingly long time to get my groove back. I like to think it's back now and so the new target month is September. The end of September, to be a little more specific.That'll give me time to finish my twenty pages of "final" edits, hand it off to a couple beta readers, wear a hole in my rug as I wait to hear back from the betas and then complete another round of "final" edits before getting it into the hands of my Copy Editor. This will lead to a third round of "final" edits.
And then... publication.
Yikes.
I had a moment at the end of last week when I thought, "This is going to happen. And it's going to be good." Pieces are falling into place. There's someone willing to work on a cover for me. There's someone working on creating maps for me. Actual maps of my actual fantasy world (and just thinking about that is blowing my mind). And there are people who are actually interested in reading this book (and if you're one of those people and you're just saying that to make me happy then, thank you!).
That's just icing on the cake, right?
Back in January, I wasn't sure if this was the right decision to make but now I feel (most of the time anyway) that it is. (Wonder how long that will last...)
But until it fades away, I'll be the one in the corner (baby steps, people) dancing like no one's watching.
And on that note, I am pleased to share with you my new theme song: