Hear me say this and understand that it is the absolute truth before you read anything else: I have very much enjoyed all of the things I have learned about myself and my own strengths and weaknesses in the process of publishing my own work. I have met some awesome people and been stretched to try new things. Self publishing is not the way I saw myself getting my words into print when I was younger; I imagined the phone call from the agent who simply HAD to have me for his/her client and then the immediate major publishing deal with the huge contract worth hundreds of thousands and the movie in discussions with "my people". While that would be a fun road to have traveled, I cannot say that the path I've taken has been without memorable moments or been more fulfilling than I could have imagined.
        That being said, in this process, I have found one ingredient across the board, both in my self and all of the other authors who I have met, that I would encourage anyone considering self-publication to foster in themselves prior to that fateful click of the mouse. You need to be able to be optimistic.
        In self-publishing, you live in a world of "maybe-tomorrow". Maybe tomorrow is the day that the co-worker who said they'd gladly write a review for you will actually come through and get it done. Maybe tomorrow you'll see the spike in sales (or sales at all, depending on how the week has gone). Tomorrow could be the day somebody reads your bio on GoodReads and thinks, hey, this sicko might be able to string together some words in a pleasant manner. Tomorrow is the day somebody will follow me on Twitter, realize I'm also a writer, and become a rabid and slightly obsessive fan who will post quotes from my novel.
        Just about every day, I check on a few numbers, and clicking on the link that takes me to them requires a belief that today may have been the day, and, if not, tomorrow will be better. I check my sales reports on Kindle Direct Publishing and Lulu (my publishers/distributors), my numbers on my GoodReads Author dashboard, my series statistics over at Channillo (it keeps count of how many subscribers my series has), and then here at Weebly I check on the traffic to this site. Sometimes, I'm pleasantly surprised, and sometimes I don't see the numbers I'd like. No matter what, I can say that tomorrow has the potential to be better.
        I am not an optimist in all places in my life, and I'm not going to lie and say that being an optimist in this arena is always easy. There are times when I have to remind myself that failure today does not predestine me for failure tomorrow. I have to force myself to repeat the mantra that I don't know what tomorrow will hold, and I can't be bitter about what hasn't happened yet. Let me rephrase that: I CAN be bitter, I need to CHOOSE to optimistic.
        Which brings me to the fact that I see this in other authors who I follow. I try to connect myself with others who are like-minded, meaning grateful for the possibility to share their work and eager to produce the best material they can. On the whole, they are a fairly inspirational group, and I don't think that's an accident. They get it. They, like me, know that, if you want to have a positive experience with the self-pub market, you need to believe in the promise of the next time. That's also partly why I have so much enjoyed looking purposefully for under-read authors to review. When you're not counting your sales in the thousands, that one sale can be a huge affirmation, and it feels so good to be able to think that I may have been the reason their little line graph spiked a bit higher. It's made easier by the fact that what I'm reading is good!
        I encourage you to take advantage of the ridiculous opportunities made available to us with the technology we have. Try publishing your pet project. But make sure that you have in you the ability to create optimism for yourself. Today, you might not have the numbers you want, but tomorrow - well, tomorrow might be better.
        And SPEAKING of tomorrow... my ebook is on sale right now, and for the incredibly low price of $.99! That sale ends (you guessed it) tomorrow, which will be Saturday, May 18th. I'd be flattered if you'd take a look at it. If you decide it's not for you, that's fine, but summer is coming. Now is the time to start stocking your shelves with on-the-porch reading material, and I'd like to think that my novel might fit the bill for some folks. I'd appreciate your consideration anyway. Click on the link below to see it on Amazon:
An ad that I designed to run on Twitter. I think it's pretty.