Blogger/Indie Writer Elle Lothlorien waxes funny and sage in the introduction to a series on self-publishing that promises to be very down-to-earth.

Her First Thing: Asking the Right Question is a great start, but, may not be entirely safe for work as she kind of riffs off of Fifty Shades of Grey in her article.

The question, of course, isn't HOW do I self-publish, but SHOULD I self-publish.

After watching several authors (one traditionally published, one entirely self-published, one agented but decided to go Indie anyway) go through the process, I decided that my dreams of becoming as successful as JK Rowling were not realistic.

I also decided that I wasn't willing to put in the work required (emotional or timewise) that I would require (not everyone, just me) to be successful in snagging an agent and a traditional book contract.

I also wasn't about to give up writing and wanted someone other than my beta readers to have a look at the novels I'd put so much time into writing. Not to mention that writing takes time away from work, family, cleaning, exercise, etc, and if I was making money from it, even if it was only a little, that it would be justified to take that time in my own mind.

So I jumped in with Tiger Lily in 4/2012.

And I'm pleased that I answered "yes" to the Should you self-publish? question. (I'm still submitting other manuscripts to agents, I'm of the opinion that successful writers will be ones with fingers in ebook, traditional, and audio pies)

Here's some results for 2012 with one novel:
Books Sold/Borrowed through Amazon KDP Select: 200
Books Given Away through Freebie Promotion: 6756
Royalties paid so far by Amazon: $489.44

Money I paid to artist/copyeditors in order to selfpublish, buy business cards, attend writer conference: 283.00

Net Profit: $206.00


It's not the biggest slice of the pie, but its a slice of pie that satisfies me without making me crazy over the making of the pie.

Okay, so maybe a bit tangled in my edible metaphors here, but what I mean is, I am satisfied with this amount of money/readers because it lets me balance volunteer work, being a mother to two elementary school-aged kids, doing an almost full-time job with and ESL testing company, and getting to play Band Hero with my husband sometimes.

But obviously, it's not the path for everyone.