As I've started reaching out to literary agents and sharing updates about my hopefully soon-to-be-published book, I keep getting a lot of questions regarding my previously self-published books, what the difference between self-publishing and professional publishing is, etc. Most questions take the form of something similar to these:
"Kelsey, didn't you already publish a book? Why do you need a literary agent this time?"
"I found your book on Amazon. Did you actually publish it?"
"Do you still do those writing competitions?"
It's a lot of fun getting these questions because it gives me an excuse to talk about my books and everything I've written over the past years. I thought that since so many of you are interested in how I started writing and what the difference is between my previously published books and the one I'm trying to publish now... I figured I'd write about it!
1. "Didn't you already publish a book? Why do you need a literary agent this time?"
Some of you may remember that when I was in grade six, I ran around telling everyone about how I won a writing competition and published my book, Unknown Creatures. Unknown Creatures was technically my debut novel, which I printed using a self-publishing website that (at the time) worked in affiliation with NaNoWriMo. Unknown Creatures is about small mythical creatures called Inling Fairies (which I made up) who go on different adventures to free Dawn's sister, Dusk, who has forbidden magical powers. It's a fantasy chapter book (about 100 pages long) for children. The main character is an Inling named Cardinal, who is new to the Inling world, as she just hatched from a seed (creative, I know). Dawn is her mentor and guides her through this new world. However, when Dawn realizes the Inling Council is hunting her down because she has a magical sister, she drags Cardinal into various dangerous situations that they must escape.
If you can't tell by the book's description, I wrote (and published) this book when I was eleven. I wrote this book as a part of a young writer's competition called NaNoWriMo...
Na(tional) No(vel) Wri(ting) Mo(nth):
a competition in which a person is given only the month of November to write an entire novel. For adults, the expected word count goal is 50,000 words. For those under 18 years old, the youth program's goal can be any word count, so long as the book is completed by the end of November.
As a young writer, this competition was perfect for me. I set my word goal for 30,000 words, and by November 31st, I had completed it. What did I get for winning? Well, at the time, the NaNoWriMo organization was working with a self-publishing company, and any winner would be able to self-publish their book for free. So that's what I did. By March 29th, 2015, my book was available to purchase on various platforms, including Amazon.
If you're interested in reading more about Unknown Creatures, or if you want to buy the book (I do receive profits from it!), you can Google Unknown Creatures by Kelsey Gatis or use this link: https://www.amazon.ca/Creatures-Kelsey-Gatis/dp/150857930X
The book is currently $10.46, and although it may not be the most expertly written (it still has a considerable amount of grammar mistakes), for a book published when I was eleven, it's pretty good... if I do say so myself.
HOWEVER, I do have a second (but much less popular) self-published book called Once Upon a Lie. It was published the same way as Unknown Creatures—I won NaNoWriMo again, and I had it self-published for free when I was thirteen. My word goal was 80,000 words, and for the second time, I managed to win. This was technically my third year competing in NaNoWriMo, after I lost the second year I competed (we don't talk about what happened during NaNoWriMo 2016). This book is about 320 pages long and it's a fantasy novel meant for children, currently a total of $15.54.
Once Upon A Lie is about Red (formerly known as Red Riding Hood) who becomes a detective, solving the mysteries behind the world's most famous fairytales. When she finally becomes old enough to leave home, she seizes the chance to go on the dangerous adventure to dig up the dark pasts of famous fairytale characters and set their stories straight. The fairytale characters she investigates are Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and the Three Little Pigs. Of course, things go nothing according to plan, and Red will have to endure dangerous missions, leading her to question whether or not she will have to quit while she still has the chance.
Personally, I love this book. Again, there are quite a few grammar mistakes, but this book was so much fun to write. I keep a copy in my room that I read every now and then just because it cheers me up. The characters in these books are some of my favourite that I've ever written.
If you're interested in checking out Once Upon A Lie as well, here's the Amazon link: https://www.amazon.ca/Once-Upon-Lie-Kelsey-Gatis/dp/1542733022
2. "I found your books on Amazon. Did you actually publish them?"
The answer is... yes! Although, this part gets a little confusing for some people. It's well-known now that I'm working to get my new book Kill the Gods published, but I've had a lot of questions wondering what makes Kill the Gods different from my other books, and why I haven't just self-published it already—especially since Kill the Gods is yet another book I wrote during NaNoWriMo.
The simplest answer is that anyone can self-publish anything (with their own money); not everyone can publish anything professionally. Both ways, a book is published, but being "professionally published" means having a big publishing company look at your book and say, "Yes! We love it. We will print out hundreds of copies and line the shelves of Walmart and Indigo with this."
I'm not much of a sports person but I think of it similar to football leagues. Self-publishing is like playing football for your high school—not everyone has the skill to join the team, but with hard work and practice, it is possible to succeed. Being professionally published is like playing football for the NHL—it's far more coveted and far less achievable because of the competition, and will lead to far more success. Self-publishing takes a lot of time and effort, and although my books are technically published, they'll (probably) never reach the amount of popularity and exposure compared to a book published by a proper publishing house. I believe that Kill the Gods has the potential to be professionally published, and I'd like to work with literary agents and publishers to see it put in the hands of readers. So, yes, my other books are published... but they're not published professionally.
3. "Do you still do those writing competitions?"
Of course! My favourite writing competition (which I've been participating in since I was ten) is NaNoWriMo, which I discussed above. It's actually how I wrote Kill the Gods. During my spare in high school (when I had no class), I would go to library with my laptop and write all throughout the month of November. After November, when the book had been finished, I used the next three(ish) years to edit and complete it. However, as NaNoWriMo gained popularity and became a global phenomenon for writers, it has become more of a self-challenge than an actual competition. I've also competed in several other short story competitions, but there isn't much to note there (short stories aren't really my thing). Currently, I've taken a break from most of my writing competitions, as I'm in university majoring in English and Creative Writing (which really isn't a surprise to anyone).
And for those of you who ask me how long I've been writing... my earliest memory of a story I wrote was in grade one, where I wrote a short story about a caterpillar that was freaking out because he didn't know that he was going to change into a butterfly.
If you want to see some of my writing from when I was little, I still have my very first blog live on the internet for people to see. It's about what my toy pandas did at home while I was at school. If you're bored or curious and want to check it out, here's the link: https://picapanda.wordpress.com/ (Needless to say, I don't post on there anymore).
Well, I think that's pretty much answered all your questions. If you have anything else to ask, reach out to me using the contact forum on this website. Don't forget to subscribe, too, so that you can be notified every time I post.
Yours truly,
Kelsey Gatis
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