Pondering Publishing

I've got two novels and some other works in progress and I don't know where to begin with trying to get any of them published. I could go ahead and self-publish, a subject about which I have some knowledge, having done it twice before. But it doesn't get my book OUT THERE. I obviously will need to understand and deal with marketing anything I actually want to sell.

And I'm sort of torn about the purpose of my writing. Do I really want anyone to read it? There are certain things in them that make me vulnerable as well as affects others I know and care about. So where is that line? Am I just looking for vanity publishing or do I really want to sell my writing?

There is so much information on the web about publishing, either yourself or through someone, that I feel totally overwhelmed. Did I mention I'm collaborating on a children's book with someone, too? We have no idea what we're doing. 

So that's where we are. Overwhelmed and confused. Some places will edit for you and make your book get out there (wherever "there" is), but they cost money. It shouldn't cost that much to self-publish. Are these companies taking advantage of a vulnerable and needy aspiring writer population? Undoubtedly.

So we need to figure out how to get our work into the hands of people who will pay US, not the other way around.

The whole thing feels like an identity crisis, which, in some ways, it is. Who am I as an author and what do I want to send out to the world?

I don't know.