![]() Whether you order one book or a thousand books, your order arrives on the specified date, if not sooner. Publishing on demand is another wonderful feature of Amazon. ![]() Being able to check on the number of books sold, royalties, readers' reviews anytime, day or night, again, with the click of a mouse is such a convenience. Editing, publishing, updating and adding photos are all accomplished at my convenience with the click of a mouse. I've never asked a question that wasn't answered promptly and cheerfully. In my opinion, independent publishing is the only way to go! My book is mine, exactly the way I wrote it, exactly the way I wanted Bob's fans to read it. I ran with it and have never looked back. The thought of a publisher editing my words or deciding which parts of my story were relevant or irrelevant didn’t appeal to me on any level, so I sought the guidance of one of my dearest friends, a man I consider a mentor and whose advice I trust, New York Times bestselling author Homer Hickam. Laying your soul bare for public consumption is daunting, scary, overwhelming. With a very personal story to tell, I wanted to be in charge of how it was presented to the public. Getting really quiet with yourself in order to go back to a specific time in your life is one thing, but to delve deep enough to taste it, smell it, hear it and feel it was a struggle that sent me to my knees, literally, on more than one occasion. What I didn't truly understand was the extent to which I'd have to relive the good and not-so-good times in my life. I had always heard that, in the case of memoirs, the author had to relive his/her experiences, so I was well aware, or so I thought, that I would have to go back to places that would fill me with joy as well as places that would fill me with despair. Those were my thoughts, but the reality was very different. I mean, seriously, how hard could it be to tell my story? After all, it was MY story, a story no one else was privy to, a story no one else could tell. On the surface, becoming a writer sounds like a fairly easy thing to do, doesn't it? First, have a story to tell, whether fictional or autobiographical, put pen to paper, or in this electronic age, fingers to keyboard, and go for it. Selling all of the rights to it would be like selling my own child and I could never do that to my child. I took a chance on staying independent because my story is so near and dear to my heart. I'll never forget pulling up that webpage and seeing my little book, "Why Me?", listed among the giants in the publishing industry. Since then "Why Me" reached #8 on the New York Times best seller list in January of 2012. I was shocked and honored to be contacted by one of the "giants" in the publishing industry, however I turned them down! I wasn't looking for mass-market appeal I was looking for a way to get my book into the hands of people who NEEDED my story. I uploaded my book in September 2010 and was approached by a major publisher on December 1st of 2011 for potential print distribution. Then one day through a random online search, I stumbled upon Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing program and found the world of self-publishing. Most of the publishers I found wouldn't even read a manuscript without agent representation, so I began to give up on the idea of ever publishing my book. However, I was discouraged when I started looking for traditional publishers to see the hoops you had to jump through just to get someone to look at your manuscript. I decided that I wanted to try to get my book published to help other abuse victims. ![]() It made me wonder how many children and adults were also suffering or walking around with the same guilt I had harbored for years. ![]() I had done nothing wrong to deserve what I got from Mom. I realized that I had been feeling guilty my entire adult life for nothing. The writing process was extremely therapeutic. I wrote about what I still felt, what still gave me nightmares and what was still making me sad in my adult life. I wrote about how when I shut my eyes I could still see Mom's eyes, how I could still smell her breath in my face, how much time I spent in our barn and how Mom made me brush my teeth with Comet. ![]()
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