Yes, I’m still humming and hawing over this. Self-publishing versus mainstream, which should I choose? Could I get a book deal? Is it worth my while? Do I have the time and energy to handle all the levels of insanity of self-publishing?
I don’t know, honestly. At one point, I’d have given anything to see my work in print. Nowadays, I take a more pragmatic view of it – I’d rather make a ton of money, thanks, and be a real author. There’s always Lulu.com if I want a dead tree version of something I wrote.
So. I think I will begin an experiment.
I have lots of ideas, due to my having an excessive amount of imagination. One of these ideas is a weird story about Christmas in the best tradition of cutesy holiday movies everywhere, which came about during a late-night episode of insomnia when I got to thinking about how I’d write such a story. It doesn’t have much of a plot – they never do, really – but it’s got talking animals and magic, and I figure I can just wing it with that.
One chapter at a time, written up and posted here on my site. No edits allowed. Once it’s up, it doesn’t get changed unless I’m fixing typos. I’m going to aim for a chapter a week, but it might be longer than that during NaNoWriMo. And when it’s done, I’ll wrap the whole thing up, proof it, edit it, and self-publish it on Amazon within a month. I’ll do everything myself, even the cover, just to see if I can and if it’s a viable business strategy.
In the meantime, I’ll edit the Novel and prepare to pitch it at agents and the mainstream press.
This is going to be one hell of a ride, but I think I’m up to the challenge. Thoughts? Opinions? Declarations of my chronic insanity? Tell me in the comments.