I wrote a little while ago that having finished writing ‘Radwinter’ and without being immodest thinking it is the best thing I’ve written, I was wondering whether to go down the tortuous rooute of trying to get it published as an actual book to be found in book shops, rather than doing what I have done for my last five novels and self-publish on Kindle.
I would love to have my books out on book shelves, to have a physical thing to hold in my hand, with my name on the front, and my story on the pages within. I am sure that Radwinter, my recently finished book would find an audience… I’m sure people would pay to buy it and read and then would enjoy it. It’s a story about a man in search of his family roots; this ties in with all the popular genealogical programmes, such as ‘Who Do You Think You Are’, all the magazines which can be found on the shelves of a newsagent, and the many, many, many genealogical websites such as genesreunited.co.uk and ancestry.co.uk, https://familysearch.org... and many, many more. The character looks at censuses and other material, but as he finds out more about his ancestors, his own life changes too…. so for a reader there is the current story of a man struggling with work, relationships, family…
I have done quite a bit of research over the past few weeks, looking at different publishers; understandably they have heaps of submissions from would-be authors, and understandably those who are kind enough to look at manuscripts take months, sometimes up to sixth months to come to decision. I can understand that… but my book is set now, if I send it to a publisher and three months later it is rejected, and I send it somewhere else and it is rejected again, and six months later it goes to someone else… the book would lose its immediacy.
I will continue to investigate ‘real’ publishing, but I think I will also, once again, publish it myself on Kindle… I think so…
Lois Elsden 
Do publishers avoid books already out on Kindle etc?
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I don’t know, that’s my worry!
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Yeah, me too.
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Hmm… does this mean that the book would lose it’s power if someone reads it one year from now?
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I feel as if it might… or maybe I’m just eager to let go of it, launch it like sending a child off into the big wide world! Also I’ve had the experience before of sending submissions and waiting months, then resending them somewhere else, and then it’s years of just sending things and waiting! I have no contacts in publishing so it really is just luck, of my manuscript falling into the right hands at the right time.
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