My indie writer journey as it has gone so far.

So I've actually been an indie author(or working on being an indie author) for ages longer than I've talked about it or really had an online presence to mention it. I've wanted to be an author since I started getting into writing at age eleven, and I've always wanted to put my books into the hands of other people.

Obviously, like the rest of us did, I eventually did my research and found out that doing what I wanted to do would be very hard, nearly impossible unless I really put my back into it. The world of traditional publishing involved a thousand steps I couldn't understand. But for a while, I thought it was my only real option, and it was what I pursued. There was a time where I desperately wanted to be a part of Harper Collins because I noticed they published almost all my favorite books at the time, and I considered them to be the publishing house to go with.

Bit of a shame that Harper Collins was basically ironclad and impossible to get in touch with.

So I opted out of traditional publishing. I was given one or two excellent books on the world of indie publishing, and while they scared me a little bit too(because what isn't scary about being the only one responsible for your success or failure?), the idea of having 100% control over what I got to say and how was more appealing to me than anything else. I would hold all the cards, and I would get the last say. I could decide to do whatever I wanted.

Now, a little backstory. By the time I decided I wanted to indie publish, I had been writing for probably 5+ years(sorry, I'm going off memory and I don't know exactly when this was), and I'd written a lot. I hadn't quite learned what editing was other than some spellchecking and adding a few new scenes, and I had written almost nonstop this entire time. I think I had around thirty manuscripts written, all of varying degrees of quality, and I knew I wanted to do something with at least some of them. Maybe I would never get to all of them, but I wasn't going to let them sit idle.

But here's the part I don't talk about a lot: as of right now, 2021, I've already tried publishing several times. There was a time where I went through a sketchy website that claimed to be part of a bigger publishing house that considered new manuscripts on Wednesdays, but uh I never heard back from them and it's probably a good thing that the manuscript I sent them wasn't very good because I now think it was definitely a scam.

I also tried KDP/CreateSpace to publish a few. There was a kid's book I was obsessed with creating for some reason, so I tried that path, and I once indie published a really bad, amateur book called Discovery(which I have since taken down from KDP). Let's just not talk about that one, shall we?

And then there was Crash and Burn. Crash and Burn was my baby for a very long time, and I'll still never take it down because it is still dear to my heart, but I know there are several glaring mistakes in the story and formatting, and I don't dare crack open the cover because I'm worried about what I might see.

But to me, for the most part, those books are bygones.

Fast forward to present day. In my mind, Robbing Centaurs and Other Bad Ideas is my First Self Published Book. Granted, Crash and Burn should probably have that spot, but let's call her the #0.5 rather than the #1. Since starting writing or even since writing Crash and Burn, I've learned so much about writing, about storytelling, about marketing and self-publishing. Heck, when I published Crash and Burn, I didn't even know that you needed to justify the lines so that they weren't all raggedy on the right side(ouch). Now, do I know everything there is to know? Heck no. But I'm super proud of RCOBI, it is truly my pride and joy, and I love the bois to death.

I don't know what else there is to say. That's my journey so far, or as much of it as I can get into one concise thought, and I'm working hard to publish Robbing Centaurs and Other Bad Ideas to be read by all of you. Truly, I love Wick and Archer. I can't wait for you to meet them.