I originally moved to Minnesota with the intent of retiring from newspapers and focusing on writing novels. That lasted about six months.
When I moved to Minnesota in November of 2020, I had already published three novels with a small publishing group. My fourth was in progress with the same company, but I was developing a fifth book that I had intended to be my breakout success.
In the development stages, it was called The Ghost Circuit. The story is about four different eras of a former real-life West Virginia psychiatric hospital. Now called the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, it is considered one of the most haunted places in America.
I spent two years developing it, two years writing it, and two years shopping it around to agents and publishers.
It was my dream project. It was the best-written story I had ever produced. Despite my high hopes, absolutely no one wanted it outside of a few nibbles and one very close call.
I was still fighting for a publisher when I attended a book festival last fall. My booth neighbor was a self-published author. As I also discovered, she was very much evangelical in her belief that self-publishing was the way to go.
She sold me on the idea. I crave creative freedom as much, if not more, than money. The lure of publishing my book my way was too tantalizing to deny. I crunched the numbers and decided I could get it done on a budget of $5,000.
$6,500 later, the book is all set for publication on Oct. 3. Now under the title, A Ghost Chases the Horizon.
That number doesn’t include any marketing or travel past this writing. I have five tour dates that will require several nights of hotel stays, so that will add to the number. Plus, any and all marketing I decide to do. $1,000 of the above budget was already allocated to newspaper advertising in Weston, W.Va., where the book is set.
I learned a lot from this experience, which was always going to be part of the plan. Who needs a degree in publishing when you can just dive in and learn the hard way? I did the whole process from what a semester of tuition would cost anyway.
There are a lot of things I wouldn’t do again, should I decide to self-publish in the future. $500 of the budget went to improving my query submission package. These are the materials submitted to publishers and agents to get them interested. Won’t be needing that when going it alone.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is getting reviews. There are a lot of places you can get reviews. Most don’t carry a lot of weight. Some I highly recommend for the blurb alone. Literary Titan is my favorite for well-written reviews, and they don’t score anything under four stars.
If you want a review that holds weight, Kirkus is the way to go. I did this with my most popular novel, In the Country Dark. I was mostly disappointed with the result, though I would do it again if it weren’t so expensive. A standard review costs $450. The review I received focused more on nit-picky things than the actual story, and the first draft stated it was set in Virginia as opposed to West Virginia – a common and egregious sin against Appalachians.
This last time, I tried NetGalley, which was even worse than Kirkus. It’s a site that farms your story out to reviewers. Instead of one review, you supposedly get dozens.
I got four. A one-star, twostar, three-star and four-star. At $550, that was maybe the worst money I’ve spent on anything ever.
So was it worth it? I suppose it all depends on whatever return I get – whether it be money, critical praise, or a Pulitzer or two. I had fun, I learned a lot, but I may need to sell off one of my duplicate organs to pay off the debts I incurred.
Will I do it again? I have a new book halfway finished and another in development. If I can’t find a publisher, all signs point to yes.