Pumping myself up to put out a new book isn't easy right now. I am having second thoughts not only about timing but should I even do it? The book is ready, as good as I can make it, but with the Amazon system as it is, how do I even get it seen? It's been the problem with all the books.
To say there are pluses and minuses to publishing yourself is to put it mildly. The only thing I can say totally is-- if one paid to do it, this would be really tough as it's not easy anyway. There simply is no real way to get the books where people can see them. So what would I gain if I put out the historical stories?
Outlaw's Lady is one of my favorite books for assorted reasons and the biggest one is I relate to the heroine on several levels as the issues with which she deals are not unique to her time. How does a woman find her place in the scheme of life? Should she live to please others, herself or can she find middle ground?
The setting is also one which is dear to my heart as for many years I have visited the San Rafael Valley and wished I could live there. I cannot but I could give it to my characters. It isn't an easy land now and certainly wasn't then. Beautiful, distant from civilization, and always threatened by those who take what they want. It's not far from where a Border Patrolman was just killed. A land hard held always.
Its hero, what can I say except he suits me very much as a man who does what he has to even when the world hasn't made it easy. He's strong, tough and yet vulnerable in areas he tries to protect but cannot when he loves anyone and that doesn't just mean the woman but the land and other people.
So do I take this story I love so much, put it out there and see it go nowhere? Or wait a bit and see if I can come up with some better marketing ideas for it while I do research for the book that follows? I have a lot of faith in the story of Outlaw's Lady but not much faith in my ability to market books even though I have done what I can to get them out where others say it helps. What I haven't been willing to do is schmooze to do it...
