Why I'm Self-Publishing

It’s just us here. So let’s be honest with one another.

Self-publishing is simple, straightforward, and the only person stopping you is yourself. I like that.

Traditional publishing is intimidating, or at least it is to me. There are gatekeepers a plenty. You most likely need an agent, you have to send out submissions/manuscripts to pique interest and get a cursory shot at putting your work out in front of an audience. To add onto a already stressful sounding path (one I’ve admittedly not actually taken or tried), it seems like you lose out on a fair bit of money in the royalties category when everything is said and done.

Taking the self publishing way out on A Leaf and Pebble may be due in part to laziness and a fear of rejection, but it also plays to my strengths considering my marketing background. Plus, it’s been a helluva bit of fun learning how to get everything going to Amazons specs and finding freelancers to take care of the design work I’m definitely not skilled at.

All in all, I have beef with gatekeepers as a whole, so this self publishing gig fits with a personal philosophy as well.

Guess we’ll see how it plays out, and if it the more traditional route would have been better, it’ll be a lesson well learned.