The devil is in the details.

The devil is in the details. 

We've all heard that one before, eh? But it is especially true of trying to self-publish your first ebook. OMG, the choices: Bookbaby, Smashwords, KDP. The formatting. I had to watch about a dozen youtube how-to vids just to figure out bloody formatting. (Inserting a table of contents, anyone?) The money. Do I pay to publish, (Bookbaby)? Or not, (KDP, Smashwords)?

Build an audience. Get a blog up and running. Learn how to embed links, create a media hub. Sell yourself. Make a fantastic website that will attract readers like flies and zap them into buying your work. Tweet. Blog. Advertise. Give away. Promote.

Are you exhausted yet?

I am. I sooo, sooo am. I want to lay my head on my keyboard and cry.

What happened to good, old-fashioned writing? It wasn't THAT long ago that I still wrote things longhand with (egads!) an actual pen and paper. Remember the smell of ink and wood pulp and liquid white-out? Three-ring notebooks with crossed-out lines and notes in the margins that even I couldn't decipher. Ahh, those were the days. When it was just about the writing. Why can't it all be just about the writing, damnit?

Well, for one thing, no one would ever read it. And isn't that really the whole point? What is the good of a incredible fantasy world full of demons and gods and heartbreak and pathos if no one shares it with you? Money and fame would be nice (okay, a lot more than nice), but really, I want to invite people into my worlds and have have you all go, ohhhh, ahhh, oh I love that, I hate that, isn't that beautiful? Kinda like showing off a brand-new house, but one with vampires lurking in the corners and ghosts in the mirrors and magic in the dust bunnies. Sure, its wanting to show off, but its more than that, the chemistry of storyteller and listener. 

It's about the story, the great wonderful unnameable thing that connects people to people through time and space. And really, that is the only real magic in this old world, isn't it?

And what do you know? Making magic is a lot of boring, time-consuming, tedious and head-banging-into-keyboard work. But it's worth it.

Isn't it?