Guest Blogger Makes a Bold Publishing Move

Randee Russell Bieler, a dear friend who once lived in Raleigh, now in Malibu, has published a collection of short stories, Bombs , and had movies made from her scripts, one of which (Graffiti, a short) was nominated for an Academy Award.

 

Randee's announcement: 

 

 

 I am going to self-publish my novel.

 

There –  I’ve said it:  my self esteem plummets, I am three inches tall and two years old.  Why should this statement bring such grief?

 

I went to the best writing schools in the country.  I won high awards and the praise of notable resident writers.

 

So getting a  big New York publisher to say YES should be effortless for me, like getting discovered at Schwabs.

 

But it didn’t happen.

 

An amazing agent signed me; a great editor took my book under her wing.

 

But it didn’t happen.

 

And I’m not getting any younger.

 

Here I sit, aging with this book that I am  thrilled to have written.  The story, based on actual events, of a Slave Mother in the Civil War, searching for and finding her children who had been sold away from her.

 

I was a new mother when I first heard that story.  Every writer has a golden story and this is mine.

 

Here I am entering my golden years with my golden book.  Not happening.

 

If a tree falls in the forest and there’s nobody around to hear, is there a sound?

 

Well if there’s not, maybe the tree needs to get a little pro-active, kick up some noise and send it out where the ears are.  And the forest I’m living in is supposed to have its own fabulous ways  of  amplifying and directing small sounds.  Social media and printing services and web sales and blogs and who knows what all. 

 

So I’m going to self-publish my book.  I’m going to say this YES to myself, and see what happens.

 

 

 

 

Categories: transformation