Self Publishing? Who Me?

Self Publishing? Who Me? No way, at least that is what I said for many years. So what made me change my mind.
I was asked to speak at a local Science Fiction Conference. One of the speakers on the panel was Mike Stackpole, an award winning science fiction author. He was talking about self-publishing stories and books from his website. The seed had been planted and I started thinking, "What if?"
One of my RWA chapter mates had formed her own publishing company. She wrote a children's book for home schoolers and traditional publishers didn't think that it was marketable. So she started her own publishing company and has several authors under her now and is quite successful. She gave a talk at our chapter meeting and as I listened I couldn't help thinking, "Can I do that?"

There is a blog that I would recommend to anyone thinking about self-publishing. My friend, Frankie Robertson has posted about her journey to self-publication. Take a look at it.
After making the decision to publish some of my back list on my own I still had a lot to learn.I had my books edited by a professional editor. I learned about formatting for the different electronic formats as well as for Create Space. I had decided to also bring them out as Print on Demand.
Everyone knows how important a cover can be. I looked into getting a cover artist, we have a friend who is an artist and she agreed to do our covers. She's done two so far and I love them.

In the end I published two books. My own paranormal title THE MAN IN THE MIRROR and my husband's book - MORIARTY - THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A CRIMINAL GENIUS. I will be bringing out another of my back list hopefully before the end of the year,

Since I've now self-published does that mean I'm not interested in finding an agent or a publisher for my books. No it does not. Does it mean I will self-publish other books. Yes, I will.

The Chicken or the Egg

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? For writers, at least for me, it's which comes first, the story or the character? Nine times out of ten, at least for me, it is the character.

My first book, EZ Lovin', actually had a main character named Ezekial Zachariah McAllister. He stood against a wall, ten gallon hat in hand, looking like a young Sam Elliott. He smiled in that slow lazy smile that cowboys have and said, "Evening Ma'am."

I could not get him out of my mind. I sat down with my critique group and we played what if?