Glad I Self Published!

by Susan Troutt
(Kentucky)

The Child Pirate

Glad I Self Published; Life Is Too Short to Wait

I’ve always had a great imagination, and I’ve always loved to write. So naturally when I retired from teaching, I combined the two and wrote a book, working at it eight hours a day, just like a real job.

I loved the story I created and wanted to share it with others. I did my homework and found out that most publishers take two to three years to publish a book. I guess I can wait, I thought, so I gave it a try. I sent out queries and received rejections saying my middle grade novel was very good, but historical fiction just isn’t selling anymore.

What was I to do? I’d spent a year of my life putting this book together. I liked this book. I couldn’t let it die.

One day as I was thumbing through a writer’s magazine, I came across an ad for AuthorHouse. Hmmm, I thought. Could self-publishing be for me?

I loved the idea of print on demand. I liked the freedom of being able to print as many or as few books as I wanted. But I didn’t want to sell them out of the back of my car. I needed a company that would help me. AuthorHouse seemed to be the right choice.

I sent for information. I read it through. AuthorHouse let me decide for myself, without pressure. When I made that first call to the AuthorHouse sales rep, I was really nervous, but he answered all my questions and gave me lots of advice and some suggestions on ways to promote my book.

“Let me think this over,” I told him.

Two days later, I called back. “Yes, I’m ready to publish with you!”

AuthorHouse arranged a conference call, complete with patient, understanding designers who knew about publishing. They offered suggestions about fonts and format. “What do you want on the cover?” they asked.

I hadn’t thought about that. “What are my options?”

“Perhaps something related to the story,” they suggested.

“Okay, I want a pirate ship in the background and a little boy in a pirate suit in a cage in the foreground.”

“Oh,” they said, “we can’t do that.”

“Well, what can you do?” I asked.

“We can put a pirate ship on the cover.”

I was disappointed. “That’s okay. I guess.”

A week later the cover design arrived in the mail. There in the background was the ship, but—oh, what a surprise!—in the foreground was a real pirate and he had a parrot on his shoulder. The only problem was the pirate was old.

This wasn’t right. My book was called The Child Pirate, not The Old Man Pirate. I called AuthorHouse immediately. “I love this design, but there’s one problem. There’s an old man on the cover! Could you make him a little kid in a pirate suit?”

“Oh, we can’t do that.”

“Well, what can you do?” I asked.

“We can give him a face lift.”

“Okay,” I agreed half-heartedly. Maybe it will be all right, I told myself, trying to look on the bright side.

When the finished product arrived, it was awesome. They’d taken the wrinkles out of the pirate’s face, the hollows out of his cheeks, the hump out of his nose, and they’d darkened his hair. But he looked older than twelve, my character’s age at the end of the book.

As I looked out the window, wondering what to do, I saw the boy across the street playing basketball. He’s really growing up, I thought. Thirteen, going on fourteen, angles of his face developing. Because he looked a lot like the character on the cover of my book, I decided to change my character’s age from twelve to fourteen. AuthorHouse allowed me to make any changes I wanted. It was my book. I didn’t have to relinquish control.

A few weeks later, the finished product arrived. There in print was the story I had created. It was beautiful. It looked professional. And right there on the cover was my name in bright red letters: Susan Troutt.

I trotted to book sellers all over town asking them to carry my book. Some said no, but others said yes. After a few days, my book was on the shelf beside books written by famous authors.

Then the phone calls started to come in. The Cincinnati Enquirer wanted to do an article on me. Nearby schools wanted me to speak to their students. I presented writing workshops. I did a few book signings. I sold books. My books are still selling, and I did it all on my own.

The Child Pirate has been on the market for over two years now, available on all the .com sellers. Yesterday I received a response to a query I had sent out long, long ago. “While your story is very good, your book is just not right for our list.” That’s right, it isn’t, I thought. It’s already been in print for two years. Hundreds of people have read it. I’ve met thousands of school children and shared my story with them. If I had gone with a standard publisher, I’d still be agonizing, hoping, waiting for my book to be published. Life is too short to wait that long. When you know what you want, sometimes you have to go for it on your own terms. I’m so glad I self-published.

Visit Susan Troutt and The Child Pirate.