Twenty years ago, when I began writing (what would eventually be titled) 'Demon Gates', I never dreamed of becoming published. Well, I guess that isn't entirely true, because I did indeed daydream about it, but usually nothing more than a 'Wouldn't it be awesome if I was an author' scenario. I never saw myself as talented or devoted to writing: in truth, I had no idea writing would ever be anything more than just a way to relax, or an off-shoot from reading so much fantasy that the ideas had to go somewhere!!!
So, if somebody had said to me, "One day you will self-publish and people will be able to purchase your books Over the Internet!" I would have probably just laughed at them! At that time, i think I had nothing more than a trusty i386 computer, with the original MS Word word processor. My writing had no structure, no form, no finesse, just the pen-to-paper rambling of many many years of inhaling fantasy in any conceivable form. Back then, the Internet was relatively new, and who would have thought of buying a book written by a no-name author! Every author also wanted to be 'the new Tolkien', to forge their own path down the traditional publishing route, hailed as the greatest.....
Now, I am glad I stumbled across self-publishing in 2010. Not only for the ability to publish my work and get it out there for other to (hopefully) enjoy, but back even further than that. If gave me the motivation to finish what I had started so long ago. Demon Gates and Ashar'an Rising are at the stage where i am happy with what they have become. Good, bad or indifferent in terms of quality, I think that without Indie Publishing, both would be sitting gathering dust in some dark recess of my hard drive, looked at every few months, instigating a few more random pipe-dreams, but in the end just another slush-pile reject. Now I am proud to say I have written them, and bathe in the adulation of others who have read them and praised what I have turned out.
So for those standing at the step, looking down the road of Indie Publishing, I offer you my hand, or in the very least my best wishes, and hope one day our paths may cross somewhere along it, for it is a path best shared with friends.
~Robert Day
http://www.robertdaybooks.com/
