Development - Self-Publishing
My foray into the world of self-publishing began almost 21 years ago when I was in kindergarten. I would spend all my free time making up stories, drawing illustrations, stapling them together and reading them to anyone who would listen. Every story featured the same cast of characters - a ghost, a pumpkin, three whales, a witch, a bird, and a monster (with the occasional Pokemon joining the story). Most of those stories now live in boxes at the back of my closet but I think even then, the idea of making my own books was something that really appealed to me.
When I first started writing Wardenclyffe it was just a short story told from the point of view of an android. As I wrote more I continued to add to the story and it felt like I was overflowing with ideas for other stories. Eventually I had so many other ideas that were starting to form into a solid story of their own. This second story followed a young girl named Lucy living on a spaceship far from earth. I started a new word document and began dropping all the story ideas I had for Lucy into that document until it started to feel like it could stand on its own.
My first instinct was to write each story as a short novella that would pair together. But as I continued to write, I decided to merge them into one story. Each chapter of this new combined book would flip between the two different characters, Bit the android and Lucy on the spaceship. In a way, setting the story up like this helped to balance the tone of the story. One story’s slower pace was balanced out by the action of the other story and it seemed to be working.
Once I had finished the first draft of this combined Wardenclyffe I did one pass of edits and then began querying literary agents. But as I sent out queries, something just didn’t feel right. In my mind the two stories just felt better on their own. It felt like I was trying to force them together to make them more marketable. I went back and forth trying to decide what to do with them. Until I finally decided to split the stories up again and publish each separately.
The second I made that decision was also when I made the decision to self-publish. I began by setting myself a deadline, October 1st. At the time it was almost a full year off and I felt confident I could pull everything together. I knew there would be a lot to learn in order to self-publish but I love learning new things and challenging myself so this felt like a perfect new journey for me.
I think the other thing that helped me make the decision to self-publish was thinking of my grandfather, Ted Hall - another writer in the family. He moved up to Minnesota and started his own printing press where he published his own books as well as a weekly newspaper named The Rainy Lake Chronicle. I looked at the books on the shelf and something just felt right about diving in on my own and figuring out how to publish my own books.
I began my journey to self-publish Wardenclyffe by reading every single guide I possibly could. I wanted to learn as much as I possibly could before starting anything of my own. I made lists of things I would need; an editor, cover artists, printing company, ISBNs, website, and a whole bunch of other things. My to-do list was close to two pages long when I first started. I slowly started knocking off items one by one until the list was down to a much more manageable size. And now months later, I’ve got the copies of my finished book in hand gearing up to release it to the world.
I’m so happy I made the decision to self-publish and grateful for the amount of new things I was able to learn through the process. It wasn’t always easy but I think for me it was absolutely the right call. My only hope is that Wardenclyffe lives up to my earlier work about a ghost, a pumpkin, three whales, a witch, a bird, and a monster. But just like that story from two decades ago, I’m just as excited to share this story with anyone who will listen.
