What do I really think about self-publishing?

Writing books, short stories, articles...or any writing endeavor requires so much more than the will to "just write". If it were that easy, we could simply write whatever we wanted, publish it, and move on to the next project. We all know this.

Honestly, many of us have day jobs, families, and other things that take up a lot of our time. Where are you in your life? Can you dedicate the time and patience to go through 20-50 editors?

I cannot. Not with where I am at right now in my life. One day, there will be plenty of time to follow up with rejection emails, but now is not that time. Not to mention audience-building...platforms. Yikes!

Yet, I cannot not write, if this makes sense. I would rather build a collection of work and self publish than do none of it, waiting for that "perfect time" in my life when I can just dedicate hours upon hours to writing.

I learned a lot about myself during Covid, as I'm sure many did. I learned that I am terrible with unstructured time. I was not inspired one bit to write. I think I did mechanical things, like read over old stories and look for mistakes. But nothing good was thought of until Covid was half-over and the kids went back to school. It was at this time, I started writing more. But really, I could have done so much more for "Room for Sebastian" in that time!

I was having too much fun drinking red wine in my basement, listening to hours of Youtube, making jewelry. Trying to stay calm. Did I try to work out? Not much. Eventually, I got out of that habit, went to my spot in the kitchen, and started up again. And in September 2021, I went back to part-time work.

I am inspired again. I have less time, but I am careful with it, and I use it better than I did during Covid. And with all that said...I am self-publishing. Again! And I feel grateful that it is available, by all, who might be in a similar spot in their busy lives.