My rambling first post.

Blogging has never been my goal. In fact, it was never even on my radar as an option until very recently. After finishing the first draft of my novel, I found myself staring into the jaws of the great, looming beast that is publishing. Of course, I have my beta readers. I’ve shown my work to my friends and family over the years, but I haven’t published a single written word for the public at large since college. The idea that random people are going to read my work (maybe) is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. As I started working on revisions, I began to wonder how my carefully crafted creation would look to others. These are people I won’t be able to explain things to, people who don’t know me and might not understand my debatable sense of humor or my questionable plot decisions. Sure, I believe in my own work, but would other people? Would any agents be interested, if they were, would any publishers? What about the readers? Would anyone even care enough to give me a shot?

It occurred to me that leaping into this process with no prior experience was probably not the best idea. Therefore, I turned to the one place I knew always had all the answers; the internet. I started researching the publishing process and the industry as a whole, doing exhaustive research into bestselling books and authors, obsessing over things like analytics and sales numbers and genre keywords. Quickly, I tumbled down a rabbit hole that led to a world of seemingly insurmountable challenges and stiflingly soul-crushing statistics. The labyrinthine nature of the book publishing industry was revealed to me as the curtain was drawn harshly back. I felt the crushing weight of the immense task I was attempting settle its bulk on me all at once. I considered giving up. Who needed to be an author anyway? What was the point?

But then I had a thought. I had accomplished massively difficult things before. I had graduated college, gotten a masters degree, made it through the fire academy. Hell, I somehow managed to get my wife to marry me. How had I done those things? The same way I always did when faced with a difficult problem. Break it down into manageable bits. There’s only one way to eat an elephant as they say, one bite at a time. So I started with what I could control. Editing my book. Working on my pitches. Looking for agents. Another thing I realized I could control was get over my apprehension about publishing. I could conquer this particular hill all on my own. How does one do that? By putting themselves out there, preferably over and over again until you numb yourself to the sense of apprehension and fear of rejection. 

So here I am, starting a blog. Putting my work out there for everyone to see. Sooner or later I will start submitting my novel to agents, then publishers and hopefully I will eventually get to see it wedged into the shelves of my local bookstore. But until then, I’ll keep working on getting comfortable with writing for an audience. With enough time, I’m sure I’ll start to make some progress on that elephant.