Men of the Month Blog Tour: Nicole Williams on Self-Publishing

As part of the epic month-long Men of the Month tour with Simon and Schuster new adult authors I have Nicole Williams, the author of Crash and Clash, here to talk about self-publishing.

The term self publishing terrified me. Not because of the stigma behind it, but because of the whole “putting-yourself-out-there” idea. It was a paralyzing feeling to realize I could publish a book and, within twenty-four hours, the entire world would have the potential to download a part of my soul. Or at least that’s the way it felt the first time. It’s been two years since I published my first e-book, ETERNAL EDEN, and two years later, I’ve hit that publish button eight more times. For me, it gets a bit easier every time, but there’s always a bit of anxiety involved.

The concept of self publishing was foreign to me until I received a Kindle for Christmas one year and started to discover some books and authors I’d never heard of before or seen on the bookstore shelves. After a bit of research, I discovered these authors had independently published their books without going through the traditional process and that got me thinking. A lot. ETERNAL EDEN had been finished for a couple of years by then, and after a lot of support from my husband and a whole heck of a lot of feigned courage from myself, I did it. It took a few weeks for EE to gain some traction, but once it had, I remember thinking to myself; this has got to be too good to be true. And you know what? I still say this to myself. Almost every day. My entire journey has surpassed one hundred times over what I anticipated. I’ve never regretted my decision.

The self publishing journey hasn’t been all rainbows and butterflies, of course. There have been growing pains and hiccups along the way, but nothing that’s ever made me want to throw in the towel and never write a word again.

Self publishing has opened so many doors for me. No matter what it evolves into, or what my writing career does, self publishing will always hold a very special spot in my heart.

Make sure you follow the rest of the tour and read some fantastic posts from Jennifer Echols, Simone Elkeles, Abbi Glines and Steph Campbell.

Sophie