Why I’m Self-Publishing.

When I turned 28, I made a resolution. I told myself that I’d publish a book by the time I was 30.

I turned 30 last Sunday. I celebrated with a new tattoo, not by publishing a book.

I don’t see this as a failure, since I’m working through my final copy edits and have a designer working on a cover. The book is coming. Hopefully in August.

Since most people that I interact with on a daily basis might not know I write fiction, as well as this quirky blog, I should start from the beginning.

Four years ago, I fell in love with a fandom. I’m not going to tell you which fandom; those of you who know, know, and those of you who don’t could probably find out if you wanted to. It’s not important. What is important is that within that fandom, I found a lot of things that I had no idea I was missing. I found some of my favourite people, I found an outlet for a hobby that I’d long put on the back burner for less ambitious pursuits. Most importantly, perhaps, found a borrowed audience. Readers.

I wrote a lot of fanfiction, some of it good, some of it really embarrassing, and all of it educational. Very little of it resembled the source material in any way. I experimented with tense, first person vs. third person perspective, male vs. female voice, various genres, all within a fairly snuggly, safe environment. With readers. Readers that stroked my ego, and let me know when I’d done something that didn’t sit well with them. It’s not necessarily an author’s job to pander to readers, but often times, when a reader is invested in a story, they have their limits; things they will accept. A pain threshold if you will. I’m sure if you think about things you’ve read, you have one too. We all do.

I reached this point, after doing a lot of fanfiction where I felt like I was at a crossroads. I liked writing for readers, but even though I wasn’t writing to the source material, I felt penned in, and even though I’d pushed every limit of characters being in character, I outgrew my sandbox. I started writing original fiction and posting it on my fan fiction wordpress blog, in the hopes that some people would trust me enough after finding my writing through the fandom to take a chance on a free bit of original writing.

Some did. Most didn’t. The ones that did liked what I was doing. I continued on. Those projects sit in various draft forms, and I’m optimistic that eventually I’ll get back to them, and they’ll be great. I’m optimistic about that because you told me I should be.

Writing is a most contradictory occupation. You’re forced to be solitary, yet it’s necessary to promote yourself, and even though you do what you do in isolation, it’s important to have your ego stroked now and then.  Those of you that have stroked my ego over the years, and continue to stroke my ego (and you know who you are), I am forever in your debt. If you’re ever in Toronto, I’ll buy you a drink.

Those of you that have helped me with Campbell? You can stay at my house and I’ll make you breakfast. I’m looking at you, Jo.

I’ve worked in publishing for five and a half years in the educational sphere, and I love it. I love a bunch of things about it, but in relation to this, I love that it’s not trade publishing and I’m able to separate my occupation from my avocation and remain passionate about both within a similar industry. The end of the industry that I’m employed in is very different from the part that I’m looking to embark in with my own writing.

During my years in publishing, the industry has changed in ways I never expected. When I started writing my own stories about three and a half years ago, I never imagined that I’d be writing this post. I figured if I ever cranked out something that I felt was fit for public consumption, I’d go the only route that existed. I’d query publishers, or find an agent, and I’d hope for the best.

Things changed. I’ve had a front row seat (from my relatively safe branch of the industry) to mortar and brick bookstores falling to Amazon, small presses vanishing, new presses forming, big presses merging, Amanda Hocking, E.L James and 50 Shades of Grey, the birth of Kindle, Kobo, iBooks. I’ve read blogs, followed writers who transitioned from publishing with big houses to publishing their own stuff, and watched an industry begin what will be the biggest transition since the invention of the printing press.

As a writer (I guess I can call myself that now), it’s been exhilarating and terrifying.

Through my fandom experience, I had the distinct pleasure of befriending Elizabeth Hunter. I had the honour of helping her with her first book, which has charted on the top lists on Amazon several times. Elizabeth is a prolific writer, much like myself, and when we both decided to tell our own stories, we spent a great deal of time debating traditional vs. self-publishing over google chat, late into the night for me (since she’s in California). At that time, I wasn’t sure about self-publishing. It seemed like a big risk, and everything I’d heard about it made me wary. I figured if I self-published, people would question my choice. Everything I’d heard about self-publishing left me thinking it was a route authors that couldn’t traditionally publish went. It seemed almost defeatist to consider.

Elizabeth is braver than I am. She didn’t try for a traditional publishing deal and just went for it. Invested in her project herself and let her story do the rest.

And it worked for her.

After that, I started paying more attention to self-publishing, and tried to imagine if it was a route I could imagine myself taking. After some more time, and a couple more drafts of books, I started a project that excited me so much that I found myself dreaming about it and writing snippets of dialogue on my phone when they’d pop into my head, sometimes in the middle of the night. I started talking about it to Matt, and then writing it, and it came fast. It felt right. The response I got from the people that read my draft chapters was very enthusiastic.

I decided I’d self publish it. Here’s why:

I write genre fiction. The books that I’ve written that will likely make up my first few publications are about zombies and dystopian scenarios. The book I’m publishing qualifies under the New Adult/Dystopian banner. This means that I’m unlikely to win any awards for my writing from any literary boards, and anything I publish wouldn’t get much of a marketing push in the traditional market from a publisher.


I’m a first-time author without many marketable distinguishing characteristics, meaning I’m not someone famous’ cousin, I don’t have a reality show, and I’m not writing soft porn for housewives. If I was fortunate enough to find an agent, and sign with even a mid-to-large size house, I’m still going to be almost completely responsible for finding my own book a home. I’d have some help in the editing and production department, but trade publishing is a perilous trade, and marketing budgets are shoestring unless you’re E.L. James, or Stephanie Meyer.


I’m Canadian. I love being Canadian. Canadian publishing is hit or miss in the best of economic circumstances, and with all the industry transition, it feels shakier than ever. If I were to sign with a Canadian press, it would be great, because Canadian presses do great fiction, but again, as a first-time author, no one is going to pay for me to get placement at bookstores in Canada or the US, or pay for me to have adds on the subway like this one, because I’m not writing erotica. I would also get no exposure to the US market, which is 10x the size of the Canadian one. From my previous writing, the majority of people who read my stuff are American. I don’t have a huge pre-built audience, but I hope it’s a start.


I know people in the industry, and I know and respect the steps necessary to produce a product that I feel is a good reflection of my profession. After five and a half years at a well-respected house, I have enough connections that when I decided to think about self-publishing, within five minutes, I knew exactly who my first-picks were to help me do a professional job. I chose people whose work I’d seen firsthand for years, and who I knew would respect my vision for my project, and help me do a professional-level job and put out something that I felt reflected my respect for the industry.


I respect the industry. Because of this, I’m taking all the same steps that I put one of the books I work with at my press through. The only difference is, instead of a press making an investment in my story, I’m outlaying the money up front.


I understand how publishing financials work. I’m not going to get too into this point, but I’m optimistic that this decision is the best one for me on that front, at this point in time. That may change, but for now, it’s how I feel.

So that’s it. I hope you’ll follow me on this new, terrifying, exciting adventure. I’m going to be posting more ramblings about how things are going, and what I’m doing as things proceed. I’ll probably start posting book teasers too, and beg you to follow me on various social media platforms, including my new, terrifying Facebook author page. There’s not much there now, but I’ll be adding to it.

If you have any ideas for posts about the writing process or self-publishing, please feel free to make suggestions.

If you’re in a similar position as me, and you have any questions about what I’m doing, or why I’m doing it, or you’d like to shoot the breeze, please feel free to drop me a comment, or follow me on Twitter at @CS_Writes and tweet me.