My Traditional vs. Self-Publishing Experience

Signing a Publishing Contract, October 2014

Welcome! You are in the write right place. I'm doing a little construction on my blog.

Here I am at the point of two months or less until my first book release and I still don't know the specifics. I almost typed that I still don't know what's going on, but that isn't completely true. I realize my book is in a lineup, and it's not quite crunch time for my publishing team to focus on me. It's a little frustrating, but I have no regrets about my publishing decision. Let's call it a learning process. There are pros and cons to everything.

Some of the delays have been self-imposed. I asked for a simple tweak on my cover, which is why I haven't revealed it yet. I had hoped to start building excitement for my book release by now.

I could have self-published Secrets of the King's Daughter a year ago. Yep, my publisher waited for the most opportune time, January 2016--when LDS bookstore catalogues feature Book of Mormon related items. With traditional publishing, I gave up my control over things like that. It's a good thing I'm not a big control freak, and this is not my sole source of income. With self-pubbing I would have had to take the time to learn to formatting or hire it out. That initially felt like a lot to take on, though I may end up learning to do that later for other projects. Consider your control and patience levels and financial needs when making your decision.

Leaving the challenging part to my publisher has allowed me time to work on the sequel. It ended up that by waiting a year, my next book will easily be ready without the stress of deadlines. The biggest factor in deciding to sign my contract was having exposure from a respected company in my niche market to represent me. Those who are more national market writers should check out how books are doing between different publishing directions for their own genre.

The hardest part for me currently is not knowing which marketing tactics to use that I've read or heard about. For example, I began making a list of which blog reviewers to contact, but found out they take care of that. So, I'm tweaking this blog layout and doing some critiquing while I'm in limbo. Soon enough, things will be heating up, and I have a few tricks up my sleeve.

Bring it on.