The Inside Scoop—Guest Post: Self-Publishing Freedom by Raina Nightingale

One of the first things that Raina Nightingale said to me was that she wanted to do a Guest Post about the freedom of self-publishing. This sounded perfect to me, that freedom is one of those things that defines self-publishing to me. I’ll be posting the Self-Publishing Q&A with Nightengale a little later this morning, be sure to come back for that.

One of my favorite things about being a self-published author is my freedom to do pretty much whatever I choose. When I first started looking into publishing, one of the things I noted that was that traditionally published authors are sometimes constrained by deadlines. And deadlines – even if they seem comfortable – are never something I can handle or that works with my creative process. A book can be flowing smoothly, I can have two or three chapters left to write – and then I can hit the end of my inspiration for that story for months. But without a deadline, with full ownership to all the rights, I can write whatever story I feel like at the moment. I can jump between different works-in-progress in half-different genres, and just enjoy my stories.

I can enjoy my stories and write them to be whatever I feel like. I can (deliberately, or by accident) subvert plot expectations, or ignore conventional story arcs and use completely different ones. I can write about common themes, or ones that are rarer. I’m not guaranteed to sell; I’m not guaranteed that everyone, or very many people – or strictly speaking, anyone – will like how I decide to do things. But I can do them however I like, take or ignore advice as I choose, and see how it works. Which suits me, as I write first and foremost for myself, because these are the stories I’d want to read.

And the ones that won’t leave me alone in my head. Some of them are more conventional in plot type and arc, but they’re all the stories of people, living in a world, and sometimes those stories don’t line up with very many of the conventions. As a self-published author, I can let my stories and my characters be themselves, and share those stories and characters.

I can publish them however I choose, on a time-table I set. I don’t have to wait many years to publish something unless I want to, and I don’t have to be incredibly rushed either unless I choose. And one thing I’ve recently discovered is that I really enjoy doing interior art and formatting. The design, that is. The implementation is tedious and not my favorite thing at all, but I love designing my book to be just the way I like it, and making little drawings or art pieces to fit it. It really makes me feel like this is my book, my artwork in which I can revel.

And which I hope to share with many, many others. Maybe not as many as if I were more inclined to follow conventions, but I know there are others out here who like things that are a bit – or a lot – different. I know that, as big of a seller as the romance genre is and as romantic subplots are, there are people who’d like to read high fantasy with a focus on not-so-romantic relationships front and center. A lot of people might like to be able to know what the story’s going to be before they buy the book, even if they don’t want the specific spoilers. Other people would like to be surprised, though (like me) they might not mind the specific spoilers – or even seek them out.

So, that is it. Self-publishing can be a lot of work, and one of the hard things can be finding those readers who are meant for you – or perhaps better to say your book is meant for them! But it can be very rewarding.

Be sure to check out Nightengale’s books and website!

The 2023 Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week Logo was made by Witty and Sarcastic Book Club