Welcome to MY Blog
I'm glad you could make it. I hope you will have the occasion to read a few of my blog posts. It gives me great pleasure to write them, and I’m looking forward to reaching out to you from time to time.
Writing this first blog signals that I have finally finished writing and editing my debut novel, The Lost Souls of Guayaquil. It took me two years to write the story and one year to edit it. Since this is my first completed novel, I had to learn how to put one together and then bring it up to publishing standards by editing draft after draft until I finally reached the point where I was ready to let it go and move on to publishing.
When I looked at the options of self-publishing versus the traditional method, I chose to self-publish for a number of reasons. Most importantly, as an independent author, I have complete control over the project from start to finish. Although I've benefited from the advice of others, especially my editors, at the end of the day, it's my story to tell in the way I think is best and to market using all the incredible tools available online.
Although I wrote most of the novel while sequestered in Guayaquil during the pandemic, I had access to wonderful resources for aspiring writers: from craft books I could download in less than ten seconds that explained important topics like point of view and how to structure both scene and story, to conversations with other aspiring writers from all over the Anglosphere who had just embarked on a similar journey, in the company of accomplished writers and editors as we gathered in online forums.
Truth be told, although I probably buy more than forty books a year, I haven't set foot in a bookstore in about ten years. I buy all my books online at half the price of print books. Just as the arrival of Google changed the information landscape, Amazon has done the same for publishing. Anyone with a story to tell can use the platform to potentially reach a global audience at no cost. Similarly, authors can target readers where they hang out on various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tic Toc to promote their books without having to rely on the marketing resources of traditional publishers.
As an aging boomer, I am gobsmacked by the manner in which Information and Communication Technology has evolved over the last twenty years. With regard to publishing, it has leveled the playing field. Writers no longer have to patiently wait for someone to decide whether their work is publishable. We can self-publish, and attract whatever readers we can, and if a traditional publisher is interested in doing business with us, they can do so without the writer having to give up the farm to get his or her novel into the hands of readers.
Without the power of the internet and the hardware and software that enable us to make good use of it, you wouldn’t be reading these words right now. You’d be doing something else. It’s my good fortune to be able to find you at this time, and I will try my best to compose interesting texts that address what it’s like to be a writer living in these tumultuous times and to communicate what it’s like to self-publish a debut novel.
If you are interested in receiving my blog posts as they become available, please subscribe to my newsletter. Rest assured, I will not use my email list for any other reason than personally contacting my readers. As well, I won’t be using Chat GPT to compose any of my posts.
Until next time.
Brian Gibb
