Committing Literary Suicide and Saving Trees

It's been some time since my last post. I've been a busy girl - juggling various projects and trying to figure out what to do about my publishing dilemma.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have an agent. This is cool thing in theory. However, if you're a writer with a different sort of slant on life - agent or no agent - getting published is not the easiest thing in the world. So far my agent has attempted to sell two of my manuscripts to no avail. He seems to get positive feedback, but apparently my ideas are a little too out there. Publishers don't want to take a risk with my stuff for fear that it won't sell.

After much thought and research, I've decided to give self-publishing a shot. In the publishing world, self-publishing is looked down upon. Sneered at, in fact. My ego struggled with this a bit at first until I came to the brilliant conclusion that the whole purpose of writing for me is to share my ideas and experiences with people who might be interested. So I concluded that a book is a book - regardless of who publishes it. The challenge for me will be marketing. I suck at selling myself.

I've decided to go with lulu. They're an online print-on-demand company. The only services they offer are printing and shipping. The really cool thing about this approach is that they only print books as they're sold. In traditional publishing a large number of books is printed in advance with the hope that they'll all sell (they usually don't - making it a very wasteful industry). I like the idea that some trees will be saved by going print-on-demand. (This still doesn't make me a hippie).

I'm planning to release my first book through lulu this summer. Slaying the Mouse: A true story of healing in the spiritual realms is about my shamanic relationship with a young man in a coma. It's an unusual and fascinating example of long-distance healing and dreamtime communication. At least I think so. (I told you I wasn't good at selling myself) I'll keep you posted.