Support Other Independent Authors!

I've had a few people ask me why I self-publish, and whether or not I'm interested in getting published by a regular publishing house.

I would, of course, love to get into mainstream publishing, but thus far it hasn't been a major focus for me. I'd rather work on my craft first. The mainstream publishing efforts will happen sooner or later.

When I decided to make a book out of Good Intentions, the requirements for a first-time novel just plain didn't fit. The book doesn't fit easily into any genre (too much plot and action to be "erotica," too much erotic content to be straight-up "urban fantasy"), and it's over 205,000 words. First-time novelists usually get in at 120k-130k if they're lucky. I didn't like what I would have to do in order to cut the book down or break it into two parts. Plus, it had been online for a good while on Literotica, which can be somewhat damaging (not Literotica so much as the long run of "available for free").

With Poor Man's Fight... well, I gave it a shot on one single publishing house's open calls for sci-fi. They passed, but I had to wait three months to be sure of that. If I went with traditional publishing, and if I was insanely lucky beyond any reasonable expectation and the first publishing house that looked at it said they wanted the book, it would still take at least two years. And, y'know, having already put out one fairly successful self-pub, I just plain didn't want to wait that long.

Being an independent author and self-publisher is, quite frankly, a lot of fun. I have my own deadlines. I have my own standards to meet. Sure, it'd be great to work with a professional editor and to have someone help publicize and all that (hint, hint to my readers: feel free to plug my book(s) wherever you want!), but in the end I'm only answerable to myself. Freedom is a cool thing.

I wanted to use my blog here to plug a couple of other independent authors who have put out some very cool stuff in different genres:


*Phillip Winberry has a 1940s noir-ish murder mystery called Reno Splits. I picked it up on a recommendation from a friend and found that I really dug it.What I found here was an interesting protagonist and a spotlight on a little-known practice in how divorce was handled back in the '40s, when it wasn't so common or so easy as it is today. Reno Splits shows off a great deal of historical research--something I admire greatly--and a good deal of basic humanity that I simply don't see in a lot of mystery films and novels. Give it a look!

*Never by Jason Vanhee just plain kicks ass. More authors need to be this thoughtful in what they write. I have to say, this is the sort of thing that inspired me to try my hand at self-publishing, because it shows off the sort of freedom and imagination one can exercise when you think outside the box of what fits into neat little categories on bookshelves at a retail store.  Mr. Vanhee has other works to his name, but... well, at least one other I can think of has been picked up by a mainstream publisher. Dreams do come true.

*Jason Andrew has, quite simply, a big bucket of stuff out there that I think a lot of my readers would enjoy. Give his Amazon page a look. Much of his work is in various anthologies, but he has works all his own to offer as well. Full disclosure: I know Jason personally, and I can't think of a single author I know who puts more effort and energy into encouraging others to pick up the craft.


That's it for today. I know I said I'd have a prologue piece for the sequel to Good Intentions up on my blog by now. It's on the way; I just have to make sure all the plot hints still work with what I've written before I put it out for public consumption.

As always, thank you all so much for your interest and support.