Self Publishing Can Be Fun

Continuing with the theme of self-publishing. The company I chose to deal with is called AuthorHouse. It describes itself as a "leader in the self-publishing industry".

A site run by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. which is devoted to vanity publishers and subsidy publishers, has various links to checking out all kinds of publishers and the like. One of which, is called "Preditors & Editors", a guide to publishing and writing services for serious writers. On this site, when you look up AuthorHouse, you'll see it's not recommended by them because they call it a 'vanity publisher'.

By the same token, when I decided to Google info on AuthorHouse, the second link to show up after the one for AuthorHouse, was one called "Dog Ear Publishing", which was listed in the Preditors & Editors site as a self-publishing company. Go figure.

It did some nice comparisons on the three majors out there, one of which was AuthorHouse. After reading the some of the articles in it, there were some pluses and minuses to AuthorHouse that got me to really think about going with AuthorHouse long term. One of the major pluses was that this company was recommended to me by an author who has about eight good mystery novels published through them.

Basically, what I'll probably do, is do one and out with them for my first novel. Since self-publishing is/can be expensive and it's something not for the faint of heart, I can consider this to be valuable lesson that I can use towards my ultimate goal of finding a commercial publisher.

For the immediate future, at least I can work on marketing/selling my first one while writing the second. And if anything, it will give me something of a "carrot" to offer people, when I start knocking on doors again.

And if it doesn't work out that way in the long run, then I can continue with my adventures in self-publishing. Either way, it's gonna be a funky roller coaster ride.
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Getting back to my novel. After purchasing the service contract for my book, things began moving rather quickly. Last week, I had a call with the designer regarding the interior and exterior of my book, which I think went relatively well. I'm shooting for a cover that expresses the beauty of love as it relates to nature (since its a romance novel) and for the body text, I'm going to be using the Palatino Linotype font. It's soft and easy on the eyes, which is my personal preference.

As for the basic premise of the novel, first and foremost, I like to think of it as a real life romance. Not something that you would typically read of, but something more grounded in reality. The reality is an work place romance, or to be more precise, a love affair between co-workers, one not married and one is.

In addition to this love affair turned serious relationship, there is an important secondary plot line woven throughout the narrative. Because the lead character has started to develop a strong attachment to his co-worker, he becomes confused over his feelings for her. In trying to reconcile these feelings, he decides to put them down on paper. Originally meant to be an outlet for his emotions and nothing more, it soon turns into a volatile relationship that mirrors such a parallel course to his own relationship to his co-worker, that it becomes quite impossible to tell which one is real and which one is the product of an active imagination.