My wife and I like to joke that our solution to every problem we encounter is to buy a book about it. It's not entirely true. As a tech, my first instinct is almost always to Google it. Nevertheless, today I am ordering a copy of Write Great Fiction: Revising and Self-editing, because I am now close enough to finishing the first draft of my novel that I feel I require it.

The first draft of a novel is called that for a reason: it is the first time you sit down and write out the story, all the way through to completion. By far, though, it is not the end of the process. I think that failing to recognize that writing the first draft is not the end of the authoring process may be one of the biggest pitfalls that those who self-publish encounter.

One problem with self-publishing and print-on-demand is often cited to be poor quality of work, whether in design or authorship. That is not to say that every self-published work is low quality. There are most certainly many high quality self-published works (and I hope to count my novel among them). The self-publishing industry as a whole, however, does currently suffer from a reputation for lack of quality. I am determined to turn out only quality products. To that end, I am researching every possible aspect of the process of writing my novel.

My work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, and on the web for years now. Although I have written columns, short stories, poetry, and other forms successfully, this is my first attempt at the long form of the novel. I'm looking forward to seeing it through.