To Self Publish or Not?

Being a writer, this seems to be a common question. As I get nearer to the stage of publishing my first book, I have been asked this a few times. “What publisher are you going to use?” “Are you going to self publish?” I always scoffed at the idea of self publishing, but being that I try to be open minded and I live research, I looked into it more. My idea of self publishing was someone making up a sad looking book and trying to sell it on the streets. I knew better, but I guess since I was avoiding thinking of methods of publishing to avoid thinking of rejection, I had the worst scenario in my mind. Here are the pros and cons as I see them:

I took the photo here after a small earthquake, or spirits knocked the books and other things down. I will never know for certain. I was in the other room playing with my cat and little dog when we all heard a crash. The cat and dog scattered to hide under the nearest furniture while I investigated. 

Publisher:

Pros: someone else does the work of getting the books ready for you.

Cons: you do not get to choose your own illustrator and finding a publisher is hard, look at how many publishers turned down J.K Rowling!! You have to share royalties. Expensive.

Self publishing:

Pros: You do not have to share royalties, only pay your bills. You do not get rejection letters. More control over expenses.

Cons: The expenses are more obvious to you because they are all yours. More work depending on how you get them printed or just go straight e-book.

I am still undecided though I am leaning toward self publishing because I used to print and bind books, so I have some idea of what is involved there. More research in the future, for now, I just need to finish writing it.

Procrastination and Writing

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I am a writer and oftentimes life gets in the way of writing. How does one write consistently and with passion when so much is going on.

Discipline...

It takes discipline and commitment to be a passionate writer. You have to WANT to do it. Does that mean you are going to wake up one morning with excitement and a mind full of words begging to be written? well...not always. There will be times where you are looking for the nearest...something..to make notes about what you want to write about. This can happen at the worst times...

There you are, up to you netherplace in snow and cold with the greatest idea and nothing to write on. Sure, you could use some toilet paper but what would you use to write with? There are some ways around the above problem such as:

If you plan ahead, you will not be stuck with only toilet paper and lots of ideas.

There are other places to get good ideas at bad times, but to me, that is the worst.

Planning ahead is key to successful writing. Set goals, try to make a schedule such as writing every day at the same time. By trying to write everyday at the same time, you get yourself into a habit. It will be tough at first, you may find yourself doing this:

Once you force yourself into a routine of writing, you will wonder why you procrastinated for so long. If you find yourself procrastinating after you have set a routine, make a new goal and do it all over again...but maybe not the toilet in snow. Unless you are writing horror, then by all means, write your words while sitting on a toilet in teh snow.

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