Ronit J

My debut novel is set to release in about a month. It’s been in the works since April this year, and it’s an important milestone for me. You see, I’m just a few months away from turning 30 (send me wishes and gifts on Feb 07). I’ve done a whole bunch of things in my life, but there’s one major unfulfilled goal of mine that I really want to finish before I turn 30 – to be a published author.

So, TL;DR: the reason is life goals. But, for a longer explanation and breakdown of my journey towards making this decision, keep reading.

Failed Debut Novel(s) that broke my heart

I was 11 years old when I decided I wanted to be an author. By 19, I was done writing my first book. By the time I turned 21, I had received more rejections and ghostings on query emails than online dating apps. Not joking.

I’ll admit, my first manuscript wasn’t good enough. My query letters and emails were even worse. I understand why no one bothered to respond to them. So, for my second and third manuscripts, I worked on honing my writing skills, wrote better manuscripts, spent ample time writing better queries, and upped my game as best I could.

Still just rejections and ghostings. And heartbreak.

Was I not good enough? Was I lacking somewhere? The answer is yes and no.

Understanding with the situation

For the lacking part: there’s always room for improvement. If you’ve read my previous post, you’ll know where my manuscripts were lacking. But it isn’t just the quality of my writing and my queries that played a role in the rejections. It was also the whole ecosystem.

For starters, agents and publishers receive hundreds of queries, and undoubtedly some of those are not good. If you’re like me who sent out unsolicited query emails and letters, chances are they ended up in a slush pile. And something I had to accept at one point was that the chances of someone picking out my manuscript out of a hundred or thousand unknown ones was depressingly low.

Which brought me to another realisation: agents and publishers weren’t ghosting me because I was bad; they could be ghosting me because they just never saw my manuscript or query. And, I can’t really blame them. With the sheer numbers, it’d be unreasonable to expect even a copy-paste rejection from someone.

So, traditional publishing would’ve meant years before my debut novel would hit the bookstores. And there were more things about it that didn’t work.

As I kept pondering over these things, I listed down my thoughts about trad-publishing as follows:

Why Trad Publishing didn’t work for me

• Waiting times are a nightmare: The average waiting time for agent/publisher responses was about 3 months. The longest I think I remember was a 6-month duration. So, if I finish writing a draft today, I could have to wait 6 whole months just to get someone to read my query before even touching the manuscript.
• There is no guarantee of a reply: 6 months of waiting, and no reply… that’s when I can safely assume that it’s a no. Rejections hurt, but uncertainty is torment. And after working months on perfecting a manuscript, if I can’t even receive a reply half a year later, is it really worth it?
• Querying agents or publishers is very much like job hunting: I’ve applied for hundreds of jobs through online portals, cold-emails and calling, and I’m sure you’ve experienced it to some extent. Hell, I once applied to a job through LinkedIn in 2018, and I got a notification in 2022 that the employer had finally downloaded my CV.
  The job market is a nightmare, and querying is very much like that.
• I don’t have the time or patience to deal with any of that: Three failed manuscripts, and months of effort wasted on waiting for replies. It almost felt like the system was designed to work against me. Sadly it is. Not just against me personally, but against all the authors who’re trying to get their work out there. Admittedly, a lot of it isn’t good. But a lot of it is pure gold!
  

My limiting belief about self-publishing

The reason for this is something I am embarrassed to admit, but I will. Because admitting the reason also includes me admitting I was wrong. The reason is: I didn’t trust self-published books.

Now, hear me out. I grew up on Scholastic Book Fares and Crossword Bookstores. My literary diet consisted of only traditionally published books. As for self-published works – I didn’t have a clue what they even looked like. My ignorant and poorly informed younger self was under the impression that these authors only resorted to self-publishing because they failed to publish traditionally.

What a terribly ignorant and narrow-minded thought, right? And sadly, my social anxiety prevented me from having the much-needed interactions to break my biases, which is why I held onto this stupid belief for so long. And as I interact with more people online, I realise this bias is still prevalent among people, and that’s true because trad-publishing gives authors validation.

But, as I waited for a reply from agents and publishers, I started to empathise with my fellow authors. And over the years, I broke out of my limiting beliefs and picked up many self-published books. And guess what? They were AMAZING!

The final push that made me want to self-published my work

Seriously, some of the best books I’ve read in recent times are all self-published or indie-published. Rob J Hayes, Zamil Akhtar, Samir S Sadir, M L Wang, J. Zachary Pike, Will Wight, the list just keeps building.

Reading their books, enjoying their worlds and stories, and seeing them keep at it really inspired me to take that important call. Which is why between 2020-2021, when I started working on another epic fantasy manuscript, I decided that I will self-publish the book (whenever I finished writing it).

That book is still a WIP, and I won’t be ready to talk about it until later next year. But in the mean time, I did work on another manuscript — my debut novel!

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About my debut novel:

Title: Help! My Dog Is The Chosen One!

Word Count: ~70,000

Description: 

Kunal is forced to adventure…
Because his dog is the Chosen One! 

Kunal is just your average guy living on rent, working from home, and suffering from anxiety. His world is turned upside down when his girlfriend asks him to foster a rescued a street dog. Despite his qualms, Kunal agrees because, ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’

That’s when the extra-dimensional dark lord attacks.

The dog is the only one who can stop the dark lord, but he can’t do it without Kunal’s help. Can Kunal overcome his many anxieties or will our world suffer for eternity?

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My debut novel is now available worldwide! You can pick your preferred store from the link below:

This is my first time self-publishing, and there have been more than many hiccoughs along the road. But I’m confident I can pull this off.

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Thank you for reading, and have a good day!