The Birth of Renegade Press
This is a reprint of my column from February 2011. That’s when I decided to go all in on self-publishing my books. I’m still glad I did that, despite everything that would happen later. 🙂
January was a busy month. First, I’d been invited last summer to speak at the Library of Congress as part of a series of talks called Mystery at Noon. That got scheduled on Wednesday, Jan. 26. My topic was (of course) self-publishing and ebooks, because I’d been invited after my novel IDENTITY CRISIS reached #1 in the hardboiled mystery category in the Kindle Store and all of Amazon. So I had to prepare for my talk, which involved organizing my thoughts, doing research on other ebook authors, writing up my notes, preparing handouts, practicing what I’d say and so forth.
In addition, early in January, I was asked to write a chapter about self-publishing for a book. When I inquired about the deadline, the editor said, how about the end of January? I was like, um, okay. So I wrote as fast and as hard as I could. While also marketing and writing my latest novel and short story.
Plus I was blogging and writing my usual book reviews and such. Not to mention all the boring administrative tasks and emails, etc.
Meanwhile, I was pushing hard to finalize the details for publishing this:
I just received the proof copy for LEAST WANTED, the sequel to my first novel. The book looks fantastic, if I do say so. I couldn’t be more proud. It took a lot of work. But I’ve learned a lot about publishing in the process. And in the final analysis, it was all worth it.
As a result, LEAST WANTED will be published in trade paperback this month by Renegade Press.
That’s my month in a nutshell.
PS: Here’s the updated cover! 🙂
PPS: And here’s the cover to the latest novel in my new Erica Jensen mystery series! Which may come out in print sometime soon. I hope.
Originally published at http://randomandsundrythings.wordpress.com on January 14, 2022.
