Kathryn Jones' Publication Story + Q&A

Publication Story

I Published Traditionally First - and THEN decided on Self-Publishing

Most people think of being traditionally published as being the ultimate achievement; for me, publishing started out that way and ended up where I thought I'd never venture.

As with most things in life in which you don't necessarily plan for, I had it in my mind that a large publishing company would see my manuscript, love it, and want to publish it and all future books I gave them. What actually happened, was after eight years of writing seriously for newspapers and magazines, I finally got noticed by a local publisher. Let's just say they wanted to publish my first book, "A River of Stones," and all that went with it. I had an editor, a cover designer; the works. What I didn't have was much of a say on what I wanted for my book.

The two biggest issues? Cover design and price.

In the end, when the book was finally published, I had a nice book but not exactly what I'd envisioned. And so it sat. I sold a few copies for a few years but nothing to write home about. I was making very little money on each book sold and I found myself wishing for something different.

One day I was speaking to my brother about my dilemma. Although I had written and published articles and short stories since my book was first published, I had sort of shelved the idea of publishing any more books. I was tired, frankly, of sending out query letters, waiting up to six month for responses, editing my work to please an 'almost' pleased publisher and then having it rejected anyway, and so on.

What I wanted was to publish again. What I didn't have was money.

One day, soon after talking with my brother about my lack of funds, a note from him arrived in the mail. "I have bought the rights back to you book," it said. "It took some doing, but I paid the $500 to get your rights back."

You can believe I cried. Thanked my brother. And then, I got to work. Since that day so many years ago, I have re-published "A River of Stones," and have published nine other books. Like the Energizer Bunny, I keep going.

I am not only steadily writing books, I have begun a new publishing company, "Idea Creations Press" where I assist other writers in their writing, publishing and marketing journey. I have become the company I so wanted to find.

I don't think there's a right way and a wrong way to publish. There is only YOUR way. And your way may be similar to my way or not.

What matters is that you trust that your heart will lead the way. Have the courage to follow it.

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I would like to open the floor now for questions. Feel Free to ask Kathryn any questions you might have about writing, her writing, her writing process, or anything else you can think about. She'll be around sometime today to answer them!

I'm so sorry that this post is late in the day. I misplaced the file with her publication story.