Deciding to Publish

Making a decision that could… or could not change my life.

About a year ago I met a new friend. As an adult I have to admit, I’m not one to make friends often, but we had some shared experiences that pulled us together and we became friends. When we first met I knew she stayed at home with her son but after some time I was shocked to find out that she was a published author. In a conversation one day I admitted I had six romance novellas just sitting on my computer. Her first response was something along the lines of “Are you going to do something with them?”

I didn’t really know how to answer. When I wrote The Heroes of Calvano Security the books were for my own entertainment. I would reread them from time to time, but I never thought I would share them with anyone else. They didn’t even have titles! I just had them each saved on my computer by the name of the main characters. For example, Unbelievable was simply titled, Jason and Christy. I enjoyed writing but the idea of doing it and making money was a foreign concept to me. After a long talk, over a long walk I learned enough to make me interested.

Like most potential authors I loved the idea of someday having my books on my own bookshelf. Unfortunately, they were short and messy and there was no way I would be able to find a publisher. On our walk I learned about Indie publishing, going wide verses just selling through Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. I was learning bit by bit that there was a lot more I needed to learn. When it came down to it I realized that writing didn’t have to be a painful difficult process. I could keep control, hire out what I wanted, and publish my own books right online.

The Romance Genre

One of the most important things I had to decide was how I was going to start this out. As a romance reader and writer I had a interesting perspective. Romance readers, like me, plow through books in record time. Once I realized what Kindle Unlimited was and how it worked I fell in love with reading online. Don’t get me wrong, I have a massively large bookshelf filled with books, but when it came to my favorite genre I could read a book a day and not need to worry where to store them or running out. I knew after some additional research that sticking to a digital medium was going to be the best option for me.

For someone who didn’t make a conscious decision to write, I had a lot to consider if I was going to try and publish. Once the decision was made there was no turning back. I found videos, articles, podcasts and everything I could get my hands on to learn more about self-publishing. My inner control freak was immediately smitten with the ability to make all the decisions for myself. Traditional publishing is great for so many people, but for me self-publishing was the direction I wanted to go.

Now, I have my first book edited (by myself, which may have been a bad idea… more on that another day) and it’s with my first ever Beta Readers! Needless to say if I don’t make it past this I’m already pleased with how far I’ve come. Only time will tell how the next chapter of this adventure works out. But I promise to keep you all updated here.

Happy Reading!

-Nikki Rome

Check out my first post on Deciding to Write.