Memoirs of the Self-Published: Part I
I'm one month away from printing and hand-binding my first collection of short stories entitled Papers for the Suppression of Reality . My book will hit bookshelves at a small, independent bookstore far away from you in January, 2011. Here's the first installment of a chronicle of my experiences: Some weeks ago, I went to my local library and picked up Writer's Market 2010 , The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing (4th Edition) , and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Publishing . Of these, I found the last to be the most helpful. Writer's Market cautions against self-publishing, and makes it sound like an unreasonable proposition, and something to be done only after submitting dozens of query letters to literary agents and only after your manuscript has been rejected by several publishing houses: "If you've exhausted all these options and you still think you can reach an audience, then self-publishing could be an option for you. However, make sure you rese...