Master of my own tiny (or gigantic) destiny

WISDOM: The publishing industry has been crippled by the economic meltdown; first-time fiction authors have almost no chance of landing a publishing deal; make a name for yourself and THEN try to talk to publishers... These were the things my little birds told me when I asked them whether I should self-publish. And they were right! They are smart little birds! But I forgot to ask the little birds about the potentially crushing downsides of self-publishing. So, for anyone else contemplating a foray into the world of self-publishing, here are a few things I've learned:

1. Self-publishing is a powerful, empowering, and inspiring option. It allows an author to maintain total control of his/her content, publishing date, marketing strategy, and revenue. It's a total rush. But...

2. Wait, er, marketing strategy? Oh yeah, don't think that just marketing the book to your friends and family will do ANYTHING to make a name for yourself. Your friends and family already know your name. And they bought the book because they would've felt guilty if they hadn't. Sure, they may LOOOOOVE the book and tell a friend or two to pick it up. But that won't be enough. About 80% of self-published authors never sell more than a couple hundred copies of their books. You need to think wayyyyyyyyyy outside the box (like, way way WAY outside), and find other ways to get your book out there.

3. Why do you need to think so far outside the box? Because mainstream media wants nothing to do with you. NOTHING. You won't be able to get major papers or magazines to review your book unless you sell thousands of copies. And you won't sell thousands of copies until you get the mainstream to start paying attention to you. Check this out - I even tried to HIRE a book publicist (that's right, I was going to GIVE HER MY MONEY) to get my book into the hands of some media outlets for review consideration, and the book publicist told me she couldn't take my money no matter how good my book was because it's virtually impossible to get the mainstream media to pay attention to self-published authors.

So, ahem, here I am on Goodreads, writing a blog, making new bibliophilic friends, spreading the Shadow Swans gospel here in this little box that's way outside "The Box." And I'm playing around in various other "outside the box" boxes. And people are reading the book. Not thousands of people, yet, but hundreds, for sure. I'm curious if some of you out there might be curious about my forays outside the box. If so, I'll share my successes and failures here, so that some other deserving self-published highly-motivated right-brainer out there might have fewer frustrations than I have had.

Can people even make comments/responses to my blog posts on this site? Will anyone ever read this post? If not, no biggie, maybe I'll write more anyway, just musing away to myself. But if you're interested in what I have to say/rant/teach, shoot me a line and I'll write it all down. We'll be friends here in this box. Maybe we'll drink wine together. Maybe we'll smoke a totally imaginary and therefore harmless cigarette together, and we'll look cool without getting stained teeth.

In the meantime, I'm going to go to the Shadow Swans page on Amazon for the third time today to read my 19 fantastic life-affirming reviews. This is what I do with my free time. I stalk myself. Or really, I stalk my reader reviews. It's awesome.

Cheers to our tiny or gigantic destinies,

LT