Savannah Watson

With the power of the internet, pretty much anyone can publish their completed manuscripts. Writers no longer have to rely on big-name traditional publishing companies or even small indie companies; they are able to do it themselves. Hi, they is me – I am one such writer.

For anyone who doesn’t know, I have self-published two books now. Minus line editing, where I had beta-readers to help me out, I am responsible for the publishing process start-to-finish. Self-publishing entails writing, editing, formatting the manuscript for print, creating (or hiring someone to create) the cover, finding a printing service/inventory management (depending on how you print), and marketing. With all these things in mind, it becomes clear how time-consuming publishing is… no wonder traditional and indie publishing is still a desired route to take since they take care of the majority of those things.

For some background: after querying and being rejected by a small indie company, I chose the self-publishing route for my novella series Salem Winters: Paranormal Problem Solver because I felt it was a bit too niche for traditional publishing, I didn’t find many indie companies that I thought it would fit, and I wanted full control over the content and style.

But the journey through self-publishing my novella series has been… an interesting one. The first volume was a learning experience, but it was easy in a way, as I was setting my own standards for the first time. The second volume, published about six months later, was a little more difficult because I had to remind myself of my own standards. The upside was I had an example to follow. However, when I was ready to start the publishing process for the third volume, I felt lost. It had been about a year since the last time I published, and even with two other volumes to guide me, I just didn’t feel confident in my efforts. On top of that, I just didn’t really feel like working on formatting when I could have spent the time on writing the fourth volume or working on a new project.

It seems obvious to have my novellas finished and want them published… like how else will people be able to read them? But the time I have to spend on the publishing process feels like time taken away from the writing process… And I am, to my core, a writer.

This precarious situation between convincing myself to publish and allowing myself to write (and a third option of just completely slacking off) is a balance I haven’t quite struck yet. But I know that it’s pretty much all in my head. I do not have all of the time I want to work on my writing career (especially considering that I have a full-time job), but I think we can all say the same. I will never have all of the time I want – for pretty much anything – but it all boils down to my own motivation to get it done. I just have to do it!

• Facebook
• Spotify
• Amazon

---