NF Some thoughts on self-publishing

[Shadow9216]

Hello all,
It's been almost a year since I launched my self-publishing journey, and I wanted to take a brief moment to share some things I've discovered- hopefully, some of it will be of use to my fellow authors.

I used Draft-2-Digital, as they distribute to all the major e-tailers (Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble) and many others I'd never heard of- including internationally. I went wide, rather than locking myself into the Kindle Unlimited (exclusive) program, reasoning I wanted to reach as many readers as possible rather than benefiting from Amazon's monthly reader fund on KU. I did use Kindle Direct Publishing for my paperbacks.

Advertising is a HUGE undertaking and a major PITA (at least for me). I'm not good at self-promoting, and relied far too heavily on word-of-mouth/personal relationships; as my Facebook circle stands at less than 100 people, and I'm not on other platforms, I gained little traction. I still haven't invested in ads, for various reasons. I've joined writers groups on FB and attempted to network, engaged in a few newsletter swaps and group promos, and done giveaways on several different free sites, with limited success.

I'll confess up front, my covers are a hot mess; to start with, my series is a Civil War espionage tale- not regiments marching to the sound of guns. As such, I struggled to identify a suitable concept for the covers. Working with designers was problematic, as the ones I encountered expected me to have a vision coming into the process- sadly, I really lacked one. I could tell them what the book was about, but not how I saw the cover. That was frustrating for both parties. I tried pre-mades, but couldn't find anything suitable. I talked to designers and photographers about custom covers, but that put me into the $500 range- a reasonable price, for their time/effort, but one I couldn't afford at this time. I tried Fiverr, which is really hit and miss- I had four misses (fortunately it didn't cost me anything).

One thing I ran into was a fair amount of skepticism, pushback, and even hostility from cover designers, editors, and beta readers. Many questioned a Confederate protagonist, one even questioned whether there was an audience beyond 'old, white men'. True story. I had several flat out refuse to work with me, regardless of the storyline (spoiler alert: the South loses in my books). Even on historical fiction author groups, the reception was lackluster. I'm not complaining- people are free to have/express their opinions- but it was a bit disheartening.

Blurbs were a struggle- we know the war starts, we know how the battles go, so the tension has to come in the form of personal stakes; however, the advice I received (maddeningly and repeatedly) was that the stakes of literal life and death were still insufficient to hook the prospective reader. A good cover and a good blurb are crucial- without a cover which tells the reader (within seconds) what your book is about, they'll move on. Without a good blurb/hook, they won't hit 'buy'. No matter how good your story is, those two items have to be perfect. For the record- mine aren't. Your cover should match the genre, other books in the genre, and reader expectations. A regimental history would ideally have a regiment, or at least a soldier. A book about battles or a soldier's experiences would do well with a battle scene- painting, illustration, photo, whatever. Espionage? James Bond in a frock coat, I suppose. Still working on that one.

One thing I encountered which I totally was unprepared for was readers challenging my description of intelligence methods and operations in the Civil War; not saying I'm 'the' expert, but I've been doing intelligence work since 1995, I've taught it in several continents to multiple militaries, and I've studied the use of intel in the Civil War extensively, written on it professionally, and taught a course in the subject. I had a reader question my descriptions based on their experience watching '24' and Tom Cruise movies. Difficult conversation, but that comes with the territory.

One thing to remember is that writing isn't a zero-sum game; I don't lose because you sell a book. We can, and should, assist other authors where possible. It's hard to break out, especially if you're on a fixed/limited income, and very easy to get lost in the noise with all the competing stories. Ask for help, ask someone to beta read, be a critique partner, or to help with research. Do the same for others. Celebrate each others' wins, commiserate the losses.

I hope those who read this find something useful, and I wish you well in your writing!

 

[MackCW]

Hello all,
It's been almost a year since I launched my self-publishing journey, and I wanted to take a brief moment to share some things I've discovered- hopefully, some of it will be of use to my fellow authors.

I used Draft-2-Digital, as they distribute to all the major e-tailers (Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble) and many others I'd never heard of- including internationally. I went wide, rather than locking myself into the Kindle Unlimited (exclusive) program, reasoning I wanted to reach as many readers as possible rather than benefiting from Amazon's monthly reader fund on KU. I did use Kindle Direct Publishing for my paperbacks.

