{"id":3702,"date":"2026-01-31T23:34:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T07:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shirscribe.com\/?p=3702"},"modified":"2026-03-25T05:59:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T12:59:38","slug":"my-self-publishing-here-i-go-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shirscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/31\/my-self-publishing-here-i-go-again\/","title":{"rendered":"My Self-Publishing: Here I Go Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

But life has a way of disappointing you into a place where you revisit your dreams.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations, Me! I\u2019m embarking on my self-publishing journey again. Just as a little refresher, I wrote a rather long short story over 20 years ago that I hoped to get published in The New Yorker but was rejected. That rejection was so disappointing and discouraging that I was pretty much scared off of trying again. That is until recently. At the end of 2023, I finally took some action towards an idea I\u2019d been ruminating over for many years \u2013 self-publishing my long short story as a short book called a novella.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the things that made self-publishing more attractive to me than trying to go the traditional route was that I assumed I would experience less rejection since I was paying for the whole thing myself, but I assumed wrong. People didn\u2019t have to accept the job of editing or creating the cover art for my book. They still had the power to tell me no, and tell me no so many of them did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going through this whole process of not only finding someone to hire who\u2019s work I liked, but also someone who liked my work back enough to want to take it on and within my budget became a more daunting and time-consuming task than I ever imagined. By May of 2024 I\u2019d hired two people \u2013 an editor, whose sample edit was amazing, but whose full edit turned out to be lackluster, and a book cover artist\/designer who I ended up having to let go after just one meeting. By the end of 2024 I ran out of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entirety of 2025 I had no money to pursue this again, so I just laid low. I didn\u2019t bother looking at the story again. Then I had the thought that at least I could do the edit \u2013 that doesn\u2019t cost anything. Over a year later, I finally revisited the story and tried to edit it, only to find myself thoroughly sick of it. Try as I may\u2026well, I didn\u2019t try too hard, I just couldn\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But life has a way of disappointing you into a place where you revisit your dreams. I\u2019d gotten to such an unfulfilling place that I figured if I can put up with this shit, surely I can go back to my story, no matter how sick of it I thought I was. And, so, that\u2019s what I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I still don\u2019t have the money for an editor right now, I can resume editing for free while I save for an editor in the meantime. The bookmark in MS Word was still there when I opened the story again. I simply picked up where I left off almost two years ago. It was on page 16 back then, and in just two days I have already made it to page 30. The total manuscript is 97 pages which will be about 120 pages in book form. I figure at this rate, I just might finish my first pass in a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know what? I think I\u2019m going to make that my goal \u2013 finish the first pass by Saturday February 7, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll report back then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But life has a way of disappointing you into a place where you revisit your dreams. Congratulations, Me! I\u2019m embarking on my self-publishing journey again. Just as a little refresher, I wrote a rather long short story over 20 years…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[696],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-my-self-publishing-journey","7":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nMy Self-Publishing: Here I Go Again - Shirscribe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/shirscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/31\/my-self-publishing-here-i-go-again\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Self-Publishing: Here I Go Again - Shirscribe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"But life has a way of disappointing you into a place where you revisit your dreams. 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