I started writing Magic Carpet Ride in November 2012 as part of the NaNoWriMo competition. It was my second year to attempt to “win” and again I came up short. But the story had caught my attention and I really thought this could be a story I could see to the end. I worked on it off and on over the next year and a half or so before finally finishing the first draft. Since then I’ve had it read and reviewed by several friends. I’ve put it through many revisions and polishings before I finally felt it was ready.
I briefly tried to get an agent. I was undeterred by the couple of “no thanks” responses I received as many an established author started their career with a flurry of rejections. After listening to the advice of several podcasts and blogs, I decided to self-publish. It is easier than ever to get your work out into the world without the traditional gatekeepers. Wanna make a movie or record your new song? Post it on Youtube. Wanna start a podcast? Upload it to iTunes. The production cost of writing a book is basically just your own time and imagination. Is it hard? Of course. If it were easy, everyone would do it.
This lack of gatekeepers does mean that more crap gets through, but at the end of the day the best way to find readers to write a good book. I may be biased, but I think I’ve done that. Magic Carpet Ride isn’t going to win a Pulitzer Prize or anything, but it’s a fun story and I’m quite proud of it.
The first hurdle I had to clear was securing the rights to reprint the lyrics I quote in the story. I never wrote this with publishing it in mind and definitely not with self-publishing in mind. If I had, I probably would have structured it in such a way that I didn’t quote song lyrics. By the end, a few songs, particularly Steppenwolf’s Magic Carpet Ride had become vital to the strength of the narrative. The hardest part was actually figuring out who to even contact. Not having an agent, this was work I had to do alone. After plenty of research and a few false trails, I got it figured out and secured the rights credited on the copyright page of the book.
This prompted me to light a new fire of final edits and to begin work on cover art. Braden Bartlett, a member of my cross country team, was partially a template for the main character of Michael Bradbury. He’s also an artist and did a sketch of what the cover might look like. I then had friend and graphic artist Will Hiebert give it color, structure, and a professional look.
I need to give special thanks to the roughly dozen friends who read various drafts and gave me feedback. Most notably Sam Casner who sat down with me over several hours and broke the story down line-by-line, and Mary Black who give it professional-level editing when I thought it was already finished (and my English teacher mom who pointed out that I don’t know how to use commas – guess that’s her fault, right?).
I uploaded the story to Kindle this morning and hit “publish” only to discover there is a waiting period while they review the project before it goes live.
So I sit here, excited, slightly nervous, and hopeful that I’m so close..