Thinking About Testing the Waters

In this day and age, anybody can upload a story (in some places, after a fee) and call themselves a published author.

Being a full time writer used to be a really big dream of mine, and it still is, it's just not my biggest dream anymore.  I wanted a Big Publisher to read my work and fall in love with it and give me a big advance, and everybody would read my work and love it because when they stopped reading, no maybe their life didn't change, they knew they had just read a great story.

At least, that's how I feel after I read most books.  Like Lawheads and Alexanders (both of Lloyd and Victoria--no relation, I think).

I have a short story I'm editing, and if I ever self-pubbed, it would probably be that one.

And I'm seriously considering it.

But...there's still a stigma (at least to me) with self-pubbing.  I mean, I've read some of the self-pubbed stuff on Amazon and Smashwords. A lot of it's not that great. Not bad, but not great. I've never seen so many stories get 3-star reviews. Sometimes, they get lower. I don't want to join that group.

But...there's very little market for this kind of story, it's just a short story,  I can always try traditional publishing with the novels...

Anyway, I'm kind of torn.

I want to put something out there, just to see what sort of reviews I would get, but at the same time, I don't, because what if it's bad reviews?

As is, the story I'm working on is at least a 3-star, but I want 4-stars.  Actually, I want 5-stars, but I'd settle for 4-stars.

So, so, editing I go.  Maybe.  Unless a magazine market magically opens up.