No End in Sight
By Dixie Darr
"Beyond talent lie all the usual words; discipline, love, luck--but, most of all endurance." James Baldwin
Once I started writing, I chose to self-publish in a newsletter, The Accidental Entrepreneur. Partly, this was because I didn’t want someone else messing with what I wrote and partly because I could make more money with less frustration than trying to sell my work to somebody else.
Last year, however, I wrote a book called Don’t Die Wondering: A Guide to a Non-Retiring Life and decided to try the traditional publishing route. I read a couple of books about how to get published, put together a query letter and started sending it out to agents.
This summer, I heard from an agent who is interested in representing my book. I rejoiced for several days. Then, on the day I received the contract in the mail, I was listening to a radio talk show and heard several callers discussing the signs they were seeing all around us that the end of the world is near. “Isn’t that just perfect,” I thought. “I finally get a literary agent and the world ends.” I fervently hoped that Armageddon would hold off until my book gets published. Is that being too selfish?
Well, the world hasn’t ended yet. I’m still slogging through the painfully slow and tedious publication process. First, I had to revise the proposal. Now the agent’s job is to sell the book to a publisher, who will then take a year or more to publish it. Meanwhile, all the friends I told about getting an agent keep asking me if the book is out yet and “Where can I buy it?”
I’m working on a new project now and thinking again about self-publishing. At this rate, I could have several self-published projects finished by the time one gets through the traditional avenues. That is, unless the world ends first.
8:47:19 AM 
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