Indie publishing takes time too

"Perseverance is not a long race.  It is many short races one after another." - Walter Elliott

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish." - John Quincy Adams

Lots of quotes are out there on the matter of perseverance.  Most folks, I think, view the characteristic as I often do, as a single-word descriptor for the act of bravely pressing on against tidal wave-sized forces--painful, gritty determination glowing in a nearly-beaten face as the one who is persevering strives toward his impossible goal against all odds.  But it's simpler than that most of the time, I would suggest.  Perseverance can also be shown through a series of smaller battles against less fearsome odds, each one toward a smaller goal or no particular goal at all. 

That, of course, brings me to--well, me.  I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.  I'm still writing.  I've already discussed ad nauseum the stuff life's tossed at me that keeps me from being as effective at the keyboard as I'd like to be.  You know, illness, day job stress, that sort of thing.  Hasn't really changed.  But I'm keepin' on keepin' on.  It seems to go a bit more slowly than it did last year, but I think that's just because I'm doing more.  Last year I was writing books and blogging about it.  This year I'm writing books and blogging about it and trying to sell ebooks and blogging about it and trying to sell paper books and, well, you get the idea.  There's more to it once you get stuff out there, is all. 

It's interesting, actually, how much effort it takes to get a written novel out to the market.  I'd been going with the wisdom that one advantage of self-publishing is that you can bring your writing to market faster than the 9-18 month window traditional publishers require between the date the author writes "The End" at the end of the novel and the date the work is available to purchase.  Now I'm realizing that wisdom isn't particularly accurate.  Go figure; as I recall, I picked it up from a literary agent who'd never self-published.  But seriously, I wrote "The End" in Cataclysm on March 20th, 2011.  It first came to market in early December 2011.  That's--well, give or take a few days, that's nine months.  Ascension, which I used to call Part II, was completed on May 31, 2011.  I want to say I'm really, really close to publishing it, but I refuse to send a book out into the public's grasp without reading it aloud to my wife first, and I'm only halfway done with that.  So, early April pub date on Ascension it is.  That's.... *counting fingers, and then one toe* eleven months. 

I'll explore the time frame further in a later blog post, because I'm sure those of you who haven't done this are wondering what takes so long.  Till then, though--off I go to put on my Dean's costume of Doom! 

Have a great day!

-TOSK