I worked tirelessly to contact forty agents last year. Months later, I received eleven or twelve rejections and almost thirty no-responses.
This year, pandemic and all, I moved forward. I paid to have my novel professionally proofread and edited. I paid a company to prep it and send out my query letter and required info to twenty agents and twenty publishers. Three months have passed, and I received eight rejections (including 1 hand-typed response). Most of them "respond only if interested." Others could take six to eight months. Word is, the pandemic is wreaking havoc on the publishing market.
Indie Author
I can no longer wait—or hope—for an agent or publisher to tap my head and say "goose" instead of being just another duck that gets passed on. So, I am going to be an independent author, or "indie author" as it's called.
I took almost three weeks off of work for Christmas break. In that time, I encountered brain melt no fewer than a dozen times, consuming a seemingly unquantifiable amount of data from websites: rules, guidelines, instructions, helpful DIYs, videos, forms to complete, ideas, opinions, forums, background checks. With a week and a half gone, I hoped I could be writing by now. I don't see that happening.
Who should I use to publish my manuscript? KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), Direct2Digital, IngramSpark to get things rolling for eBooks and hard and soft copies. What about cover art? 99 Designs, Bespoke Book Covers, or freelancers. What about Barnes and Noble? Book tours (physical and virtual)? Campaigns? Ads? There is so much to ingest. I tried watching videos and visiting websites to help with this, but most of them reel you in to pay for the "help" service. The help was mostly downloads (guides, docs, spreadsheets) and more videos. Not much interpersonal assistance.
If there is anything to be taken from this experience, it is that you must jump in with both feet. You must be prepared to hit wall after wall after wall, knowing that after you break through one barrier, another is right behind it. I am at a point where, if I make mistakes, so be it. The objective is clear: keep moving forward.
Cataclysm will be published between March and May 2021.
It will be available to purchase as an eBook and paperback. I'm considering hardcovers, but they are so darn expensive. I hope to have eBooks available in a couple of popular formats for Kindle and iPad readers. After that, we'll see where this journey takes us.
Keep an eye out for dates and future announcements! Once everything comes together, I will enable pre-ordering through Amazon. If you have any questions, reach out to me on Facebook or Twitter.
