Author Guest Post: My Publishing Journey by Timothy B. Sagges

This is a tough topic for me to talk about. I never actually had a journey into the publishing world prior to the completion of BEST SELLER. In fact, I'm sure there are those within the publishing community that will find inconsistencies, such as our main character bypassing the entire world of the literary agent. But it wasn't my intention to write a detailed essay on the publishing business. I simply wanted to tell a story about how hope, the supernatural and bad decisions can change the lives of everyday people and the world.

Had I known, prior to undertaking the act of writing, that obstacles such as query letters, editors, unscrupulous vanity houses and the like, were part of selling a book, I might have written more about the actual underbelly of the industry. I also might have hired a public relations guru, maybe whoever the Kardashians use, to shove my story down the throats of America. What I did instead was plot, write, shelf, re-read, re-write, edit, shelf again and re-read two years later until I found myself saying, "Son of a bitch! This is pretty good!" And as a writer, to hear myself say those words out loud is plenty.

Don't get me wrong, I would be lying if I said I didn't care if I ever sold another book. In fact, I will do just about anything to promote BEST SELLER. But like the majority of writers, I want to write. That is what I am good at. That is what I enjoy. If I had the time, writing would be all I would do. I certainly have enough material to last five lifetimes.

Other than sending out 60ish query letters to literary agents, and receiving 35ish rejections and one request for a few pages of my manuscript, my journey into publishing really only consists of my reading up on self-publishing. I came across CreateSpace.com and took it from there.

I came to understand that the only good thing about being published by and actual publishing house, is the marketing side of the business. That is when I began looking into Tribute's blog tour.