Self Published Sunday: Trisha Leigh

The Big Book Little Book team is very grateful to the self published community for giving us an opportunity to read and review their work. As victims of our own success, we have found that we have less and less time to devote to discovering independently published gems, and sharing them with a wider audience.
Although the BBLB team had been discussing the development of a self-published showcase for some weeks, it was the receipt of Trisha Leigh’swell written and researched review request that augmented it’s development.
Totally impressed with Trisha professional approach, intrigued by her synopsis and gripped by the Whispers in Autumn trailer, we knew that we wanted to share her voice with our readers. But with our full review schedule it looked as though we were going to be disappointed or at the least, very patient! Prompted in to action, we created Self Published Sunday and we were delighted when Trisha agreed to signed up for our very first Self Published Sunday feature.
In 2015, a race of alien Others conquered Earth. They enslaved humanity not by force, but through an aggressive mind control that turned people into contented, unquestioning robots.
Except sixteen-year-old Althea isn’t content at all, and she doesn’t need the mysterious note inside her locket to tell her she’s Something Else. It also warns her to trust no one, so she hides the pieces that make her different, even though it means being alone.
The autumn she meets Lucas, everything changes.
Althea and Lucas are immune to the alien mind control, and together they search for the reason why. What they uncover is a stunning truth the Others never anticipated, one with the potential to free the brainwashed human race.
It’s not who they are that makes them special, but what.
And what they are is a threat. One the Others are determined to eliminate for good.
I’ve been pretty much immersed in the publishing world since mid-2009, and even though only three years have elapsed, I’ve watched it slip and change and question itself endlessly. When I began my quest to become a published author, self-publishing wasn’t even on my radar. It wasn’t talked about, I didn’t know anyone who was doing it—and you certainly couldn’t have convinced me there would be a time when I considered it a viable option.
I’m not going to go over my specific reasons for deciding to self-publish Whispers in Autumn and the rest of The Last Year series (if you’re curious,). The fact is, there is no longer a clear path, no one right way to get your work in front of readers. There are a multitude of options. Some will be right for you, others won’t. I personally don’t understand the mud slinging that happens between traditional and self-publishing, because we all love books. Bottom line.
What I’d really love to see change is the term SELF-publishing. Because guys? I could never in a million years put out a quality product ON MY OWN. Choosing to publish your book without going through the agent and/or publishing house doesn’t mean you don’t need help in order to make it the best it can possibly be. No one can see all of the flaws in their own work. We all need critique partners and developmental editors. I must have read Whispers in Autumn over a hundred times, but the copy editor I hired found a multitude of items—word repetition, comma usage, word choice, inconsistencies—that needed to be corrected.
And after she read it, four proofreaders unearthed even more mistakes.
I don’t know about y’all, but it’s important to me that the product (my book) reflects commitment and hard work, along with creativity. Sure, not every reader is going to enjoy your story. People’s tastes differ, their genre preference changes, or perhaps your main character bites her nails and they just hate that. Whatever it is, you can’t write a story that appeals to 100% of readers.
But I can produce a book that’s free of glaring grammatical, spelling, structural, and consistency errors—one that you read and can’t tell at a glance whether it’s released by a publishing house or not. Choosing to use a professional cover designer also helps, because a graphic artist I am not. And she did a wonderful job; her artwork grabbed my story more attention that I ever dreamed or could have drummed up on my own.
Now that Whispers in Autumn is about to release (July 24th!), I’m going to depend on even more people to make it a success. If the book is going to sell, I’m going to owe the fabulous book blogging community, who are embracing the chance to read and review, a huge thank you. Along with them, anyone who picks up my book, reads, reviews, tells a friend, etc. Not only can I not write a saleable book on my own, there’s no way to earn success without help.
Like raising a child, producing a quality product takes a community effort. So it shouldn’t be termed SELF-publishing.
Not if you do it right.
Post by Trisha Leigh

Raised by a family of ex-farmers and/or almost rocks stars from Southeastern Iowa, Trisha Leigh has a film degree from Texas Christian University. She currently lives in Kansas City, MO. Whispers in Autumn is her first novel, and she’s hard at work on the remainder of the series. Her spare time is spent reviewing television and movies, relaxing with her loud, loving family, reading any book that falls into her hands, and being dragged into the fresh air by her dogs Yoda and Jilly.
To discover more about Trisha and her writing you can visit her at her website, follow her on Twitter and befriend her on Goodreads and/or Facebook.
You will also find The Last Year fan page on Facebook.
Whispers in Autumn is available in ebook and paperback from Amazon.com and ebook from Amazon.co.uk