Advertising is a HUGE undertaking and a major PITA (at least for me). I'm not good at self-promoting, and relied far too heavily on word-of-mouth/personal relationships; as my Facebook circle stands at less than 100 people, and I'm not on other platforms, I gained little traction. I still haven't invested in ads, for various reasons. I've joined writers groups on FB and attempted to network, engaged in a few newsletter swaps and group promos, and done giveaways on several different free sites, with limited success.

I'll confess up front, my covers are a hot mess; to start with, my series is a Civil War espionage tale- not regiments marching to the sound of guns. As such, I struggled to identify a suitable concept for the covers. Working with designers was problematic, as the ones I encountered expected me to have a vision coming into the process- sadly, I really lacked one. I could tell them what the book was about, but not how I saw the cover. That was frustrating for both parties. I tried pre-mades, but couldn't find anything suitable. I talked to designers and photographers about custom covers, but that put me into the $500 range- a reasonable price, for their time/effort, but one I couldn't afford at this time. I tried Fiverr, which is really hit and miss- I had four misses (fortunately it didn't cost me anything).

One thing I ran into was a fair amount of skepticism, pushback, and even hostility from cover designers, editors, and beta readers. Many questioned a Confederate protagonist, one even questioned whether there was an audience beyond 'old, white men'. True story. I had several flat out refuse to work with me, regardless of the storyline (spoiler alert: the South loses in my books). Even on historical fiction author groups, the reception was lackluster. I'm not complaining- people are free to have/express their opinions- but it was a bit disheartening.

Blurbs were a struggle- we know the war starts, we know how the battles go, so the tension has to come in the form of personal stakes; however, the advice I received (maddeningly and repeatedly) was that the stakes of literal life and death were still insufficient to hook the prospective reader. A good cover and a good blurb are crucial- without a cover which tells the reader (within seconds) what your book is about, they'll move on. Without a good blurb/hook, they won't hit 'buy'. No matter how good your story is, those two items have to be perfect. For the record- mine aren't. Your cover should match the genre, other books in the genre, and reader expectations. A regimental history would ideally have a regiment, or at least a soldier. A book about battles or a soldier's experiences would do well with a battle scene- painting, illustration, photo, whatever. Espionage? James Bond in a frock coat, I suppose. Still working on that one.

One thing I encountered which I totally was unprepared for was readers challenging my description of intelligence methods and operations in the Civil War; not saying I'm 'the' expert, but I've been doing intelligence work since 1995, I've taught it in several continents to multiple militaries, and I've studied the use of intel in the Civil War extensively, written on it professionally, and taught a course in the subject. I had a reader question my descriptions based on their experience watching '24' and Tom Cruise movies. Difficult conversation, but that comes with the territory.

One thing to remember is that writing isn't a zero-sum game; I don't lose because you sell a book. We can, and should, assist other authors where possible. It's hard to break out, especially if you're on a fixed/limited income, and very easy to get lost in the noise with all the competing stories. Ask for help, ask someone to beta read, be a critique partner, or to help with research. Do the same for others. Celebrate each others' wins, commiserate the losses.

I hope those who read this find something useful, and I wish you well in your writing!

Really appreciate this post and I really appreciate your willingness to share what you struggled with. People question anything it seems these days... even when the research is presented to them.

 

[Tennis]

Thanks

Several options for self publishing, and appreciate your choice

Marketing is an important concern

 

[A. Roy]

It's been almost a year since I launched my self-publishing journey, and I wanted to take a brief moment to share some things I've discovered- hopefully, some of it will be of use to my fellow authors.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience. Interesting to hear all this. I've done both traditional-route publishing and independent publishing (that's the term I use, rather than self-publishing). Having been through it myself, I can relate to every step you mentioned here. I've published both fiction and non-fiction books.

Financially, the non-fiction books (these were business topics, not history) have been much more successful, whether published by me independently or through a traditional publisher. But the only reason the traditional route worked out financially was because I had an agent who insisted on my receiving advances from the publishers. I found that my independently-published non-fiction book (there was really only one) got much wider readership than the traditional route, as I was in control of my own marketing and was able to develop a successful author platform. In that case, I had great revenues and got to keep nearly all of the money -- and I got to be famous in a small pond for 15 minutes (long story).

My two novels (both of them historical fantasy stories) are by far my favorite books, but readership was very limited, possibly because of the same kinds of challenges you have mentioned.

