Catherine M. Wilson
I have spent most of my working life as an engineer of one sort or another (broadcast engineer, software engineer) and people who know that side of me are surprised when they learn about the writing side. I like science and engineering because I like to know how things work, and I like the arts because I like to know how people work.
It took me 50 years to graduate from college, because I kept getting distracted by life, but I finally earned a BA and MS in Computer Science. Having accomplished that, I started writing a novel, which turned into a trilogy. I don’t know why I needed those degrees to write, at last, the book that I always knew was in me trying to get out. Maybe I just needed to be old enough.
Although I did try for a year to interest an agent in my trilogy, I realized that no agent or publisher would be willing to take a chance on a very long work by an unknown author. I queried over 50 agents, and not one requested a manuscript.
During that year, I educated myself about the self-publishing option. I read half a dozen books about setting up my own publishing company. I learned InDesign (Adobe's typesetting program) and Photoshop. It took almost another year to set up my company and prepare my books for publication, but the effort was very much worthwhile.
In addition to simply getting my books in print, having my own publishing company allows me to retain all my rights, including digital rights, and to control all aspects of publication. Once an author has contracted with a traditional publisher, she often loses the ability to control the way her work is presented. Her publisher can edit the content, choose the cover art, even change the title of the book. By publishing myself, I was able to create exactly the book I wanted.
