In the past couple years it’s become more acceptable to self-publish your book. Of course, there are still the thousands of self-published books which are poorly written or socially not acceptable which should remain “in the drawer” as the term used to be, or in today’s speech either “on the computer” or “on the jumpdrive.” Not only librarians and booksellers cringe when they hear “self-published.” I cringe, and I self-publish. So here comes a series of posts as to why I choose to self-publish.

The #1 reason that I chose to self-publish is that twice I have received “the call” from an editor of a traditional publishing house. This is the hoot-and-holler, jump-up-and-down-on-both-sides-of-the-line call. She is excited. I am excited. Our voices are both an octave higher in pitch than normal. Hip-hip-hurray! My story has passed through the editor who loves it, and then passed through the editorial group who also love it, and now awaits the acquisitions group. Twice this has happened, with two different books and two different publishing houses. Did I mention twice?

With my one anthology of retold folk tales, the recession of 2008 hit, and the company put a halt on all books to see what was going to happen in the nation. At the time of the final rejection, the editor also told me they could not risk publishing a new author during these uncertain times.

With my other book, in 2011, one man in the acquisitions group convinced the rest that kids do not read historical fiction, so my story wouldn’t sell well.

Mind you, I’m used to rejections, many of them. It’s the call from the editor which is still new to me. It takes a lot to impress an editor who may receive 3,000 submissions a month. So what that call means is that all the editors in the editorial group found my story, my words, worthy of print. I’m certain we would have worked together to improve them to be even better, but they loved them. They told me so. Final rejection or not, my writing has been affirmed by several editors who have spent decades reading thousands, maybe millions of writers.

So this is my #1 reason I decided to self-publish: I have received “the call” from an editor of a traditional publishing house. Twice.