How a Middle-Aged Man Finally Starts Something He Should Have Done Years Ago

Happy January!  So, what was your New Year’s resolution?

Really?  Again?

I think I’ve said here before that I’m not much into New Year’s resolutions.  But a couple years ago, I suddenly got a little serious (highly unusual for this here blogger) and resolved to write more.  Not here, not for you guys.  I love you guys, but I had another audience in mind.  Write for my kids.

It took a little while, but this year, for Christmas, they were able to unwrap a book, a real, actual professionally printed book, full of time travel adventures and sibling misadventures and dinosaurs, written by their dad and starring both of them.

Those kids look vaguely familiar...

And because it’s a real book, their adventurers have become available to anyone who wants to read them.  (That made Christmas shopping for friends and family REALLY easy this year.)

“Ok, sure, but did they like it?”

Um, my son is three.  He likes apple juice.  Ask him again in five years.  As for my daughter, she keeps asking me if I’m writing the next one yet.

Spoiler alert: I am.  And the third one, too.

Hard at work.

So, I wrote a book, some people have actually bought it.  Someone even reviewed it!  (Thanks, by the way, that was nice.)  I’m pretty sure that makes me an actual independent children’s book author.  Mission accomplished!

It's important to have a good author photo.

So, am I in this for the money?  The fame?  Yes.  Yes, I am.

I’ve been writing stuff since high school.  In college, I was practically prolific, even managing to write a radio play every week for two straight years.  I’ve slowed down a little since then.

After college, I started working in bookstores.  We didn’t have very high opinions of self-published authors.  It was nothing personal.  I read those self-published books.  Many were crap.  Some were quite good.  But even the good ones were nearly impossible to sell.  Writers needed publishers, needed their connections, their resources, their marketing skills.  This was the early 2000s, back when internet startups were good investments and people were just starting to realize they could share music online.

Fast forward, and I remember watching the rise of social media sites, watching the rise of social media marketing, the rise of tablets and ebook readers, and it suddenly occurred to me that the publishing industry was about to hit a crossroads of sort, like the music industry had years before.

I remember having a conversation with a friend, nearly a decade ago, that independent publishing was now not only possible, but viable, with authors able to reach audiences without the resources of mainstream publishers.  One could, if you put the work into it, be a successful writer without a major publishing house behind you.

But that doesn’t mean I’m quitting my job and doing this independent writer thing full-time.  Maybe twenty year ago, I’d give it a go and see how much I could make shamelessly peddling my wares.  These days, I have too few wares and too much shame.  But it does seem like an interesting experiment: can an independent author/publisher circumvent the publishing industry, those who once held the keys to the gates of success?  As I’ve said, I think the answer now is yes.

And after all, I’m going to write the books either way.  And not just the kids books.  You guys know about Pieces of Eight, and there are more.  If I'm gonna write them, might as well try to sell them, too.

And now, Faithful Reader, you must be expecting the shameless plug portion of this blog.  You are, perhaps, expecting the part where I tell you all to go buy my book?  Where I paste in the links for the hardcover version, and the paperback version, and then I point out the Kindle version is very reasonably priced, and you’ll be helping pay for Ella’s college education?  The part where I tell you to buy a copy, buy two, give one to a friend, tell everyone you know with a daughter that they need to read it, and share my posts about it on Facebook, and Twitter, and Linkedin, and, I don’t know, maybe Pinterest?  Or where I ask you to write a review for it on Amazon?  The part of this blog where I metaphorically get down on my knees and beg you to buy my book?

But I'm not going to do any of that.  

I don't have to.  You already know what to do.  So, go to it!

Ella and Leo Save the Fairies should hopefully be out later this year, in time for Christmas shopping.

Spoiler: They save the fairies.