Something to be grateful for

Yes, I know November is over.  All the same, I’d like to mention something I’m grateful for in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday.

It’s self publishing.  True, the self publishing landscape isn’t perfect.  Marketing can be a difficult, confusing morass to slog through, and paying for editing, proofreading and cover art out of pocket can be pricey especially when sales aren’t rolling in.

All the same, I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to publish on my own.  While self publishing comes with some challenges, not least of which the need to produce and market books on my own (or at least on my dime), I’m also in full creative control of my work.  Everything from the cover design, to the formatting, and the all important creative decisions come across my desk and only move forward on my say so. 

The degree of freedom associated with self publishing can’t be overstated.  Would that all of us can find a medium of artistic expression.

Moreover, I’m grateful for the ecosystem of professionals who have grown up around the self publishing industry.  We have access to top shelf editors, formatters, website designers, cover artists, and more.

It hasn’t always been so.  The infrastructure for electronic publishing, print on demand services, and online marketing that makes self publishing possible is quite new.  The PDF format, a major milestone for electronic literature, was published in 1993.  In the grand scheme of things, that wasn’t that long ago.

Before the innovations, printing and distributing without the backing of a major publishing house was a far more difficult proposition.

In modern times, self publishing is not only more feasible, but profitable.  Many an independent author has made a living, or at least a good side hustle, publishing books online.  Thanks to the internet, marketing books directly to customers has never been easier.

As I said when I began, the system isn’t perfect.  There are still improvements to be made and hurdles to overcome.  But that fact that there IS a self publishing landscape to be improved on AT ALL seems nothing less than miraculous to me.

In close, I am grateful for the opportunity to publish books independently.  I’d like to offer my best wishes to all my fellow authors, both those who publish traditionally and on their own. 

I’d also like to thank all the readers out there.  Without you, there’d be no us.  I am certainly grateful to everyone who has granted an author enough trust to spend a little of your precious time with us. 

Thanks to you.

Happy Reading,

Russell Pike