Author Shannon Raelynn, a member of the Bonnyville Writer’s Group and St. Lina resident, has recently self-published a book entitled Seascape, and is picking up momentum as an independent author.
“Oh boy,” sighs Raelynn, when asked about what motivated her to start writing. “I’ve always been an avid reader, and never really thought about writing until one point when I was watching a particular movie. I’m a fan of romantic movies and this one frustrated me, it was unrealistic. I thought to myself, ‘I could write something better than this.”
Raelynn was a stay-at-home-mom and former school councillor at the time, with a background in university psychology and English. She started to think long and hard about it, while helping her husband manage his business. That’s when she started writing, but admits she never took it too seriously.
“The whole process started back in 2001. It was just kind of an idea at first. I was just playing around with it at first, not taking it seriously until I finished the first draft. After that, I rewrote and revised it several times, taking time to learn more about writing, and challenging myself to do better each time,” explains Raelynn. “After a couple of revisions, I decided I liked it and wanted to make it better, and stuck with it.”
Raelynn started taking writing classes, and doing a lot of research into what makes good writing. Raelynn took what she learned, and incorporated it into the revisions, and building on what she’d already written, constantly improving it.
An important moment in the creation of the novel was a 2008 trip she took to do research for the sake of making the novel an accurate account.
“By 2009, the novel was more or less polished, having gone through a lot of thorough revision,” says Raelynn. “Then, once I reached that point, I needed to decide what to do with it. I wasn’t sure whether to go with a publisher or to self-publish.”
Raelynn sent out a dozen queries to various publishing companies, and never had anyone interested. “However, I was told a lot that my writing was good. Publishers would say, ‘Here’s someone else who might be interested in your manuscript.’ And direct me to other ones. It never went anywhere, though. It was a frustrating process. Queries took a long time to get back, though. I’d submit my work and wait months before I got any sort of a response.”
After the underwhelming response she got with queries, she made a decision to try self-publishing.
“I knew it was good enough. I had a lot of people read it, and got a lot of positive feedback. I thought, ‘What do I have to lose?” says Raelynn. “It would have been one thing if people were telling me they weren’t interested. People were asking to lend it to others they liked it so much.”
Her next step was to look into her options with self-publishing. She found a company that published in both physical printed copies and in electronic e-book format. “It was like a one-stop-shop. I liked it,” says Raelynn, who describes the process of self-publishing as daunting. While going through the process, she hired a professional editor to review her manuscript. “I have to say (hiring an editor) was a good experience. It encouraged me to go forward. The editor struggled to edit because she so was caught up in the story.”
Raelynn says that five years ago she would have scoffed at the self-publishing route. But, she is satisfied that she took the route of self-publishing, referring to the minimal help writers get even if hired on by a major publisher.
In the end, Raelynn decided it would be better if she could retain complete control of her intellectual property and took on all the associated risks of self-publishing.
“All things considered, I’d like to sell at least the 500 printed copies by September. It will cover the price of the editor, the book launch, the advertising, physical hard copies, and e-book editions; I’ll break even and not have to lose money to this,” she says.
Raelynn will be doing a book launch for Seascape on April 28 at the Mallaig Legion Hall from 1 to 4 p.m.
