Published at last

by Margaret Garside
(Medford, Oregon, USA)

Like many other SPAs, I turned to self-publishing after getting rejected by every agent and publisher that handles my genre (scifi). In many of those cases, I received a form rejection letter less than a week after mailing off my query. You will never convince me that anyone at the agency/publisher read anything I sent.

These days publishers are looking for knockoffs of the Most Recent Thing. If your book isn't similar to a recent best-seller, you're out of luck. If you can contrive to meet an agent or editor personally, you might have a chance to get your more-original work through. The kind of travel required for that was not an option for me.

So I went with POD. This way I'm not stuck with boxes full of unsold copies, and I can keep the price a bit lower. Outskirts Press lets you set the cover price, and their quality is very high. They're also less expensive than some companies, and they're a joy to work with.

Yes, I am as aware as anyone of the 'stigma' surrounding self-published books. But it isn't as strong as it was a few years ago. More reviewers will accept self-published books. And hey, readers will buy them! I haven't sold many copies yet, but I sell a couple this week, a couple more the next. What's important to me is that people are reading my book, and they seem to like it.

If you believe in your work, take the chance. Invest the money and the time to get your book out in front of actual readers. It takes some work, but the rewards are sweet indeed.

Visit Margaret's site.

Check out the review of Margaret's site on this site.