Once my publishers shut down, I had one of two options with my works:
- I submit them to another publisher who may or may not take them in
- I learn the ropes of self publishing and gain a bit more creative control over my work
Obviously there are pros and cons with each, as I’m sure that you can guess. And both would require a fair amount of effort. I have about 12 works out there: one that is a full length novel, a couple of novellas, and some short stories. A few of these works have sequels that are works-in-progress, and a bunch of them are all in the same series. The idea of doing anything to get back in the game seemed overwhelming and bordering on impossible.
Around the time I started doing research on what it would take to get my works back out I also started having significant health issues which required my attention. Then a few years after that, the pandemic hit and everything in my world changed. I now work from home full time, which is beyond ideal in more ways than one. To be frank, I currently have 3-4 different medical conditions that give you brain fog. And there were a number of times since 2017 where all of them were active simultaneously. I had to prioritize, which meant both health and day job came first. Anything non-essential became optional. Some days, it seemed like nothing I used to do would ever return to me. I can’t begin to tell you how depressing that was, either.
The good news is that all of these issues are now fully under control (and hopefully will remain that way), and I’ve started cleaning up some loose threads left unresolved during that time. I desperately missed writing in ways that I can’t even begin to articulate. The ability to go in and both envision and create worlds is something that I’ve loved doing for most of my life. And thanks to finally getting that exceptionally long and overdue ADHD diagnosis and treatment, I now possess the executive function to get the show back on the road.
Since then I got my Goodreads author account back into my control, registered a domain with my new pen name, and dusted off a few social media accounts. I also started the process of determining what I would need to publish everything myself including things such as cover art, what self publishing service I would use, whether or not to purchase my own ISBNs and what it would take to do so. Not to mention how to handle publishing what will be second editions of my works plus the name change.
Then the formatting of the document of my main work, Blood of the Dark Moon, so I could submit it to a self publishing service (KDP). Learning the ins and outs of how to create cover art and put my artistic skills to the test. Next stages are mostly legal involving my bank, city hall for the DBAs for what would be my publishing business name, etc. Thankfully self publishing is much more straightforward and common now than it used to be, so finding information online on the processes involved is pretty easy.
I figure once Blood of the Dark Moon is back up I’ll be familiar with the process at that point and putting up the rest should flow from there. I’m also hoping to add some bonus material with the second edition of the work, but we’ll see what happens. I’ve also started working on its sequel again and will keep people posted on the progress there as well. It’s been a story in my head for years now, and while certain elements evolved and changed I know where things are going to wind up. A lot of you will love it, some may not. But it’s what makes the most sense for the characters involved and I got to stay true to them. There may be enough material for a third book too, but we shall see.
