Why are you Self-Publishing?

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Before you head off on the "indie path" read this blog post first.
When your head stops spinning, feel free to answer these questions:

1) Are you trying your absolute hardest to be the best writer you can be?

2) Are you submitting to agents?

3) Are you getting a metric crap-ton of rejections?

4) Are you attending workshops to make your writing the best it can be?

5 - 10) Have you written the best damn book in the world? And the next book, and the next three after that?

11) Are you reading loads of books in the genre you're writing in?

There are valid reasons why publishers and agents have rejected your writing. The most common being 'this is not a good fit for our list' which can mean just about anything and drives writers insane.

If your response to rejections is, "Those gatekeepers are holding me back, I know better than them, they'll all be sorry when I'm a millionaire and I'll laugh in their faces" ...
then I suspect you're rushing into indie publishing and doing it for all the wrong reasons. The main one being spite.

I'm kidding!
Sort of.

It's insanely competitive out there. There have never been so many books published in the history of publishing. Your book - whether trade published or Indie - has to compete with that.

A deep part of me thinks that a traditionally published book has already gone through some kind of difficult selection criteria before the public sees it and is asked to pay for it. Loads and loads of people had to LOVE it first. It's the path I took, therefore part of me thinks it's the path everyone should take.

And this is the point where people start to become entrenched in their thinking.

Those who've gone with trade publishing will be absolutely certain they've done the right and honorable thing. They will also recommend to everyone else they do the same.

On the other hand, those who've gone the indie route know for an absolute certainty they are doing the best thing possible.

What really matters is the story - not the platform.

Make your story the thing everyone talks about, not how you got the story out there.