Publishing: Why You Don’t Need A Fairy Godpublisher

By Carol Cram on April 11, 2014 in Publishing (Fri) - Alli blog.

Canadian debut novelist Carol Cram shares the lightbulb moment that made her decide to self-publish her historical novel The Towers of Tuscany, which is already attracting excellent reviews without the intervention of a Fairy Godpublisher.

Canadian self-published novelist Carol Cram

For years, I believed that I needed a Fairy Godpublisher (and her cousin the Fairy God Agent) to tell me I was worthy, to fashion my words into pearls, to gently lead me to the promised land of readers.
Don’t I?
I’ve recently indie published my debut novel, The Towers of Tuscany, with New Arcadia Publishing, my own small, independent publisher of books connected with creativity and the arts. I wrote two other novels before publishing The Towers of Tuscany, and both times I cast about for agents, chatted up publishers at conferences, rode the roller coaster of encouragement and rejection, suffered through more long silences than a bad marriage. The only thing I accomplished was to erode my self-confidence into a nub of cringing self-doubt.

The Truth about Publishing

And then I had a revelation. I realized that my true goal as an author is not to convince a Fairy Godpublisher to publish my novel. No. My goal is to write the best novel I can write and then to find people to read it. I shelved the first two novels (which really weren’t very good) and for four years, wrote and edited The Towers of Tuscany. I then tolerated rejection from just one agent and one publisher before deciding to go indie.

Hey presto, Carol Cram’s debut historical novel – self-published without magical intervention

The moment I made going indie a choice rather than a consolation prize, everything fell into place. A fabulous copy editor, a local book cover designer, a proof reader with laser eyes materialized—guided into my life by some unseen force, perhaps? Who knows? I also found three prominent authors in my genre to “blurb” my book and I received wonderful early reviews. I read books and blogs about indie and made lists of  marketing tasks that I now tackle one at a time. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it is doable and most importantly, it's what Iwant to do.

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