This morning I woke up thinking about how fortunate I am to be able to self-publish with only a little effort. Oh, the writing and editing take a lot of effort, but Amazon has brought self-publishing to the masses. It’s actually pretty awesome. There’s a lot of freedom that has come from this transformation in our world.
I’m the first to admit that it allows people to put lousy writing out there, but you know what? That’s what freedom is all about. We get to express ourselves and the creativity that is found within us with the click of a (few) button (s).
I tend to read a lot of independent authors’ work. Some of it I don’t like, some of it is poor writing, some of it is completely uninteresting to me … but all of it is available and if it gives a person the opportunity to express themselves, kudos! To be honest, a great deal of it is amazing. I wouldn’t be able to read these stories were it not for what Amazon has done. I’m in the middle of three or four books right now, all of them by independent authors, all of them so thoroughly wonderful that I’m completely lost in their worlds when I turn on my Kindle.
It occurred to me that I need to get more reviews written for some of the terrific books I’ve read over the last few months. Because not only has Amazon given writers permission to publish their books, but it has also given the world permission to be a critic. And, by the way, the world needs more positive encouragement.
My mother was a frustrated author. She was an amazing writer, but I remember the days when a rejection letter would come to the house. All of the hope that she had sent out with that manuscript was returned to her with a hefty dose of despair. Those days of her walking in the house dejectedly with the mail terrified me and guaranteed I would never try my hand at writing. If the one person whose writing I respected more than anything couldn’t get something beyond an editor, there was no way I would ever have a hope in hell of publishing.
All of us hate rejection, but I know that my fear of it is nearly pathological. I am paralyzed sometimes by that fear. There are people I won’t approach, or things I won’t do because I know they have no reason to do anything other than reject me. I know better than to set myself up for something that painful. There was no way I would ever consider writing and having that piece of my soul rejected. It’s a difficult fear to overcome.
I wish that Mom would have been able to experience this renaissance in writing, self-publishing and independence that has been given to authors. We can connect directly with readers. Facebook, Twitter and other social networks give us unlimited access to those who read and enjoy what we write. The wall between author and reader has been torn to the ground and relationships are built from the books we read and write. What an incredible time in which we live.
Gratitude is what I feel today for the freedom to write what is in my head and for those who enjoy reading the words I write.
