This is the third post in a series about why, after twenty years,  I decided to self publish my new historical mystery, Maids of Misfortune. By 2001, I had been through the standard route–get an agent, rewrite along lines suggested by agent, submit to publishing houses, collect rejections, start on new book. Unpublished members of my writers group were doing the same thing-with no success. Those members of the group who had published in the 1990s were experiencing the disappointing fate of  a growing number of midlist authors–failing to get contracts for their latest books, and in some cases parting ways with their agents. See an excellent blog posting on this experience written in 2006 by Holly Lisle. Here are the lessons I had learned so far: 1) I needed to work on making my writing more compelling 2) getting Read more…