The Start of Something New

Hello world! Welcome to my site (well at this point it's just a blog, but at some point I hope it will evolve into something a bit more exciting!). My name is Brynna Gabrielson and I am a writer. A published one? No, not quite yet. Not unless you count a couple of short stories in my University's literary magazine, but as for the big stuff, the novels - I still haven't set them free into the universe. Although that's about to change!
You see I'm setting forth on a new, exciting, and horrifyingly scary adventure. I have decided to enter into the Self-Publishing fray and publish my Young Adult novel, Starkissed.
Why am I doing this? Well for a number of reasons. You see I'm currently a student, completing my Master of Arts Degree in Publishing at Oxford Brookes University. As part of my degree I have to complete a major project and I decided that I wanted to explore the ever growing and exciting area of self-publishing, and what better way to do it, then to try it out myself!
I have more reasons of course. I've put a lot of thought into this.  Starkissed, after all, is a novel I put a great deal of hard work into and part of me is in those words. Publishing it is not something I take lightly. Being a writer is my dream, and I've always wanted to be taken on by one of those big houses all writer's dream of - Penguin, Random House, Harper Collins...etc. But getting published is HARD. I've tried my hand at submitting to Literary Agents and while I did get requests, (3 Full, 4 Partial), and had some good feedback, I never did find representation. There are thousands more agents out there I could try, but querying is time consuming and sometimes, disheartening. And getting an agent doesn't always mean a publishing deal. As someone who has seen the industry from both the writing side, and the publishing side, I know how few books make it past all those gatekeepers and onto bookstore shelves. That doesn't mean it will never happen. Authors still get contracts every day! And maybe it will happen for me one day, but until then, I've really looked at self-publishing and I like what I've seen.
So I thought, why not try it? Starkissed has been sitting on my computer for two years and I want people to read it. I want them to laugh at my silly jokes, become friends with Sydney (my protagonist), and fall in love with Grant and Colin (my gorgeous love interests).  What's the point of creating stories if no one gets to read them?
So here I go. This is the start. In just weeks STARKISSED will be online and on sale. And as it all happens, I'll be here, keeping ya'll up to date and letting you know how it goes. I'll let you know where I publish, how many copies I sell, and  how much hair I pull out of my head. It'll all be here! I hope you enjoy reading about it.
Brynna