If you're like me, writing for a long time and getting tired of coming close to being picked up by a publisher but not quite falling over the line, there is another way. Do it yourself. Self publishing, or independent publishing as it's now becoming known, is not the vanity publishing of old. It's hard to get a publisher to take on an unknown nowadays and many writers are opting to do it themselves.

Why? Because at some point you want to know whether it's worthwhile continuing. And the only way to find out is to get your work out before the public.

You can do everything yourself, and thereby retain complete control of production and sales. Or you can enter into a partnership arrangement with one of the many small publishers around the country that now focus on this sort of arrangement with authors.

I did it myself. This means having the money up front to pay for editing, typesetting, artwork and printing, but it also means not having to hand over to someone else any money you make from sales.

As for sales, with Automaton, my first published book, I sold my first print run of 1000 through bookshops. The second print run of 2000 I opted for something different. I've been selling through the capital city royal shows, festivals, markets and at speaking engagements. It's nice to meet the people who buy the book, and they enjoy meeting and talking to the author - it's a win win situation.

And as an indication that the big publishers don't always get it right when they knock back a book, in 2003 Automaton won the national Fast Books Prize for best self published fiction. In 2004 Sisters in Crime Australia nominated it for the Davitt Awards which are given to the best Australian Female Crime Fiction for the year.

One national award and a national nomination!! Not bad for a self published first novel. I would hazard a guess and say there are very few books published by big publishers that attract that kind of attention.

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