Independence Day & Date

Today my book is available for purchase both in print and as an ebook.

You can find the print copy here, and the Kindle version here. Versions for the Nook and iPad will be available any day now.

For some reason I am 'Mr. Darby Gavin Harn' on the print page. Hmm.

It took four years for this day to happen. Not to write the book. That largely took about 6 months - let's say 9 or so with revisions. I finished the book and delivered it to my publisher three years ago. It sat in limbo ever since, with shifting release dates, all the way up to last fall. It even went up for sale online, but things didn't add up. No cover. It supposedly went out for review, but it didn't. Never available from the distributor that was distributing it. After a while, the obvious finally became clear. The book was never coming out.

If there was a reason for the publisher (named elsewhere on the site) not releasing the book on time or at all, it was never expressed. Not even when I asked. I got endless deflection, or I was simply ignored. After three years wasted on a book I was desperate to get past, I wasn't about to let it be four.

I felt like a fool. Like a failure. Every one kept asking me - where is the book? It's the kind of book you can buy in stores, right?

Part of me wanted to burn the book and never look back. I could have done that, easily. I could have tried to sell it elsewhere. I would have, I'm sure. That would have been another 2-3 years of my life. I had already wasted 3 years on a book I was desperate to get past. I wasn't about to let it be four.

So I jumped at the only other option, which was to do it myself. Five years ago - two - this would have been unthinkable. It would have been impractical from a cost standpoint, and career suicide. If you ever want to be taken seriously as a writer, and boy did I, you simply cannot self publish. You just don't do it.

I'm over what I'm supposed to or not supposed to do. I think most people are, and the fact that I walked out of a typical writer sob story into the digital revolution is extremely fortunate for me. So many others never had this option.

I am going my own way. Where it goes, I have no idea. Part of that is scary. Part of it is thrilling. If anyone wants to tag along, I don't bite.

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