Self-publishing wake-up call No. 999

Tacky of me to reblog my own stuff, but since I’m about to put out a new novel, I thought I’d revisit the theme of self-publishing reality (vs fantasyland). Turns out, not much has changed in the year since I posted this. The good news? I’m still at it. And as I’ve said before, with a long-term view you don’t have to hope for miracles on any one project. It’s a building process, like the cathedrals of old — never really finished.

WHAT THE HELL

Just finished reading Alina Simone’s piece in the NYT about the plight of creative artists in our winner-take-all economy. She tells a familiar tale of having to self-promote her music after the label that had signed her went bankrupt. She wound up putting the album out herself and found the whole thing highly daunting:

“What I missed most about having a label wasn’t the monetary investment, but the right to be quiet, the insulation provided from incessant self-promotion. I was a singer, not a saleswoman. Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur.”

Simone was somehow rescued by a deus ex machina in the form of an editor who contacted her out of the blue and asked if she might want to write a novel. She did. And it was published, and now she teaches and has time to write, and I’m guessing does her music too. She’s also best buds…

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