A book about battles or a soldier's experiences would do well with a battle scene- painting, illustration, photo, whatever. Espionage? James Bond in a frock coat, I suppose. Still working on that one.

To me, this seems like the right approach to your cover art. When I read "James Bond in a frock coat," I immediately pictured your character at the corner of a brick wall in a city, with revolver drawn, and enemies approaching from around the corner. (Cover art doesn't necessarily have to represent an actual scene from the book, just to evoke the action and mood.)

One thing I encountered which I totally was unprepared for was readers challenging my description of intelligence methods and operations in the Civil War

In a way, having readers argue with you seems like a good problem to have, as they are engaging with your work.

In any case, bravo for your courage and determination to continue with this effort!

Roy B.

 

[Gary Morgan]

Thank you for sharing. I wish there was a forum for History writers to discuss the "nuts and bolts" of publishing.

You're dead on about the cover. I did a novel once with a traditional publisher, and they used a stock image for the cover that had absolutely nothing to do with the story - it showed a good looking guy with a beard towering over a woman in a library. My hero was intentionally not handsome, had no beard, was shorter than the heroine, and at no point were they ever in a library. When I complained, they photoshopped the beard off and asked me if I could live with it. I've had people tell me that they would not buy a book with such a shlocky looking cover.

Sometimes other writers and would-be writers can act as beta readers and can synopsize and blurb way better than I can myself. I'm still on a closed FB page for people who published with the same place that did my novel - one of the authors set it up, not the publisher, and even though the whole experience put me off publishing fiction, I still get good information and good feedback from them, and a bunch of them pushed my CW book on their webpages.

Do you do presentations? Before Corona, I was set to give 2 presentations a week on my book, which came out two days AFTER I went into lockdown, so none of them happened, although Mike very graciously let me do a live presentation on CivilWarTalk a few weeks back (Thanks, Mike, Laura and Tina!). I was supposed to present everywhere from my old high school to the local library to Andersonville. I have a bunch rescheduled for next year. I hope they happen.

I'm debating self publishing something on the Regulators at Andersonville - I don't have enough to make a book length publication, and it's too long for a magazine article, but I do have enough interesting stuff that I think people will want to read it. I'm going to file away your comments to look back on when I am ready to go. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Rusk County Avengers]

Sounds like a lot of sound advice born from experience to me!

 

[MackCW]

I've actually been enjoying the whole process of research and I'm truly amazed what is available for free on the Internet.

I'm debating writing some essays and possibly a regimental history but I want to see if this renewed interest in Civil War History sticks.

 

[LSBusch]

The Historical Novel Society is supportive, but I can't say that translates into sales. They have a manuscript discussion group and a promotion group on Facebook.

I self-published my nonfiction Civil War book, but I have to say all I wanted to do was make the contents available to anyone interested. I have done what I could with word of mouth, Twitter, mentions in the Historical Novel Society magazine and my alumni magazine, LinkedIn, etc. I have not bought ads so far--I'm just not motivated to.

 

[Forks of the Ohio]

Thank you for sharing. I wish there was a forum for History writers to discuss the "nuts and bolts" of publishing.

I think that this is an excellent idea.

 

[Shadow9216]

Thank you for sharing. I wish there was a forum for History writers to discuss the "nuts and bolts" of publishing.

There are several Facebook groups for historical fiction writers, catering to many sub-genres- but I've found them to be a mixed bag. Maybe that's just me, I admit to difficulty in social media which others may not have...

 

[Harms88]

The problem with self-publishing (and writing in general) is that you never know what you're going to write that is actually going to take off. I was working on a fantasy series set in a war-torn continent that resulted from the destruction of the Dragon Warriors that had enforced the peace. After publishing book 4, spending upwards to $2000 on editing and covers, I sold a dozen books total.

But then I decided to publish an alternate history trilogy that I had written. It wasn't special and I hadn't put the best effort into it. However, it exploded, selling tens of thousands of copies. For a month I held #4 ranking on the Alternate History category on Kindle.

After selling a few books and doing quiet well on them, I decided to write a horror comedy about a couple in Idaho trying to escape the Zombie Apoc. It sold 5 copies total.

I'm currently working on a spy thriller and maybe it will take off, but most of what I write, especially the ones I put the most work into, don't take, even when its something I sure people want to read.

 

[Forks of the Ohio]

To the Original Poster:

Do you belong to any writing groups? I belong to a writing group that is not focused so much on providing critiques so much as it is focused on doing workshops and providing information about marketing and publishing. Of course, now that Covid is a crisis, all of these events are being held virtually.

