by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Today is July 4th and those of us in the States are celebrating our country’s independence.
It’s a day when we usually celebrate freedom of all kinds. And eat lots of grilled food. :)
One of my favorite things about living in a free country is having choices—being able to choose with whom we want to associate. Being able to choose how or if we want to worship. The option to travel freely to other countries.
And even the freedom to make very small choices. Like how we want to approach publishing our book.
It’s baffled me how acrimonious the traditional publishing vs. self-publishing debate has become. Emotions have run high in both camps and it seems to be centered around who’s right and who’s wrong.
I don’t think it matters who’s right and I don’t think it really matters what we choose to do with a particular book. We should probably just write plenty of books and experiment.
I’ve just handed in the fourth book of my Memphis Barbeque series to Penguin.
Now I’m writing a book to self-publish. I’ve self-published two other titles, but one was backlist and one was written for traditional publishing but didn’t sell. This is the first time I’ve written a book for the sole purpose of self-publishing it.
After that, I’ll be working on my 3rd book for the Southern Quilting mysteries for Penguin.
I couldn’t feel less-conflicted about it. I won’t try to shop the book I’m writing independently—it won’t be sent to my agent. I won’t agonize over the fact that I’m writing books for a traditional publisher and whether that means I’ll miss out on higher royalties.
Actually, it’s a real luxury to have more than one option. What’s a good approach for one book may not be right for another.
So that’s what I’m celebrating on this 4th of July—having options and having the ability to freely choose between them. What are you celebrating?
Happy 4th to my friends in the States. :)
Image: Flickr—Lou Ann A
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