Writing Wednesday: Going It Alone?

So, as I mentioned last week on Writing Wednesday... another small press went out of business. Crescent Moon Press closed their doors to new submissions and returned all rights to the authors as of March 31st. Not big news these days, except when it's the small press that published two of your books.

My mermaid books are "out of print" at the moment as I ramp up to relaunch them into the world. I want to claim I'm devastated, but I can't. I've been through this before and saw the signs but chose to ignore them. Publishing is not a stable business, even for the larger presses, so it's no wonder that small publishers close their doors.

After my first bad experience, why did I choose another small press? And why do I continue to submit manuscripts to other small publishers? My current crop of contemporary romance novels are published by The Wild Rose Press, which has been voted the best small publisher for the last 7 or 8 years, a fact that gives me hope and comfort. They are a well-run and stable business with a great group of authors, editors, and artists, as well as an active, involved readership. I'm happy and excited to say I have another contract with them for my next Cape Cod romance, and have a story that will be part of their 2016 Valentine series.

I love writing - but the business end of things? Not so much. I'm determined to relaunch my mermaid series on my own, but each decision seems to take me forever. Just choosing which cover artists to contact with an initial email felt overwhelming. Reading through the directions on Amazon is also like being back in high school with a text book that might as well be in Latin. And I never took Latin.

I have gained new respect for authors who choose to go it alone to self-publish from the start. And now I understand why some writers choose to pay a third party to take care of all these publishing details, and how those services are able to charge so much.

However, I'm committed to taking charge of my series and getting it back into the hands of fans. I actually have readers writing to me and asking if the next book will be out soon. Actual emails from people I don't know. It's exciting to hear from readers, but also a bit daunting. I don't want to let anyone down.

Luckily, I have a big group of authors from CMP in the same boat as me - and we are all helping each other find the resources we need to get our works back into the hands of readers. I also have a great local resource in Cape author K.R. Conway, who wrote the popular YA urban fantasy Undertow series. I met with her last week for advice on the ins and outs of self-publication.

Hopefully I'll be revealing new covers soon - and hopefully getting my books re-launched into the world this summer. Oh, and editing the two new romance novels and maybe penning another with a few of the secondary characters from the last books moving into leading roles. Yeah, sounds busy, but if I can figure out the self-pubbing thing, I can do anything. Right?