I ventured into Self Publishing some five years ago, when my children were quite young, and I was about to be signed onto a traditional publisher. When the publisher decided change the content I put my foot down and said “No!”  When I mentioned I would self publish, they sent me a rather rude e-mail and were miffed by my decision. However, I do not regret my decision.

It has been a world of discovery.  I had picked up a book sent to me from a radio host when I asked a relevant question regarding self publishing.  I felt the book was some sort of 'proverbial sign' for me to self publish.  With extensive research, I found my decision was sound. 

After a few life changes, I managed to finish my book, 'The League of Light - Guardians of the Light' ISBN-13978-0-9735353-1-0 and ISBN-100-9735353-1-8.  I got my CIP number and bar code for pricing and country of origin.  I was excited!  I then went to several people and started to tell them about my book and what I had done. 

I developed the story over the years, between two countries, two ex-husbands, two provinces, and two children.  When I put together the marketing copies, I used Cerlox binding and handed them out for half of what the book would cost.  I got enough money together to make my first set of 50 books at the printers.

I found four different sponsors.  Each one helped in their own way. For example, I managed to get a publicity shot in exchange for a book.  I used the computer at work (with my boss’s permission) and used the materials I brought to work to put my books together.  The Printer helped by waiving certain fees and extras and all I had to pay was the actual fee, no set up costs, as long as I did all the prepress work (typesetting and editing).

I generated the local publicity I needed by appearing on a local cable talk show and did local author readings.  However, because of time and money constraints, everything came to a grinding halt and I found myself embroiled in personal issues, having too little money to promote my book.

I left it for just over a year.  Now I'm starting out again, and this time I hope to generate interest not only locally but further afield and take my book to the next level, which is of course a film.  If that becomes feasible, I have contacted locally with a couple of directors but have not heard back from them in over a year.  This is hardly surprising. 

The whole process of self publishing has been a very satisfying and all-encompassing experience.  Several mentors helped enormously with my writing, publishing and focus on selling and marketing.  They have always encouraged me and would not let me give up when I felt I couldn't put one foot in front of the other. 

On the whole, self publishing has been an exciting experience.  I have gone the self publishing route via the likes of self publishers on the Internet, and while they provide excellent service, there is so much competition that I would be one out of 80,000 on one publishing service alone!  That is very intimidating and doesn't really encourage me to get out there and do something about my book.

I can see others who have done their work and have the money and capacity to put their work online, so that they are industry leaders.  But I am encouraged by the number of self publishers in the market and the healthy competition that has developed. 

My book 'The League of Light-Guardians of the Light' still remains an obscure tome and few if any have heard of it outside of the city where I live.  (The League of Light is not to be confused with the cartoon characters that pervade the Internet with the same title. In fact, I believe they are breaking copyright of my titles. 

The League of Light is a fictional fantasy thriller based on events which occurred during my stay in Wales in 1997.  The book was borne out of research done and conducted at the time in Wales, where I was living in a small and obscure village.  Rumour had it that there were several groups of people who practised the 'The cult of the Dead' and Paganism.  There were many incidences and coincidences that would not be pushed to one side, so I based a story on some of the events which had occurred at that time.

Thumbnail sketch of The League of Light' - 'Guardians of the Light' is: Rules were meant to be broken, but not the rules of the Universe or those that govern it.  Zarya has broken those rules and must now bear the consequences.  With betrayal and murder left in her wake and an evil so ancient and dangerous tracking her every move, will Zarya survive? From one end of the globe to another, mysterious strangers become her friends, but are they enough to help her and can she trust them for what lies ahead?

The book keeps the reader guessing until the very end and gives a good twist on the whole story.

I did plug this to publishers but they didn't seem to be too interested and, because the book is written in the first person, to bring the reader into the narrator’s world and see first hand what goes on, it has scared a few people. Thus it's not a book for youngsters or those who can't sleep at night.  If you are looking for a good ghost story or a really good thriller that will get your blood pumping, this one might just do it!

For more information on my books please contact me at clankjn@hotmail.com  People who have read my book The League of Light actually go to bed with the light on for a few days afterward.  They have been a little 'thrilled'.  If you are interested in knowing more about the books I write, creative works on being a single parent and “That Cat” (a children’s book).  Plus a series of short stories with poems about loves lost bloom.

I work as an Administration and Marketing Tourism Consultant for Battlefords Tourism in North Battleford, Saskatchewan.  Tourism is one of the biggest industries in Saskatchewan and with the Yellowhead Highway (Hwy 16) passing through the Battlefords, this brings a lot of potential high tourism traffic into the Battlefords.  I am as enthusiastic about Tourism as I am passionate about my writing.  

Further to some of the above information, I have contacted Booksurge and have submitted my book for the US and UK markets on Amazon.com.  I'm hoping to see some results.  Booksurge has been fantastic, very professional and always available to answer questions no matter how mundane.  I am particularly fussy with my books and where they are in the publishing process, which has led me on occasion to be slightly frustrated when things don't go according to plan - which can happen. 

My confidence in submitting my book led me to publish books done by my children for Christmas presents: for example, 'What Walter Did Next' (our next door neighbour's cat). This has also encouraged my children to explore the world of writing and see the process first-hand from concept, idea, writing, submission to publishing.  They have found it to be an exciting process and, when I find myself becoming jaded by the whole publishing process, I think of their enthusiasm and it makes me realize that it's only my expectations and frustrations that hinder me.

As for my book "The League of Light", locally it's doing very well.  We shall see what comes of the work I've put into getting it this far.  If locals are interested, hopefully there will be enough interest generated globally to buy it or even acknowledge it.  I hope people are inspired to read it and will tell others about it.  While I don't think I'll be the next J.K. Rowling (that would be nice!), I do think that when people read my book, there is no in between. They either really like it, or really can't handle it.  I have a press release as well as a book review coming out shortly.  This will be put onto a website I'll have up and running soon as well. 

Having put out the money for the publishing of my book, I certainly feel a certain sense of satisfaction to see it in print for the first time and with people coming up to me asking me where they can buy it. 

Once my book was launched I decided to get a press release.  BookSurge helped with the wording and when I got the first draft, although it was good, it wasn't quite right.  So, with some assistance from the folks at BookSurge, we managed to complete an updated press release. 

Along with the press release I was also persuaded to get a book review.  Several weeks later I got the review back.  It had been outsourced to another company, a very reputable one.  Unfortunately the review was not what I expected but then my book is somewhat of an unexpected genre. 

After going through the review I found that it contained several mistakes (which would not have made if the reviewer had read my book) I filed a complaint and asked that the mistakes be rectified.  They were and, somewhat mollified, I found myself not using the review at all.  It really is a case of self publishing being at the mercy of what we can afford. 

The lesson I learned from all this was that a review done by someone else who doesn't know the subject and isn't sympathetic to it, doesn't matter.  It's what the writer/author feels about the book, and how passionate they are about it.  That passion will transcend a lot of barriers and keep them going through some of the toughest times.  Personally the review was a tough one to come to terms with and many people reassured me that my book was worth more than someone else’s critical and angry point of view.  In the end I had to agree with them.

The League of Light by JN Reynolds is available on BookSurge.com or at Amazon.com, among other websites internationally.

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