Some of the more active writing groups in my area are Pennwriters and also the Pittsburgh chapter of Sisters in Crime (a group for female mystery writers).

 

[Cody C. Engdahl]

Thanks for sharing. I have to say, I'm pretty lucky because I enjoy the promotion part as much as I do the writing. I think this is a must if you go the independent route. I'm in a constant state of self-promotion.

You're absolutely right about Fiverr. I got a Pakastani artist at $25 to do my cover. I told him it was a revenge story that starts at The Fort Pillow Massacre and ends at the Battle of Nashville. I gave him my own un-artistic mock-up as a starting point:

I wanted to give him as much creative freedom as possible as long as he had Nathan Bedford Forrest and the two black soldiers I had provided him, although if they fit the description I gave, he could create his own. Here's what he came back with:

Honestly, it was so bad that it almost made for a good parody. I told my girlfriend that looked like two modern soldiers built a time machine so they could stand in line behind Nathan Bedford Forrest at the Dairy Queen. I wanted to cry as much as I laughed. I really wanted to ditch on the guy, but I did pay for revisions so I thought he deserved a second chance. I sent him all the elements including the font to match my previous novels. I really didn't have any faith in him. I was surprised with his second go.

Much better, I think. In the end, I think you can find inexpensive help on Fiverr, but you really have to work with these guys to get what you want. Anyway, I hope this cover helps. Here's the link if you'd like to see it on Amazon Blood for Blood at Nashville. We're doing pre-sales for the Kindle version at the moment.

Just like I enjoy the marketing part, I've decided to learn how to do graphic art so I can do my own covers. I like having direct control over the creative. Hopefully, I'll be ready to create my own cover when my next book, Mexico my Love, comes out in probably at least a year from now.

 

[Philip Leigh]

Hello all,
It's been almost a year since I launched my self-publishing journey, and I wanted to take a brief moment to share some things I've discovered- hopefully, some of it will be of use to my fellow authors.

I used Draft-2-Digital, as they distribute to all the major e-tailers (Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble) and many others I'd never heard of- including internationally. I went wide, rather than locking myself into the Kindle Unlimited (exclusive) program, reasoning I wanted to reach as many readers as possible rather than benefiting from Amazon's monthly reader fund on KU. I did use Kindle Direct Publishing for my paperbacks.

Advertising is a HUGE undertaking and a major PITA (at least for me). I'm not good at self-promoting, and relied far too heavily on word-of-mouth/personal relationships; as my Facebook circle stands at less than 100 people, and I'm not on other platforms, I gained little traction. I still haven't invested in ads, for various reasons. I've joined writers groups on FB and attempted to network, engaged in a few newsletter swaps and group promos, and done giveaways on several different free sites, with limited success.

I'll confess up front, my covers are a hot mess; to start with, my series is a Civil War espionage tale- not regiments marching to the sound of guns. As such, I struggled to identify a suitable concept for the covers. Working with designers was problematic, as the ones I encountered expected me to have a vision coming into the process- sadly, I really lacked one. I could tell them what the book was about, but not how I saw the cover. That was frustrating for both parties. I tried pre-mades, but couldn't find anything suitable. I talked to designers and photographers about custom covers, but that put me into the $500 range- a reasonable price, for their time/effort, but one I couldn't afford at this time. I tried Fiverr, which is really hit and miss- I had four misses (fortunately it didn't cost me anything).

One thing I ran into was a fair amount of skepticism, pushback, and even hostility from cover designers, editors, and beta readers. Many questioned a Confederate protagonist, one even questioned whether there was an audience beyond 'old, white men'. True story. I had several flat out refuse to work with me, regardless of the storyline (spoiler alert: the South loses in my books). Even on historical fiction author groups, the reception was lackluster. I'm not complaining- people are free to have/express their opinions- but it was a bit disheartening.

Blurbs were a struggle- we know the war starts, we know how the battles go, so the tension has to come in the form of personal stakes; however, the advice I received (maddeningly and repeatedly) was that the stakes of literal life and death were still insufficient to hook the prospective reader. A good cover and a good blurb are crucial- without a cover which tells the reader (within seconds) what your book is about, they'll move on. Without a good blurb/hook, they won't hit 'buy'. No matter how good your story is, those two items have to be perfect. For the record- mine aren't. Your cover should match the genre, other books in the genre, and reader expectations. A regimental history would ideally have a regiment, or at least a soldier. A book about battles or a soldier's experiences would do well with a battle scene- painting, illustration, photo, whatever. Espionage? James Bond in a frock coat, I suppose. Still working on that one.

