I’m in the process of writing what quickly became a book, a novel, a novella, whatever you want to call it.

I didn’t set out to do that. No. I set out to write a short story.

First draft: 20 or 25 pages.

Not enough detail, not a good enough ending, it needed something more.

Second draft: didn’t really get finished… I managed to get about 15 or 20 pages into the introduction and setup. A prologue, a first chapter.

At this point, I was writing notes by hand, drafting pages in pencil, writing the draft on a typewriter. It was starting to look like I would need a hard copy that I could edit… I didn’t want to re-type an entire book so I stopped drafting on my typewriter and moved to my computer. I’ve been working on re-writing the first chapter and getting on with the rest of the story.

But when I finish with that, then what? How do I know if its any good? How do I get people to see it, to read it?

I’ve been reading about and researching and re-reading articles and blog posts about how to get a book published. No matter how you look at it, it’s a long shot. I get it. It’s a lot of work and it may never amount to anything.

But the real question I am starting to ask myself is: should I find an agent and try to sell to a publisher or should I try to publish it myself? Then, if I publish myself: do I print hard copies, print-on-demand, or e-book?

There have been several huge success stories out there about authors who have self-published e-books and then were picked up by large publishing houses or have gone on to sell in six figures. But this isn’t the norm.

I don’t know that I want to be rich and famous and have great success from writing, but I would like to think that I might at least sell a handful of books and have a small number of people out there that enjoy my work.

I would love to be a best-selling author… but I enjoy writing horror (and pulp-horror at that). I will just have to settle for a niche audience that may or may not like what I write (and who may or may not ever see the final product).