Why Self publishing

Good reasons to go your own way; do your own thing and get your stories out there.

Don R Montgomery

8/23/20234 min read

Let's talk about the elephant in the room first. Deciding to publish my novel myself wasn't a spur of the moment thing. I went the traditional route first, sent my manuscript to publishers and agents, waited for months for a response. There aren't many publishers who take unrepresented work anymore, so between the ones I found and the seventy-odd agents I queried, what I ended up with was four partial requests, two full requests and a whole lot of rejections. And all of that took two years.

Two years of waiting for a 4% potential return that turned out to be nothing at all. Investors would call that a bust. Now, I want to make it clear that I don't begrudge the editors and agents involved: they have the very hard job of trying to find stories they think are good AND will sell. And to do that, they have to wade through slush piles a mile thick. So if you ever feel like editors and agents just don't get it, trust me - they do. They get it 100%. They have to make their living selling other people's work, and if it doesn't sell, they don't eat. Simple as that.

But that doesn't mean they only take on the 'best' stories; what it means is that they have target audiences, thematic preferences and market pressures (remember when Harry Potter came out and then within a couple of years we had umpteen epic, multi-book series' about quirky teens navigating their lives and relationships in crazy, unfair, and otherwise messed up worlds?). What I'm trying to say is, it's hard to make an impression when all of that is going on.

And as a new author, if you don't have a track record; if no one knows you and no one's pushing you, then your query or submission goes into a queue and you might get 30-60 seconds of someone's attention before they make a decision. That's the difference between the maybe pile and the rejection pile. Even if you do the research, check manuscript wish-lists and only submit to the most relevant people, you can still end up with nothing but a bunch of "Thanks, but no thanks" responses.

We all have to remember that editors and agents aren't like regular readers; they read extensively and all the time. Most story ideas have been sent in a dozen or a hundred times. So unless you hit on just the right scenario and twist, at just the right time, chances are against you. Someone once described it to me as trying to find a needle in a haystack with a blindfold on. You don't know exactly what people want, and you don't have the necessary name recognition to get any leeway when it comes to that. So, if you're a new author who's made it by the traditional route, you have my heartfelt congratulations.

But that still leaves the rest of us? What can we do when faced with a market that's incredibly difficult to get into? I didn't want to give up, that's for sure. And that's how I came to the conclusion to self-publish. Unfortunately, I no longer have time to try to break into the industry the old-fashioned way. I work full-time, so the effort I can put into writing proposals and queries and keeping track of everything is limited. I'm old enough now that having a side hustle gets in the way of my home life, and I have responsibilities that don't permit me to just bury myself on my computer for hours on end every evening.

Also, I've been around long enough to know that these days, success isn't limited to doing things the old fashioned way. Youtube, Tiktok, Instagram, Twitch, Patreon, podcast platforms and so on have created thousands of new stars: people who started on their own and grew their reach and audience, building their own platforms. Publishing isn't any different, although the success stories aren't as common or as sensational. But they're still out there. Hugh Howie is a great example; he made his name himself, made good money and then started working with a publisher when he decided it was necessary.

Do I think I'm the next big thing? Of course not. But I do want to give this an honest go - I think my stories have value; I think there are people out there who want to read them. Because I think they're relatable - relationships and life and the struggles we deal with as we go through them never get old, at least for me. I'm fascinated by people; by how we treat one another. I like to explore all the facets of those interactions in strange new places and situations. That's why I wrote Lancet - to convey some of my thoughts and feelings on how doing the right thing is sometimes the hardest path you can take and how people are treated horribly by social systems, often with no recourse. It's the unfairness of life that interests me and what we can do to fix it.

Now, having said all that, I also think it's important to say this: if you're going to try to sell something, make sure your product is worth it. If I want someone to give me money, I'd best be providing value for that. I don't pay people for crap work and I don't expect others to accept that from me. So even though I'm self-publishing, I put just as much time in as if I was publishing traditionally. I've spent years writing and rewriting my drafts, listening to advance readers. I've hired a professional editor to do a manuscript tear-down. I spent time and effort getting the cover right, figuring out typesetting and trim size, which print platforms to use and how advertising works. I even built this website.

And I'm still just starting to get a handle on things. There's so much more I have to figure out. Like social media, book trailers and promotion, how to get traction and reviews - so many steps! So remember, going your own way isn't necessarily any easier; it's just different. You have more control, but also more responsibility because if you're doing it yourself, everything is on your shoulders.

Why Self publishing

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