One thing I encountered which I totally was unprepared for was readers challenging my description of intelligence methods and operations in the Civil War; not saying I'm 'the' expert, but I've been doing intelligence work since 1995, I've taught it in several continents to multiple militaries, and I've studied the use of intel in the Civil War extensively, written on it professionally, and taught a course in the subject. I had a reader question my descriptions based on their experience watching '24' and Tom Cruise movies. Difficult conversation, but that comes with the territory.

One thing to remember is that writing isn't a zero-sum game; I don't lose because you sell a book. We can, and should, assist other authors where possible. It's hard to break out, especially if you're on a fixed/limited income, and very easy to get lost in the noise with all the competing stories. Ask for help, ask someone to beta read, be a critique partner, or to help with research. Do the same for others. Celebrate each others' wins, commiserate the losses.

I hope those who read this find something useful, and I wish you well in your writing!

Since reading is work, use as few words as possible. Consider buying Nobody Want's to Read Your S*** by Steven Pressfield.

 

[A. Roy]

I really wanted to ditch on the guy, but I did pay for revisions so I thought he deserved a second chance. I sent him all the elements including the font to match my previous novels. I really didn't have any faith in him. I was surprised with his second go.

That first try is pretty funny! But not too bad on the revision! I've done some of my own cover design work, which came out all right. One advantage of DIY is that you don't have to struggle with a designer to help them understand the concept of your book (but for DIY, it helps if you have some design training). But I've kind of come to the conclusion that it's a bit like auto repair. I could probably fix some stuff on my car, but it would take me three days to do what a real mechanic could do in three hours. (With less likelihood of errors.)

Roy B.

 

[unicornforge]

I used Createspace a subsidiary of Amazon for my book, and used their free cover designing software. I have no complaints. It is print-on-demand with channel to wholesale distribution, and free ISBN numbers. Createspace also has a free author's forum.

 

[LSBusch]

I used Createspace a subsidiary of Amazon for my book, and used their free cover designing software. I have no complaints. It is print-on-demand with channel to wholesale distribution, and free ISBN numbers. Createspace also has a free author's forum.

Wasn't CreateSpace replaced by Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) in 2018? I don't think KDP provides as many free services.

 

[unicornforge]

Wasn't CreateSpace replaced by Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) in 2018? I don't think KDP provides as many free services.

News to me, I haven't published another book. I'll never break even financially on the first one.

 

[Gary Morgan]

News to me, I haven't published another book. I'll never break even financially on the first one.

Yeah, don't go into it for the money. Especially if you're writing fiction. For what it's worth, writing is one of the few professions where you can deduct a loss on your taxes if you keep your receipts. Things like you computer equipment, travel, advertising, your wifi, records that you send for from the NARA etc. can all be legally written off on your taxes if you file a Schedule C. (You can even deduct the costs of the books you buy for "research".) Unfortunately, it you pay someone to do your taxes, they'll probably cost more than your write offs. The first year H & R block charged me a little over $400 to fill out the tax form for an annual writing income of just under $600. But the good part of that is that, using the forms they filled out as a guide, I now do my own taxes - and I was able to deduct part of what I paid to Block as a business expense!

 

[JulieWeathers]

Hello all,
It's been almost a year since I launched my self-publishing journey, and I wanted to take a brief moment to share some things I've discovered- hopefully, some of it will be of use to my fellow authors.

I used Draft-2-Digital, as they distribute to all the major e-tailers (Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble) and many others I'd never heard of- including internationally. I went wide, rather than locking myself into the Kindle Unlimited (exclusive) program, reasoning I wanted to reach as many readers as possible rather than benefiting from Amazon's monthly reader fund on KU. I did use Kindle Direct Publishing for my paperbacks.

Advertising is a HUGE undertaking and a major PITA (at least for me). I'm not good at self-promoting, and relied far too heavily on word-of-mouth/personal relationships; as my Facebook circle stands at less than 100 people, and I'm not on other platforms, I gained little traction. I still haven't invested in ads, for various reasons. I've joined writers groups on FB and attempted to network, engaged in a few newsletter swaps and group promos, and done giveaways on several different free sites, with limited success.

