Decision Made

I’ve been doing some thinking about my novel, Chaos Wolf.  After several rejections, I’ve had several people look over the query and the manuscript.  And while they all agree that I have written a good book, I may not have written a marketable-by-the-Big-5-publishers book.  That leaves me with a several options.

1. I can keep querying agents.
2. Keep sending into slush piles focusing on medium to small press.
3. I trunk the novel and wait for a change in the market.
4. Self-publish

I’ve been turning the options over in my head, talked to several people and came to the conclusions that I should self-publish it.  Why did I choose that option?

For 1, if it’s not sellable in this market, there’s no point in querying it.

For 2, for the most part, I haven’t seen any benefits to small press publishing that I won’t get from self-publishing.

For 3, Chaos Wolf is first of a series that I have planned out, so trunking it would cut out a substantial chunk of the stories I want to tell.

For 4, it’s a lot of work that I will have to do.  But if I want it out soon*, it’s my best option, plus I will not be in the situation where books 1 and 2 are picked up, while book 3, 4, and 5 are not.

Now that I have a direction to head in, a weight has lifted off my shoulders.  I’m making a list of everything I have to do – hire an editor, hire cover an artist, figure out what I need to have set up ahead of time before I hit the publish button.  Right now I’m figuring out my new timeline.  So watch this space for future announcements.

*For values of soon that include about a one year period.