Why I did it….

Im pretty active on twitter, so I constantly see posts about choosing Self Publishing versus Traditional Publishing. Everyone has their own reasons for what they’ve chosen, and I thought it high time to explain why I’ve chosen Self Publishing for The Devereaux Witches.

First of all, my dream has been for the longest time to get my work on the shelves at Barnes & Nobel. It was the only plan I had while I wrote the unpublished mess that came before Eyes of The Grave. As far as I knew at the time, that dream meant traditional publishing was my only option.

I’d also had extremely limited sucess with a poetry collection I’d self published a few years prior, so I didnt really have confidence in the process.

So I kind of doubled down that Traditional was for me, and kept working. By the it was as edited as I could make it (no budget for professional editing), I was still ready to query. So I set about 50 to 100 queries over the span of a year.

I had two almosts, but then either got ignored or rejected the other 98 times. Now that was tough.

That book was my baby, and it flopped hard. Looking back on it I know exactly why it flopped, but it still hurt. So I was a little more hesitant once I decided Eyes of The Grave was ready. I didnt query nearly as many agents. Got a couple rejects and then decided that while I wanted to tell my story it wasn’t as important for me to get Eyes of The Grave traditionally published as it was the WIP I’d begun working on. Self publishing worked for the vision I had of my future.

I knew Self Publishing would be hard and a constant job, but it was also a chance for me to be in control and build my platform. And so far ita turned out better than expected.

But that was one book. I had every intention of taking the next Devereaux book to agents,right up untill a few weeks ago.

Why did that change you ask? bviously that didnt sit right with me.

Because of the horror stories. I have heard so many people complaining about the lack of control once you have an agent and they sell your work to a publisher. You don’t get a say over anything but the story and even then they might make you change it. And when you have a series planned like I do, there is no gaurentee you’ll be able to write it. Publishers are notorious for buying books but then deciding they dont want to purchase anymore in the series. And if that happens you’re SOL.

Which, of course, didnt sit well with me. My series is large, and interlocks. Not being able to write an important part of that would be devestating.

So, what you have to look forward to is the continuation of the Rebekah Devereaux Trilogy, the Alix Devereaux series, and the Freya Devereaux trilogy. Plus spin offs and short stories out the wazoo!