Self-Published Authors

What do

Ben Franklin
Thomas Paine
Anais Nin
Walt Whitman
Virginia Woolf
Gertrude Stein
Edgar Allan Poe
Mary Baker Eddy

and

Carl Sandburg

all have in common?

They are self-published authors (as if you couldn't guess from the title of this post).

Add to that list

Mark Twain, for Huckleberry Finn
James Joyce, for Ulysses
Edgar Rice Burroughs, for his Tarzan series
Zane Grey, for his first (rejected) novel

And you have quite an eclectic, and accomplished, list.

Oh, you say, but these are all writers from years and years gone past. Most from over a century ago. Today the publishing world is different. No one really can succeed at the self-publishing game today.

No?

How about ...

What Color is Your Parachute?
The One Minute Manager
Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun
The Celestine Prophecy
Rich Dad Poor Dad
Life 101
Do It! Let's Get Off Our Buts
Eragon

all originally self-published during my lifetime, most during my adult lifetime.

My point to all this is that it is doable. It is even simple. Not easy, but simple.

I've spent the last month or so researching the process. Compiled a 200 item To Do list. Started chipping away at it. Spent many an hour frustrated, overwhelmed, doubtful, even depressed. But then, an hour after that, grew excited and enthusiastic, again, to get my three novels out there. Three novels sitting gathering cyber dust on a couple of CDs in a desk drawer here the past five years.

I estimated that it will take me a thousand hours to bring this project to fruition. So far I'm about 60 in. But I may be overthinking it (ED. - No! Not you, Hopper!). All I really need are some answers, some luck, and continued perseverance. And as far as luck goes, I'm a firm believer in the old adage that you create your own luck through your own hard work.

But work like this, while hard, never truly feels like work.