Why Self Publish: The Moogy Roo Series.
Post 3 / Posted February 20th 2020
This Blog is a retrospective look back on my self publishing journey which took just on 12 months from the day I decided to publish my first story, mid January 2019 to finally collecting my first 534 copies from customs at Brisbane Wharf late January 2020.
Date in History: January 2019
Why self publish? Why not submit to a publisher? I in fact did but can only assume one of three possibilities; I was either rejected, my submission is sitting in the junk folder or perhaps someone else's letterbox or possibly just one of the thousands of submissions simply passed over to a pile marked for incineration. I will simply never know, as I never received a reply, which by the way wasn't unexpected as I did do my research prior to sending out and found that the big publishers that do accept submissions do clearly state on their websites something along the lines of:- "Due to the volume of submissions we receive, we are unable to respond to submissions that are unsuccessful. Please do not send your submission more than once" or "Due to the high volume of submissions, we respond only to manuscripts of interest to us. If you have not heard back from us after three months, you may assume we do not have a place for your project"
There can be many reasons for a manuscript to be overlooked, and it's not necessarily about to work or talent, so don't be put off. Look at JK Rowling who was repeatedly knocked back but believed in her work and simply didn't let rejection beat her.
Surely not all stories can simply align with the ideals or marketing interests of the publisher, or perhaps the person reviewing a manuscript just didn’t connect with the story personally or who knows, maybe they were simply not having a good day so never invested their time or attention to your story. A lot of big publishers also won't accept unsolicited submissions, and must be via a literary agent only, who do the filtering of talent and works on behalf of publishers, but getting a literary agent sort of becomes like getting a publisher unless you are lucky enough to know someone with connections. A lot of publishers also like to see a history of writing which can be hard for first time writers starting out.
For me, I am only writing children's books, and not the next Tim Winton, so here I am taking the self publishing route. I also love the creative process behind illustrated books and movies, and self publishing allows me to be involved in every stage of the process from development and final design of my books that also extends through to the business and marketing side.
Now that I have decided to self publish, my first task is to now find an illustrator, as I unfortunately wasn't blessed with artistic ability with the pencil. In my next post Tuesday 25th February I will be reaching out to the Qld College of Arts to find an Illustrator.
I will be posting twice a week, every Tuesday and Wednesday and would love your feedback, comments and questions along the way. Thanks for your support.
