Taking the Self out of Self-Publishing

After editing, design, printing, and marketing costs, I’ve never made a dime, but I’ve had some fun launch parties!

What I Learned

MARY HUTCHINGS REED

Self-publishing Renews Unexpected Connection

If you’ve ever wondered whether self-publishing, indie publishing, or hybrid* publishing is “worth it,” I want to share a note I received from a high school classmate. In a class of 650, “Gail” and I weren’t connected through the same academic classes or social groups, and I haven’t seen her in more than fifty years.

Having published four indie novels, I’ve touted the personal (and selfish) satisfaction of “perfecting” a novel and putting it out there. After editing, design, printing, and marketing costs, I’ve never made a dime, but I’ve had some fun launch parties! The major disappointment for me was that the agent of my dreams didn’t call. I’m still waiting.

The electronic “ring” I got from Gail after the publication of my story collection, Kind Eyes, Gentle Reading for Troubled Times (Ampersand, 2020), wasn’t the expected flattering note from a friend; it was touching evidence of the personal connection we can make with a reader.

The lead story in that collection is an excerpt from my second indie-novel, Warming Up (She Writes Press, 2013). One day as I was waiting for my husband to pick me up from work, I was approached by a young man who claimed he’d been robbed of his wallet and needed $60 to get home to Indiana. His mother had told him to look for someone with “kind eyes.”

My eyes are my best feature. I was flattered that he called them “kind.” I happened to have three twenties in my purse.

I knew his story was a con.

I gave him $60.

A week later, I thought I saw the same kid coming out of a convenience store with a half-gallon of milk. He was greeted by a girl with a baby in a flimsy stroller.

Gail “Messengered” me that my story touched her. She’d bought the book because the blurb caught her attention. It said one of the stories featured “A charming homeless teenage con.”

She wrote:

My middle son spent the last year of his life living in the downtown area of Chicago; he loved the action of the city, loved Grant Park…and many times he was out panhandling for amounts of money…always looking for money for food and a phone card. He called me each and every Sunday; sometimes he was working…other times he was working at collecting enough for the phone card. *** Not sure what stories he told people, but know that if you were one that had dropped him some coins or dollars, he always got enough for the phone card, which made my week.

I responded that her note brought tears to my eyes. She wrote back more of his story:

My Ian was a gifted boy, he wrote poetry, short stories, liked to draw and music was a passion. When he worked, he excelled; but alcohol and drugs he couldn’t say no to. Before his passing he had spent six months in rehab, where it was discovered he had a heart condition. The next day after release he was going to move back here to be with me and his younger brother. One of his “friends” wanted to celebrate his release…. Ian couldn’t and didn’t say no and he passed that night…first night of release.

So on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. I wait for the phone to ring and never pass by a young man out panhandling for coins…

Self-publishing Brings Unexpected Rewards

Because I got a whole novel out of it as well as a story and a few accolades, I’ve often said that that $60 was the best money I’d ever spent. But Gail’s “ring” gave me a gift far more meaningful: experience of the actual connection we can make with a reader through story — helping to make someone else feel understood or less isolated. That connection takes the “self” out of self-publishing.

I, too, am still waiting for the phone to ring, but I promise Gail (and all my readers) that whenever I pass a homeless teenage panhandler, I will give those coins and hope a mother’s phone will ring on Sunday afternoon. 

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MARY HUTCHINGS REED has self-published four well-received novels and an awarded collection of shorts stories, as well as a number of short stories in print and online journal, and prefers the term “indie-publishing.” She has participated in Fred Shafer’s novel workshop for more than 20 years. Learn more at maryhutchingsreed.com.