9 Comments
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H.A. Stephan's avatar

Where’s your original manuscript?

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William James's avatar

On my hard drive and the cloud

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Mary Beth's avatar

I hope you keep writing for you, Will.

I’d read it.

I’m at the point in my life that I don’t give a toss about Trad Pub. If only five people ever read my self pubbed work, that’s fine with me. (If I ever get it done, there’s that.)

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Griz Calderon's avatar

Thank you for sharing this. I was currently struggling with signing an NDA with a publisher and decided last week not to do it. This solidifies my decision.

I like to learn from others, so thank you for this valuable lesson.

I am new to Substack and posts like this are exactly what I need as I get started.

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William James's avatar

I’m happy it helped. I was lucky. I never signed anything like that but I was deeply embarrassed. I was just happy to rights reverted back to me and I can get rid of it.

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Griz Calderon's avatar

It’s a great share. It’s one thing that many people have a hard time doing … learning from other people. When someone gives me advice, I try to follow it. I figure they tell us these things for a reason. We are lucky and should learn from them.

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Author John G. Dyer's avatar

Marolitango.substack.com. But I'm not embarrassed yet.

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Brian Gibb's avatar

Thanks for sharing your story. It confirms my idea that just the fact that you get a traditional publishing deal doesn't mean that the story you wrote will be the one that gets read, if at all. As for me, I am publishing the first edition of my serialized sci-fi novel, The Ascension of Mont Royal, learning as I go. There are three versions: a written text and audio version, available on Substack, and a story cast version, with dynamic captions, voiceover, and illustrations, available on YouTube. Today, I'm working on getting episode 6 ready for publication and will try out hybrid narration for the first time. I will use my own voice for the first-person narration and an AI-generated voice for the female character. My attempt at speaking like a woman sucks big time. I hope to have everything figured out by the time I get to the end of the series. In short, I enjoy the freedom of indie publishing and enjoy doing the marketing. Cheers. bg

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Christine Bode's avatar

Thank you for sharing your experience. It’s a valuable lesson for authors and generous of you to share it. I’ve subscribed and look forward to reading more from you. 😊🙏🏻

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