I’ve been a fan of Joel Friedlander’s site for a few months now, ever since I decided to go the self-publishing route for The War’s End. He has just started a video series, Roadmap to Self-Publishing, that I think every aspiring author needs to watch.

And you know who else should watch it? Don’t take this the wrong way, but all the well-meaning family, friends and supporters of aspiring authors need to watch it, too. Why? Because I hear so many times, in the nicest way, “Oh, you should just do it, you can get your book on Kindle in less than a minute!” I know folks mean well, but as Joel puts it in his introduction to the series, a seemingly minor decision you make early on can make or break your book’s chances for success, or even the possibility of someone finding your book online. There are lots of things to consider.

So for now, I’m considering. I know I haven’t been updating this blog as often as I planned, but I’ve been focused on my other blog and also dealing with polar madness. It’s not PC to call it that anymore–now we’re supposed to say “T3 Syndrome.” But doesn’t polar madness sound so much more romantic? What it means in terms of The War’s End is that I can’t edit the final draft when I have incredible difficulty concentrating and frequently confuse homonyms (if I type “Hear it is” or “I here you” one more time in an email I may have to stop considering myself a writer!).

Hopefully, with the sun returning to Antarctica and my time on the Ice down to 24 days and counting, I will soon regain my command, such as it is, of the English language, and get back to the final edit. Until then, thanks for reading.