A Reformed Do It Yourselfer

Last Fall I self-published Underwear Probation and The Birthday Wish. I was very pleased with how easy it was to do and even created my own covers. I wrote several posts about the benefits of self-publishing and encouraged others to give it a try.

But...Lady Katherine's Comeuppance is being published by LazyDay. What made me decide to go that route?

A couple things. When I was invited to participate in Coming To Terms, I got to know Staci Taylor at Lazy Day and was pleased with the professionalism of their operation.

I also wanted to increase my sales. I'm not sure if going with a publisher guarantees better sales (and of course, I need to sell more to make up for the fact that I'm now sharing the proceeds), but I wanted to see if there was a difference.

Professional editing. I have several friends, writers and bloggers, who very generously give of their time to read my work and give feedback. However, there are only so many times I'm willing to ask "what do you think of this?" because I don't want to take up their time (or show off how needy I really am). Also, it's a tricky thing to critique for friends and give the tough love.

On the flip side, I had to be willing to submit my work and take the risk that someone would write back and say "What were you thinking?" That's scary. Fortunately, that didn't happen.

A professional cover. OMG Seriously, when you see the cover for this book (planning to reveal it a week from today) you'll die of envy. But, even before I saw the fabulous cover, I was relieved to have someone else do it. My skills are limited (stop nodding your heads).

Other benefits, in random order.

• The time lapse between submission and release. With self-publishing I'd get the book done and within a couple days it was for sale. I ought to have planned better and worked on a marketing scheme to increase anticipation to boost early sales of the book.

• I knew Lazy Day wouldn't take anything less than 20K words so I pushed and wrote something twice as long as I'd ever written before.

• I am someone who needs accountability. With self-publishing, if I said "I want to have X done by Y date" and it didn't happen, so what? But, I hate not doing what I say I'm going to do, so when Staci gave me deadlines, I didn't want to miss them. She also told me no naps, but what she doesn't know won't hurt her.

• I like having someone to answer my questions. Again, because I know there is a financial benefit to LD from our relationship (or will be) I don't feel badly asking. There's only so much I can ask of my friends without feeling like I am taking up too much of their time. (However, I love helping others, so please don't take this as meaning I don't want to hear from you and help you out.)

• Let's admit it: It's cool to say "My publisher says..." or "I need to get back to my publisher right away." Or "I have to get that contract back to my publisher."

Does this mean I'm done with self-publishing? I doubt it. I like to keep my options open. But for now, I'm excited to say "My publisher is LazyDay."


***Staci didn't say no vacations, so I'm going out of town for a few days. I might not respond to comments right away but that doesn't mean I don't want to hear from you all.****