My Publishing Path is My Own

Photo credit: My name's axel on Flickr

So social media being what it is, and the nature of my various social media stuff being what it is, and the general public’s knowledge of publishing being what it is, every once in a while I get questions about my publishing path. Why I chose a small press over self-publishing. How long it took me to get published. Why I didn’t self publish one of my many, many trunked manuscripts. Etc., etc.

Now, I obviously don’t have a problem with discussing my publishing path—I do it here all the time because I hope that my journey can encourage others and/or someone else can learn from my experiences. I like sharing that stuff with you guys.

That said, I think it’s occasionally important to reiterate that my timeline, my writing methods, the choices and strategies that work for me are just that—mine.

I wrote nine manuscripts before writing Beyond the Red and I didn’t self-publish any of them, even though I queried many of them—a decision I’m happy with today because it means I get to debut traditionally, which is the path I’d always dreamed about.

I’m publishing with a small press—a decision that has lead to my working with a really wonderful editor who is possibly one of the nicest people I know, and has meant that I’ve had a lot of input on the design of the book as a whole. Like, way more input and influence than I ever imagined, which means I am so happy with the result.

I outline, then fast-draft because it’s how I work best. I vlog, and blog, and tweet, and tumbl, and Instagram because even though it’s time-consuming, I enjoy it, and it’s allowed me to make really awesome connections and reach new people. I get up early in the morning and try to get as much work done as I can then because my energy levels deplete more quickly than they used to.

But my steps and my strategies aren’t foolproof. What works for me may not work for you; your path won’t look like mine.

My publishing path is my own, and maybe yours will have some similarities. Or maybe yours will look absolutely nothing like mine, and maybe some decisions I made wouldn’t be right for you. But that’s okay. Because there isn’t one golden path to getting published or one right way to write a book.

So listen to various publication stories. Take tips and strategies that work for you and skip over the rest. Try a new writing or plotting or brainstorming method, and if you don’t like it, know that it just wasn’t for you and that’s okay.

Because my path and my strategies and decisions are my own. And so are yours.

Twitter-sized bite: 

"There isn't one golden path to getting published or one right way to write a book." (Click to tweet)