by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The key reason why I don’t plan to self-publish (at least at the moment) is that’s not my fucking vision. I refuse to “self-limit” by dwelling on all the problems associated with getting traditionally published. Every problem is just an opportunity in diguise.
I totally validate people who go the self-publishing route, but that’s just not my dream. My dream is to go through the whole process of going the traditional route of publishing to see how far I can get before it’s absolutely clear that I will never, ever get this novel published without self-publishing.
That is not to say I don’t often these days have a bit of existential angst on the issue of how I’m going to attempt to get this thing published. I do constantly, especially now that my Tik-Tok For You Page is full of people either singing the praises of self-publishing or shitting on going the traditional route.
But I believe in myself. I feel as though if I set my standards as high as possible, the end product will be a lot better. And, really, there are two major issues that I find myself coming back to again and again.
One is, I can’t help how long it’s taken me to get this point. If I had really given my age a lot of thought as I was working on this first novel, I would have taken things a lot more seriously and had a lot more structure with hard, fast metrics that might have sped up the process. But, here I am.
If you factor in post-production issues, even if I stick the landing, I could be in my mid-50s before this novel is in people’s hand. But I have accepted that as a real possibility and each time I do a gut-check on this issue, I still want to proceed with trying to get published the traditional route.
The other issue, the real wild card, is what the fuck is going to happen with the United States between now and spring 2025. I continue to have real concerns about the possibility of a civil war in the United States in that timeframe. It could be that, in the end, it won’t be how difficult it is to get through the gatekeepers that end my dreams of being a published author, but rather, well the effective end of the world.
But there is one thing I have to do if I’m absolutely sure I’m not going to self-publish and that is read more and watch more TV shows and movies. They say if you have enough time to write, you have enough time to read.
I continue to be really impressed with what I’ve managed to come up with in this first novel and the only reason I’ve gotten this good is I have worked on the assumption that, ultimately, I am going to traditionally publish.
So, in other words — I have my vision and if you don’t like it, fuck off. Wink.
