Something about me (Part 3)

I'm thinking seriously of self-publishing a piece of work in the near future. I can afford to and thought that it would be an interesting experiment to gauge the other side of the coin while I'm waiting to hear from publishers in the usual way, on other manuscripts. That means I get to know both sides of a very tough but highly exciting industry.

The time for me is just right now.

Developing the idea represents a challenge in the interlude. Like a game with other players or a learning curve to better things. It doesn't matter if I fail. At least, I will appreciate how booksellers and distributors work and be thankful for their presence and not always as a writer, point the finger at retail trade or blame production ineptitude, simply because I failed to make sound decisions beforehand or understand completely the workings of the industry's infrastructure as a whole, internationally.

If I arrange to self-publish something, it would also be a bonus to have made up very quickly for not having written creatively for 6 years. Looking back, I feel too much time fled although I did broaden my horizons in a glorious fashion from having travelled to and lived in different countries.

I already have a substantial knowledge of the publishing industry both in the East and the West.
If I do engage in such a venture, I will follow the marketing discipline of the West. I have too much buoyant energy and dislike being laidback. Here, in Europe as compared to my country, publishing a book means facing fierce competition. But that is what makes life and its possibilities exhilarating. Challenges to strive for the best are dynamic and the playing field exciting if you have the gritty aptitude for it.

I find that in the West, writers promoting their work either singlehandedly or through publicity departments are in top form. They are just so full of zest. They're not moaners or whiners. They don't complain but just get on with things. I still remember the saying that it is always easy to be a big fish in a small pond but very hard to be a big fish in a big pond.

Here for both the amateur and professional, there are no excuses for mistakes, no resting on laurels, no foolish pleas for kindness. Everyone is on equal ground. I can't decide what I want to publish but I know what I want to send on to agents. This feels like a game although I'm aware my little adventure involves just as much blood, sweat and tears.

PS: I must add that from the recent Singapore Writer's Festival, I do feel very inspired by Singapore. Singaporean writers see themselves as developing internationally but never once feeling less-patriotic along the way. That is how things should be. The courage to spread one's wings and not to always insist on the clouding of thoughts in a protective insular mode...metaphorically speaking.