Rant #2,481: Everyday I Write the Book

Well, I have come to the end of the road.

No, no here.

Even though I suffered some type of writer's cramp the other day, this column will be going on for a while yet.

I am nearing 2,500 posts, and I want to go well beyond that number if I can.

As long as I have something to say, I will keep writing/

What I am talking about is my other blog site, the one I set up to try to promote my novel, "Rat Face (The Strange Tale of Abraham Lincoln Panim)."

That novel took me a few months to write, and I wrote it when I was really at the depths of my unemployment, right in the middle of the 10 months that I really, really suffered from the lack of work.

I think the story is a good one, and I put it up on its own blog site, and during the past 40 days or more, I put it up piece after piece, chapter after chapter.

Yesterday, I put the entire thing up in its entirety, so you could read the first chapter and not have to click to the next chapter and the next chapter after that.

And today, I wrote a final message on the site, which you can access at https://ratfaceabrahamlincolnpanim.blogspot.com/

Here it is, in answer to the question "What's Next?":

"Good question.

I don't really know.

I have put up my novel in pieces by chapter and in its entirety in one fell swoop, and I have no idea what I am going to do next with it.

I have tried to push it to publishers, but although a few of them said they liked at least part of what I wrote, nobody had committed to me, and nobody probably will.

This is a bad time for anything new, and I guess I picked the wrong time to write my first novel.

I still would like it to be published, but my only route might be self publishing.

I have to check into that, but right now, I have so many other things going on that I do not have the time to do that.

So that is an option for the future.

I mean, I didn't write this so only I would read it.

I think the story is a good one, and perhaps with a strong editor, I could make my story perfect.

This site will remain up and available in perpetuity, and maybe I will get lucky, somebody with influence will see the site and what I have written, and maybe they will reach out to me.

Maybe, maybe not.

We shall see.

I am happy that you stopped over here to look at what I have done, and I hope you enjoyed my little fable about Abraham Lincoln Panim, the boy with the rat face.

I certainly enjoyed writing it!
The question really is "What's Next," and I really don't know what the answer is.

I would love for the masses to read this thing in book form, but this really is not the time for a new author--and an author whose work is geared to readers 12 years old to 15 years old--to make his debut from a legitimate publishing house.

It just isn't happening.

So I might have to self publish, and market the book that way.

Self-publishing houses used to be called "vanity" publishers, and their work and product was greatly looked down upon.

But now, self-publishing companies are not frowned upon, and their product even occasionally shows up on best-seller lists, in particular from venues like Amazon.

Self publishing also costs money, which I do not have right now, so maybe a GoFundMe cmapaign might be the way to get this done.

I just don't know right now, so I am going to hold tight for the moment, sit on what I have, and maybe sometime in the future go to the next step.

I am so busy now doing one thing or another that I need a little time to breathe and plan my strategy.

If you  have any ideas, please let me know.

Have a great weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.