A number of years ago, when I realised that I wasn’t the only previously-published writer finding it hard to get fiction accepted by traditional publishers, I set up an ebook publishing website for people like me. It was satisfactory to be doing something towards getting good, or good-enough, writers read. Anyone who produces ideas and writes a novel is in the position of sitting on a spring – I mean a spring of water, not a bedspring (hideously uncomfortable), yet nowhere near as painful as the psychic hurt of being a fount of new ideas without an outlet.

Rejections from publishers are hard enough for writers who’ve never yet been published. Even harder, I reckon, for those of us who have had success in the past. It’s taken me years to accept that I will (I have to put in the word ‘probably’) never be traditionally published again. I think in the last week – yes, as recently as that – I have accepted this. With the acceptance has come a release. I am going to embrace self-publishing.

Not for the first time. In 2006 I self-published a novel called “Making a Difference”. I used an American print on demand publisher called Trafford. I worked out that if I could sell 100 copies, I’d cover costs. Which I did. But I don’t find it at all easy or pleasant to treat my friends like potential buyers. It’s like being a pavement artist on your own doorstep. I’d much prefer not to have to do it. But the alternative is to put work in the bottom drawer and never bother to write again. We might as well exit this world.

So let’s let the spring bubble. Self-publishing doesn’t mean your book is poorly written, poorly put together – though it may be. There is no guarantee of quality, nor is there a guarantee of quality in traditionally published books. A lot of bad books get published by big name publishers. A lot of good books never see the light of day.

So ever onward … More of this another day. I’m involved at the moment in uploading the file of a novel which I abandonned by the wayside when I started “The Cousins’ Chronicle”. This one is called “White Lies” and it’s about adoption. I’ll have more to say about that —- and it may be to resounding silence. Who’s out there?

If anyone reads this, just leave me a hello in a Comment. Writers don’t fully exist unless the equation is completed by Readers.