Insecure Writers: Self-Publishing For Self-Confidence

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I get e-mails from Writer's Digest all the time offering suggestions and writing tips for making my manuscript shine so I can someday get an agent's attention. Blah, blah, blah. I read them, but usually it's the same old advice. But I got an e-mail yesterday that I thought was a little more interesting, and maybe you saw it too if you're a subscriber. It was titled: Five Things That Should Be On Every Writer's Bucket List by Online Editor Brian A. Klems.

Item #2, Self Publish Something (Not just a book), caught my attention. Here's what it said:

"Self-publishing doesn't have to mean publishing and selling a book or novel on your own. It can be as simple as publishing a post to your blog, writing a newsletter, or printing an informational pamphlet. The point of putting this on your bucket list isn't to make money from sales or fill in your backlist. It's about finding the confidence in yourself to share your work with the world. Though a lot of people talk about the relative technical ease of self-publishing these days, they sorely under-acknowledge the self-confidence required to present your work to the world without the requisite validation of an editor, publisher, or agent. If you can do that, and especially if you can do it so well that you actually sell books, you will have overcome a major hurdle and prepped yourself for future success." 

So with that in mind I am using my Insecure Writers Support Group post this month to offer kudos to all of the brave souls online who share their stories, their ideas, their opinions, and their deep thoughts on their blogs for all the world to read. It's no small thing to put yourself out there and say this is me and this is what I write.

Has self-publishing to your blog or Smashwords or Amazon made your a more confident writer? 

This post is part of Alex J. Cavanaugh's Insecure Writer's Support Group. We post the first Wednesday of every month. Join us and start putting your insecure thoughts out there for the world to read. Really, no one will mind. In fact, we'll all just nod our heads and say we totally get it. 

**And, And, And, I do have one more thing I'm a teency bit Insecure about. I've agreed to co-host my very first Blog Hop! On March 13th and 14th I'll be sharing the hosting duties with Laura Eno and mastermind Stephen Tremp for...duh, duh, DUH...


The National Wormhole Day Bloghop in honor of Albert Einstein's birthday.  

What would you do or where would you go if you could traverse a wormhole through space or time just once? One safe round trip passage (I think of Rod Sterling from Twilight Zone presenting this).

Would you go back in time and talk some sense into a younger you? Go five years into the future and bring back the Wall Street Journal? See just how the heck the Great Pyramids of Giza were really built? View what the other side of the universe looks like? Kill Hitler? Watch a play by Shakespeare at the Globe theater?

This is another quick and easy Blog Hop. Since we are all busy, take a moment to tell us, in 100 words more or less, what you would do if you had a two-way ticket to traverse a wormhole.

Sounds fun, right? I'm a history nut, so I'm going to have fun with this one. There are so many places I would love to travel through time to see with my own eyes.