I was interviewed on Alana Munro’s blog. Topics include my writing process, the consequences of autobiographical writing and self-publishing.
How do you feel about self-publishing? In many ways I’m glad I self-published my novel. It gave me the freedom to do things exactly how I envisioned and get the book out sooner. As I was collecting rejection notices, I realized that I needed to get this book out—out of my computer, out of my head, out of my living room—OUT!—in order to preserve my sanity as well as my wife’s sanity. Writing this book was emotionally arduous. It took a lot out of both of us. I almost lost my marriage over it. So having the book in print was a catharsis we needed to move on with our lives. But self-publishing is also frustrating because you are responsible for every aspect of the process: the editing, the design, the printing, the marketing and the distribution. The success of a book is almost (there are exceptions, of course) entirely dependant on marketing and distribution. So if you aren’t comfortable with those things, it might be a bit tricky. But there’s no shame in self-publishing anymore. In fact, there seems to be even more potential in the “bound slush pile” of Amazon’s CreateSpace and all the other POD deals. Either way, you still gotta fight to get your voice heard… but that’s what being a writer is all about.
A Masque of Infamy 