Since I finished college (again) in December, I have had some time to do what I’ve always wanted to do: take inventory of my old ideas–old stories, old books, old ideas, etc.–and decide what to do with them as I move forward.

I’d already written about prioritizing writing ideas and growing realistic about what we can feasibly accomplish over the course of a single life (it boiled down to an age-old insight: we simply don’t have the time to do it all, but I suppose we all have to figure this out on our own, within the context of our personal existence). My solution back then was just to delete the content and never think about it again.

Shitty story: delete it.

Shitty script: delete it or it’ll slide back onto your plate every few years and you’ll find yourself tinkering with it, even though it isn’t going to help propel your career in any capacity. It is really just vanity editing at this point.

But since then I’ve had some time to experiment with other methods by which one can get something off their plate without deleting it altogether.

I experimented with incorporating several ideas into a single story, salvaging what I could and deleting what wasn’t needed. Of course you run the risk of writing something shitty, almost episodic, if you do a terrible job at this. It is a delicate and time-consuming process.

But there were a few books I wrote back between 2004 and 2009 that really couldn’t be incorporated into my current work. A few really shabby YA books that really just represented me learning the craft at the most fundamental level.

So I decided to self-publish them under a pseudonym.

Then I went through the Create Space process.

Then I decided to just create a proof copy and order it for myself.

That’s where I left it.

It took about six hours to format the interior and design a little cover suitable for my own purposes. Nobody who sees it on my shelf knows it is mine.

It has provided me with a sense of closure, and for that I am forever grateful to self-publishing platforms like Create Space.

I’ll take this conversation one step further:

I’m thankful for platforms for Create Space not only because they have provided me with closure, but because they have given impatient authors an avenue by which they can publish their work without inundating the inboxes of prospective publishers.

Sure, there are millions of books out there that lack the integrity and quality of a book “genuinely” judged and published by a reputable press, but I still wonder why small and large press authors alike decry this trend, claiming that it is watering down the market.

Stop pissing and moaning because your shark book isn’t selling (don’t let that statement delude you into believing I’m referring specifically to you. Every author worth their weight in salt has written a shark or zombie book at this point, right?). If your book isn’t selling. It’s isn’t this dude’s fault:

Derived from: http://www.digitiser2000.com

And you can’t blame any of the other books featured here:

https://www.digitiser2000.com/main-page/14-jaw-droppingly-terrible-self-published-books

The books of terrible authors pass into obscurity rather quickly, and they aren’t inhibiting sales half as much as we think. Collectively, they’re hitting the big publishers a bit, but as individual authors, they are a drop in the bucket.

I’m sorry, but the tear-infused banter of authors is way more pathetic than the cover art above. Take a look at this shit:

https://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/we-live-in-a-literary-world-of-terrible-self-published-authors

Then take a look at this, quoted from the link above:

“Chuck Wendig mentioned in a recent blog post ‘The sheer number of releases is an issue all its own. It becomes increasingly hard to stand out merely by publishing a book in either form. It’s like trying to get a droplet of water to stand out in an entire goddamn ocean.'”

Seriously? It’s hard to compete with the very covers and descriptions readers and publishers mock and ironically purchase?

What an insult to your readers, to assume that they can’t distinguish between amateur writing and “professional” writing, i.e. writing that has had thousands sunk into it for promotion.

I can tell the difference . . . and I’m getting to the point where mainstream tropes are so cliche that I prefer the amateur work to what’s being shit onto the NYT Bestseller list, ironically or not.

Bottom line: self-publishing has saved editors and publishers hours of time. Yes, there’s still a lot of shit to sort through, but self-publishing has allowed a great deal of delusional authors with no patience the ability to push their tripe out there sans the fear of rejection.

I think this is a beautiful thing.

I also think the beauty of disaster is such a wonderful testament to the true nature of the human condition, that I find myself buying one absolutely terrifying self-published book for every five small press books I buy.

And man, I am never disappointed by what I read when my expectations are set so low. Look at this beautiful disaster. It’s gorgeous!