The act of beginning to write, trying to say anything of importance, as T.S. Eliot (1990) so aptly describes, feels to be “a raid on the inarticulate, with shabby equipment always deteriorating” (p. 203) and yet somehow I have forged on.

Yesterday I finished rewrites on Disappearing in Plain Sight and today I printed out yet another hard copy, which I have vowed to leave in pristine shape. I don’t want to restructure or rewrite anymore. Ya right – good luck with that one. I know I still have grammar edits to do and typos and unclear or overly run-on sentences to correct – I’ll work on those things with my copy editor, but when it comes to restructuring, moving pieces around, etc. etc. – no more – please. It felt positively traumatic to pull the whole thing apart and then carefully stitch it back together again – necessary, but painful.

I have decided to go with FriesenPress  (http://friesenpress.com/ ) for my adventure in self-publishing. A few things swayed me in their direction – some the result of solid research and reflection and some not. They are able to offer everything I want out of this self-publishing experience in one place, working with one person to overview the entire process. To me this means (and I sure hope it works out this way) that I will be able to establish a relationship with, what they call, my author account manager who is dedicated to the task of coordinating every aspect of my book project – and that is a direct quote!

I was also swayed by the personal touch – when I first filled out the author information form, on their website, in order to download their author’s guide, I was required to give my phone number.  Within a day I received a personal phone call. A follow-up call came after a few weeks and finally I was offered a number of extra services on top of the package I had already been leaning toward, for no extra cost.

FriesenPress also offers me distribution and marketing assistance. Going piecemeal about e-publishing, getting a book cover design, getting the manuscript formatted into print-on-demand shape, would have cost less for sure – but there would have been no help with marketing.

When I was teetering on the fence, I happened to check out their blog (http://blog.friesenpress.com/ ) and I was very impressed – informative blog posts, a series of podcasts, and a great feel to the whole site. And finally – my non-researched swaying point – my mother’s maiden name was Friesen. I know even letting something like that enter into one’s consideration when making such an important choice is silly but still . . . remember my blog – My mother was a real writer ( https://disappearinginplainsight.com/2012/06/) – what can I say? FriesenPress it is!

Feel the fear and do it anyway!

Eliot,T.S. (1990). T.S. Eliot: Collected poems 1909-1962. London: Faber and Faber.