Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve published a blog post on my site, but in this here update I have some exciting news that I’d like to share.

I won’t bury the lede, so here it is.

I’ve decided to self-publish my debut novel The Man in the Red Paisley Suit. It will be available to buy on January 21, 2027!

If you’d like to learn more about my journey writing Paisley Suit, you can read that post here.

Today, I’d like to share a bit about how I arrived at the decision to self-publish.

Typing “The End…For Now”

I finally finished Paisley Suit on August 31, 2024, at 2:47 am, after roughly three and a half years of working on it. It was the first time since starting novel-writing in 2013 that I had a real, honest-to-goodness, completed manuscript. I had done a lot of editing throughout 2024 and rewrote almost the entire second half of the novel that summer. So it wasn’t just a draft, it was done.

Finally done!

It was an incredible feeling, and I’m so proud of finishing this novel.

Querying Literary Agents – Year 1

At that point, the manuscript was as good as I could make it myself, which is when publishing professionals typically say you’re ready to start querying agents.

I spent some time writing up a query letter and synopsis (necessary parts of your pitch), and then began the long journey that is querying literary agents. I made a list of the top agencies and agents I thought Paisley Suit would be a good fit for and started querying.

As anyone who’s been through the process knows, querying is a long slog. It’s difficult to sit and wait months and months for a reply when all you want is to get your novel out into the world, especially when the rejections start trickling in.

Between October 2024, when I started querying, and October 2025, I queried 34 agents and received only rejections. And no requests for the full or partial manuscript either.

I did, however, receive a personalized rejection from my number one pick agent, so that was really nice and much appreciated!

Querying Literary Agents – Year 2

After a year of unsuccessful querying, I reached out to a professional for help with my query and synopsis. I figured that since I’m not even getting past the query stage with agents, obviously my query and synopsis are not landing.

After polishing up both, I was ready to get back out into the trenches. From February 2026 to June 2026, I queried eighteen more agents. Unfortunately, I still received only rejections and no requests for the full manuscript or partial manuscript.

If You Do What You’ve Always Done, You’ll Get What You’ve Always Got

At that point I started thinking more seriously about self-publishing. After almost two years of rejections, and even getting professional help with my query package, I knew I had to try something different. 

I have absolutely no animosity towards all those agents for rejecting me. Agenting is a hard job that gets harder all the time. They receive hundreds and hundreds of queries every single day, and as such it can be really difficult for an author to break through and grab their attention.

And even if an agent thinks a book is really good and will sell, they may still pass on representing it if they’re not truly passionate about it. Publishing a book is difficult business, and you really want an agent who is nuts about your novel.

Since I only ever got the one personalized rejection, I have no idea why my query and synopsis didn’t land for the rest of the agents on my list. Maybe they didn’t like my writing (though the personalized rejection said my descriptive prose was good, woot!). Maybe they didn’t like the premise of the novel. Maybe they weren’t sure how they could sell an occult thriller to a publisher. It’s impossible to say.

Though I will say that my inclination is that maybe supernatural/occult thrillers are not in vogue right now. When I read the Publisher’s Marketplace blurbs for the thriller and horror books that have recently sold, none seem to involve supernatural occult themes, the kind where you need a priest to do the exorcism.

But truly I’ll never know.

Again, this is not to rail against agents and publishing. I’m sure I will try querying agents again with future novels. I know many authors come out of the querying process feeling angry and resentful at the publishing industry, but I came out of it actually more certain than ever that I needed to get my book out there. And if traditional publishing wasn’t the way for Paisley Suit, then that was okay, I would simply self-publish it.

Self-Publishing The Man in the Red Paisley Suit

My qualms with self-publishing were always the up-front cost of actually producing the book as well as the marketing. My biggest fear was that I would upload Paisley Suit to Amazon and then it would just languish there forever. I also wanted to make sure that I put out the best book possible. I knew my manuscript was good, but I certainly held no delusions that it wouldn’t need at least a good copy edit.

So I did my research, set a budget, and have since engaged a copy editor to help me get Paisley Suit in tip-top shape before publication. I’ll also be working with a proofreader and book formatter to format the book for paperback, hardcover, ebook, and hopefully a large-print edition as well.

I have also commissioned an old friend of mine who’s a professional illustrator to design and illustrate the cover. Knowing that I have no platform to speak of, no social media, no newsletter base, etc., I also knew that I would need the cover of Paisley Suit to do a lot of heavy lifting for me in terms of getting potential readers interested.

And I’m SO excited for that cover, which I’ll be revealing in September.

So that’s the story of how I came to this self-publishing decision.

The idea that Paisley Suit would just languish in my proverbial desk drawer forever simply because I couldn’t find the right agent for it was just unbearable to me. I’m so in love with this story and with the trilogy as a whole (I’m already writing the second novel), and I know it’s something that I have to get out there.

And as it turns out, I’m actually enjoying the self-publishing process more than I thought I would. For example, with traditional publishing you don’t get to decide the cover yourself (though you do have some say), so that’s one aspect that’s certainly exciting.

Marketing any book, even a traditionally published book, is a difficult task. So that’s an area where I’ll have to get out of my comfort zone, especially since I don’t use social media. But I’m also looking forward to it. I like being responsible for outcomes myself. And I know that if I had poor sales numbers with a traditional publisher, I might be tempted to blame it all on them. But, at least this way, if I have poor sales numbers, I can only blame myself, lol!

So here’s to this new journey through the wonderful, wild world of self-publishing!