A couple evenings ago my son, who is a Purdue grad and data analyst, and I sat down in his room and could have published Tripio. I like to refer to my son as my “tech support” for the job of self-publishing Tripio. He is way more proficient and comfortable doing anything on the computer than I am. Fortune bade him to move back home at just the right time because without him, I would have had to pay someone to do a lot of what is required to put a manuscript out on Amazon or any other self-publisher. Or, I would tried to stagger through the process myself. I shudder to think of the outbursts of spitting rage my laptop would have received if that path were the one taken.
I say “could have’ published because it was there to do. I decided to direct publish for a lot of reasons, one of which was that I had come to learn how easy it was. Easy if you had half the competency of my tech support. I consider myself behind the curve on using social media, my phone or even this laptop, which I use primarily as a word processor. So it would have been extraordinarily difficult for me to fold flap A into slot C and publish a book. Hard for me, but easy for most everyone else. I’m thinking possibly that it is way too easy.
[[File:Toy building set (AM 1999.104.20-1).jpg|Toy building set (AM 1999.104.20-1)]]
I was taken aback at just how easy. Tripio could have been published two days ago. A dream of mine achieved. I would have two days under my belt as a published author by now. I assume that is why the self-publishing method is looked down on in some circles. Hey, I am new to this whole scene, so when I assume something, I mean assume. I did take an informative “Basics of Self-Publishing” class at the Indiana Writers Center. What I learned was confirmation of what I had experienced when sending queries to agents in New York. Not that I sent a lot, mind you. I guess I sent around 10 or so. I just didn’t feel like I fit in doing that. I do not fancy myself a “literary literary” type at all. And the whole process had the feel of a job search on Indeed or Monster (are they still around?). I have had enough of that kind of subjective dart board nonsense to last a lifetime.
And, it quite simply felt wrong to hand over the energy of Tripio to someone else. I have grown to have tons of faith in myself in the last several years so why release Tripio to someone now? “Because it has always been done that way” is just not good enough. Plus, what I have received from the creation of Tripio is so personal and powerful that I don’t see any upside to having some agent or publisher deem it worthy. What it has done for me cannot be measured by anyone or by any method they may use.
But, that is the same reason that I can’t just publish Tripio half ass, like my tech support and I could have done a couple nights ago. It means too much to me. In fact, it means so much that I did have to make myself let Tripio go. I started to let go of my ownership of Tripio one day after meditating. I had to begin to untether myself emotionally from Tripio and its creative process.
That release of Tripio is not the same thing as clicking the “publish your novel” button. I wrote this post months ago. Tripio is published now on Kindle and in paperback. That remains the easy part.
“May I help who’s next?”
