Stepping into a New Story, Self-Pub Style
New books, new writing projects, new newsletter. One romance writing journey.
My Journey to Self-Publishing
I started self-publishing my romance novels in 2021. Self-publishing and becoming an indie author was not something that I took lightly. It was a big decision. All my life, I dreamed of big book deals. I dreamed of my novels on the shelves of Barnes & Noble. I dreamed of a large community of readers who anxiously awaited my next release.
But that didn’t happen.
Here’s what did happen.
2013
In 2012-2013 the idea of self-publishing was just starting to form. Kindle Direct Publishing (or an older version of it on Amazon) was up and ready for new authors to publish books all on their own without the need of a big traditional publisher. The internet was a bright place for writers who wanted to jump into this new opportunity.
It was also a big new world for readers like myself. I had my first experience of using a Kindle around this time while the world (and literary community) slowly started to worry if the use of physical books would go extinct. Of course, they didn’t. But back then, it felt like a real concern.
Immediately after I read The Changelings by Elle Casey, I was in love with this new author I found. Quickly, I realized that this writer was self-published, and I scoured the internet for even more information on how this was possible and how I could perhaps do this in the future, even though I wasn’t ready then.
2016
In 2016 I headed to college. What felt obvious (even though I had no idea what I was going to do with the degree), I went for an English degree, focusing on writing. Then, my second year when I transferred schools, I altered my degree to English Publishing and Editing. I’d been writing for years, but it was feeling a lot more difficult to get the words down than it ever had before. I figured maybe I wasn’t meant to write a book right then, much to my despair. I wasn’t meant to publish traditionally or self-publish.
So, I decided one thing. I wanted to be surrounded by stories.
2019
Graduating with my degree in Publishing and Editing, I headed off to one more education experience, going to The Columbia Publishing Course, a summer program in NYC that was meant to introduce students to the traditional publishing world. Afterwards, they were also supposed to be able to get a job.
I learned the ins and outs of publishing even more than I already did over the years. At the end of the course, however, I hadn’t gotten a job at Penguin Random House or Harper Collins like many of my other peers.
But, one thing had changed within me when I was in NYC studying publishing during this time. I started to write again.
I started to write a LOT. Throughout the six-weeks, I worked on the first and second draft of what is now, The Strings That Hold Us Together.
2020
Going home away from NYC, I felt a bit like a failure. I had no job in the field I studied for what felt like nearly a decade. I worked part-time at a public library that I wish now that I would’ve seen was basically the absolute best. I finished writing The Strings That Hold Us Together however, and started to query the messy draft I thought was good enough at the time to literary agents.
I queried The Strings That Hold Us Together to over 100 agents. For better, or for worse.
Of course, during 2020 as I made plans and hoped to put myself back out there to work in publishing in the city, a pandemic happened. Locked down, I was stuck in one place and honestly, it was the best and worst year of my life. Because I kept writing. I had the time to write.
I wrote a story that has yet to see the light of day. I started and finished Words That Burn Like Ash and by the end of the year I attempted to query agents for that book the traditional way. This time, I was being much more selective of who I reached out to as 2020 turned into 2021.
2021
Waiting on query letters and working a remote job that I didn’t get on with well, I did something big. After years of reading paperbacks and filling my bookshelves, I purchased my very first Kindle.
It was LIFE CHANGING.
Seriously, without that kindle I wouldn’t have read Mariana Zapata. I wouldn’t have read Laura Thalassa. I never would’ve thought to myself, “If I don’t hear back from my last query I sent out in two weeks, I am going to self-publish.”
Because I never did hear back from that query.
And I rewrote and self-published The Strings That Hold Us Together in September 2021.
Currently, I am still not working in publishing other than my own. I am still not traditionally published and I may never be. I am however, doing the one thing I always wanted.
I am writing. I am an author, and I get to tell the stories that roam through my head every day (when I don’t get distracted by my Kindle Unlimited reading list). I have 5 books out and a 6th on the way May 2023.
Be on the lookout.
Indie Authors that Inspired Me to Add to Your TBR
All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata
A seriously amazing slow burn romance.
Aurora De La Torre knows moving back to a place that was once home isn’t going to be easy, but hoping that moving back to the place she grew up and lost her mom, she see this as a perfect chance to move forward away from heartbreak. The scruffy landlord she rents an apartment from and his young musician son certainly help things along.
Callypso Lillis is a siren with a very big problem, one that stretches up her arm and far into her past. For the last seven years Callie has been wearing a bracelet of black beads up her wrist, magical IOUs for favors she once received. Only death or repayment will fulfill her obligations. Everyone knows that if you need a favor, you go to the Bargainer to make it happen. He's a man who can get you anything you want … at a price.
After the death of my mother and her Bonded, Oleander was relieved to find my own Bonds in this “why-choose” romance. Only five years later, Oleander is still on the run, away from her bonds after believing she was doing the right thing to keep them safe and away from her. Until now.
Now, she’s not so sure.
Mate Hunt series by Lola Glass
All it took was one look to end my life... Because one look is all it takes to trigger a werewolf's mate hunt. And when a wolf is hunting, he doesn't stop until his mate either dies or becomes a wolf too.
She's a good girl, but she's falling for the wrong man. Broken down by her emotionally neglectful ex, all Charlie Underwood wants is someone to tell her she's good enough. Then she stumbles into a new job with a boss who brings her to her knees-literally.
Great story! Hope self publishing continues to help you reach your goals