Guidance for the Lost: The Indie Publisher at Large

Well, that's the hope, anyway. I've added a section to the site on self-publishing, specifically on the process and tools that I use. There are times when I feel like I'm fumbling around like everyone else, collecting wisdom magpie-style in bookmarks and a notes app. But it has been a solid year, and we're coming up on the first anniversary of @TheRealJoyG's publication date, and I did collect a lot of information in that lead up. If I can offer a steady shoulder for someone else to stand on, so be it. Now the circle is complete, the student has become the master, the lost has become the loser, etc..

One thing we focus on in our weekly creative writing classes, and that we talk about in our casual library meetups is the process. And I wish I could say that I had a pure and beautiful process, but I don't. It's mainly a lot of scribbling random thoughts in random places, collecting it, and then pushing it together until it might form something resembling a story. It is not like taking divine dictation or having a clever, on-demand muse. Ideas appear, typically in protective bunches, and usually at the worst time. You'll see that the Amazon storefront I just set up reflects this, preferring analog, on-the-go type idea collection, and craft books with the common theme of "the first thing you write is garbage, and you should embrace that."

Formatting is much like that, too, and I have to remind myself, and be suitably gentle. I still have my very first proof copy of One Last Quest, run off from CreateSpace before they were transplanted into Amazon. Disregarding that the content had only been barely read, it looks very crude to me, with no discernable front- or backmatter, minimal layout, dubious font choice, stock cover art that was only tangentially connected to the work, and so forth. It wasn't bad but it wasn't good either. My second proof, after I decided to revise in earnest was better, though still not great. Strong effort, middling execution. But like a first draft (or second, or fifth) it is the raw material from which something better could spring, and the shoulders upon which I myself stood.

I'm still learning the design language, still refining my eye and honing skills. It's a process, it's imperfect, and human. It may not be the truest path, but it's the scenic one that got me where I am.

🦏🧩 

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