I'll confess up front, my covers are a hot mess; to start with, my series is a Civil War espionage tale- not regiments marching to the sound of guns. As such, I struggled to identify a suitable concept for the covers. Working with designers was problematic, as the ones I encountered expected me to have a vision coming into the process- sadly, I really lacked one. I could tell them what the book was about, but not how I saw the cover. That was frustrating for both parties. I tried pre-mades, but couldn't find anything suitable. I talked to designers and photographers about custom covers, but that put me into the $500 range- a reasonable price, for their time/effort, but one I couldn't afford at this time. I tried Fiverr, which is really hit and miss- I had four misses (fortunately it didn't cost me anything).

One thing I ran into was a fair amount of skepticism, pushback, and even hostility from cover designers, editors, and beta readers. Many questioned a Confederate protagonist, one even questioned whether there was an audience beyond 'old, white men'. True story. I had several flat out refuse to work with me, regardless of the storyline (spoiler alert: the South loses in my books). Even on historical fiction author groups, the reception was lackluster. I'm not complaining- people are free to have/express their opinions- but it was a bit disheartening.

Blurbs were a struggle- we know the war starts, we know how the battles go, so the tension has to come in the form of personal stakes; however, the advice I received (maddeningly and repeatedly) was that the stakes of literal life and death were still insufficient to hook the prospective reader. A good cover and a good blurb are crucial- without a cover which tells the reader (within seconds) what your book is about, they'll move on. Without a good blurb/hook, they won't hit 'buy'. No matter how good your story is, those two items have to be perfect. For the record- mine aren't. Your cover should match the genre, other books in the genre, and reader expectations. A regimental history would ideally have a regiment, or at least a soldier. A book about battles or a soldier's experiences would do well with a battle scene- painting, illustration, photo, whatever. Espionage? James Bond in a frock coat, I suppose. Still working on that one.

One thing I encountered which I totally was unprepared for was readers challenging my description of intelligence methods and operations in the Civil War; not saying I'm 'the' expert, but I've been doing intelligence work since 1995, I've taught it in several continents to multiple militaries, and I've studied the use of intel in the Civil War extensively, written on it professionally, and taught a course in the subject. I had a reader question my descriptions based on their experience watching '24' and Tom Cruise movies. Difficult conversation, but that comes with the territory.

One thing to remember is that writing isn't a zero-sum game; I don't lose because you sell a book. We can, and should, assist other authors where possible. It's hard to break out, especially if you're on a fixed/limited income, and very easy to get lost in the noise with all the competing stories. Ask for help, ask someone to beta read, be a critique partner, or to help with research. Do the same for others. Celebrate each others' wins, commiserate the losses.

I hope those who read this find something useful, and I wish you well in your writing!

Shadow,

I've been lurking on these forums for a long time. I was active in some other Civil War discussion groups and invariably they got ugly regardless of the "rules" about respect, so I admit, I feel a bit snakebit about participating. Anyway, Thank you to this forum for maintaining such an even platform.

I had to come out of hiding to respond to this. A few years ago I was at a writers' conference and I pitched my Civil War novel to an agent. I told him I was revising, so it wasn't quite done, but he read the query and the first pages, then asked me about the story. He wanted it as soon as it was done. "I've read Gone With The Wind seven times," he said. "I definitely want this." The story is about a woman in Virginia, loosely based on Hetty Cary, who becomes a Confederate spy and courier and a psychopathic Pinkerton agent who becomes obsessed with her and trapping her.

I spoke with another agent and he wanted it.

A friend who is an agent responded, "Yeah, well, I've read Gone With The Wind" twenty-seven times. I want it more."

I figured I was off to a decent start.

Fast forward and I am in your boat. I have people saying, "Couldn't you write this story from the 'right' side of the fence? No one wants to read about a Confederate female spy."

So, I've gone from agents excited about the story, to researching university presses and small independent presses. I haven't given up on agents yet, but I'm danged close. I have a friend who published one CW novel that's doing well for her small publishing company and she wants it. There are doors open, but it's depressing to read your story and know what I have ahead of me.

Re: people challenging you about espionage details in your book. If you've done your research, stick by your guns. I had beta readers tell me, "That would never happen!" more than once. Then I would have to say, "Actually, that is a historical fact. It did happen and I can't help if people don't know history."

I don't know what the answer is.

Anyway, good luck.

Julie