I’ve Finally Published A Book; Now What The Hell Do I Do?
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After waiting for what seemed like an eternity to hear back from the traditional publishers I’d sent my book to, I finally said, “Screw it!”
I couldn’t wait any longer to hear if there was any interest in publishing my book.
As much as I love supporting local bookstores, and believe me, brother, I do. There comes a time when you have to do what’s right for your personal situation.
There’s an absurd amount of anxiety in the world right now, and no one knows when things will return to some form of normal that existed before the pandemic.
And so, because of this, I cozied up to that online behemoth and had them publish my silly but frightfully entertaining Victorian-era inspired picture guide book How Not To: Survive A Pandemic.
Previously I’d received some great feedback on my other How Not To book that was making the rounds of the publishing community, but in the middle of my, please publish and validate me as a writer campaign, something troublesome happened.
A worldwide phenom called COVID-19 struck and struck hard, and that was that.
The publishing emails of interest were now drying up, and I was left with a difficult choice.
I could either sit on a book that had taken longer than I ever would’ve thought to write. Or I could embrace that 2020 thing, that attitude, that everyone was using as their new catchphrase and pivot.
This platform, Medium, is a great starting place to read up on self-publishing pros and cons. But, by the fourth article, I realized no story would be the same as mine.
How could it?
I had to make a choice based on my life.
On the one hand, the prestige of going with an established publisher is alluring. It brings with it a bucket load of reputation, something any freelance writer could always use more of.
The other side of the argument or at least mine was, that with the world currently in a state of flux, the chances of any publisher taking a risk right now is a huge ask and not very likely, especially for a new, unproven author.
