Why I Self-Published My Work On Payhip

 

When I first discovered self-publishing, I thought I'd found my niche. I never had the polish or the credentials to get the traditional publishers to take me on, though a few admitted I had a nice writing style. But, being an introvert (and most likely autistic) I couldn't take rejection well at all, so I gave up on that. 

I also tried for years to get my screenplays optioned, but oh my God how hard that is on a writer's soul! I got a lot of interest back during the spec script craze in Hollywood in the 90s, when producers would pay up to a million bucks for a script - and then never produce it! But my bad luck prevailed - again, there were compliments but no sales.

I started self-publishing in 2011, back when it was a boom town thing, we all felt like gold miners hitting a strike. Of course, only a few of us actually made a great career out of it. But, it seemed like I was finally going to make a success of my writing ... until ...

Life knocked me for a loop. I won't go into specifics, for my family's sake - but I was hit so hard I couldn't write, I couldn't really function in any capacity. I lost 50 pounds in three months (and my body has never recovered from that). I learned the hard way that if you weren't publishing at least one book a month the readers would quickly move on to someone else. And my sales tanked.

I stopped writing, so I could take care of the emotional, financial and legal upheavals we were facing. Once all that was settled, I returned to self-publishing, only to discover that, as with most professions, a lot of leeching gatekeepers had been added, so it was harder to find and keep an audience. I have been struggling ever since.

I dropped the big name self-publishing platforms. I don't like who runs them, for one thing, and I couldn't navigate the brutal marketing strategies you have to use these days to get sales, anyway. 

So - I tried Payhip, which is the easiest place to make a pretty storefront, plus they use Paypal to pay their creators instead of asking for my bank account. I was up there for awhile with no sales, but I decided to try again, since it's so easy to use.

If I make some sales I'll be content. If not, at least I can say I tried.