I’m going to do it.

I’m still not entirely confident or gung-ho about it, but I’ve decided this is one of those “better to try and fail than never try at all” situations. Maybe self-publishing will work out well enough, maybe my stuff will sit on the Internet and go ignored by the masses, but I’ll never know until I stick my neck out a little.

A lot of credit for pushing me off the fence goes to my friend and fellow writer Justin, who himself is venturing into self-publishing territory. Talking shop with a respected peer has often before steered me in right directions, so maybe that will prove the case once again.

Now comes the part where I fumble through several necessary next steps to make this happen properly. I’m still researching CreateSpace to figure out what I need to do to set this thing up, as well as some of its extra marketing/distribution options, and in the meantime I’m talking with my artist friend Tricia (who does all the design work for my wife’s business) about a cover design. If I’m going to do this, I want to do it right, and that means no pre-fab stock covers for me.

Which manuscript I’m going to use, that was an easy choice: my YA novel Action Figures, which got me the closest I’ve ever gotten to snagging an agent or publisher since I started this whole writing thing many many moons ago. It’s some of my strongest work, and I think it has a good chance of finding an audience since literary super-hero adventures, particular those that might appeal to female readers, are rather non-existent as near as I can tell.

In the coming days and weeks I plan to ramp up some advance publicity for this project, so watch this space for some decidedly non-I-can’t-catch-a-break-my-creativity-is-in-the-toilet posts. Nice change of pace there, I know…