Knoxville! Setting of my Beautiful Man and Other Stories.
And just a few remarks, to answer questions that maybe, just maybe, occur to someone either getting my new book or just wondering about the process.
The process. Yes, I self-published. I chose this course because, ironically, I've been published in the traditional way. Don't get me wrong; that experience was excellent in many ways. But it was also transitional. By 2006, what had happened to the music industry had overtaken the world of publishing and, unless you were uniquely positioned as a writer to generate massive sales, no houses did much in the way of marketing for your book. Today, they do less, possibly because the last of the traditional publishers, downsized and downsized, are busy trying to stay alive. This is not sour grape-ism on my part. It's business reality.
Another thing about that old-fashioned process: it demands lots of energy and time. I got lucky, in having a marvelous agent believe in me and work for me. But the many, many months of her helping me to construct a proposal - which did sell the title - were then followed by many, many months of editing, all of which a) rendered my Internet dating guide less than timely, and b) took out, I believe, the stuffing that might have made it a little successful.
Which brings us to today. Long ago, I did my homework and isolated the best e-publisher out there. I used them this year, and in the intervening years they have only expanded their abilities and made the most of technology. Simply, as with a traditional publisher (were I to find one willing to accept a book of short stories, which is poison in the industry), I have a thoroughly professionally done book out, in print or in e-format. And it's up to me, if anyone chooses to buy it.
That's all. Thanks. I do hope you get my book, and I hope you don't regret the getting.
