Life is Short, Choose Wisely - and Use Spellcheck
Darn it. I went and did it. I said I didn’t care. I told myself it’s just a hobby… you know, for fun. Amuse family and friends, that sort of thing.
Yeah, right.
I was poring through my vast catalog of written and unpublished works for the past several weeks. I have scores and scores of stories written and saved in Word going back thirty years. Before that I was writing in word processing programs on an Amiga 500 and before that using GEOS 128 on a Commodore 128 in the 1980s. I even have stacks and stacks of spiral-bound notebooks chock-full of stories written between 1985 and 2010.
I already did some ‘rush’ vanity publishing on Amazon back in 2013 and 2014 to little effect. After I did it back then I never had a desire to do it ever again, or be traditionally published for that matter. However, recently, I felt it might be fun to work on some of those stories and publish them. And if I can make just enough to take the wife out to a nice dinner once per (because my luck that is all I would make)… Why not do it?
Am I right, Internet? Of course I am!
So without further ado: Calvert Press LLC has been born.
As of right now I only plan to publish a handful of novelettes, novellas, and short books I have written, doing so over the next 1- 3 years. After that I’ll see how I feel. I have toyed with the idea of publishing other people’s work as well. If I enjoy my own process, and if I have a knack for it, I might go broader.
My intent is to write and publish as a side hustle in retirement. Since I am only fifty-two and plan to work another ten years, I hope by starting this endeavor now it will be well established by the time I transition from full time work to part time retirement work.
Back in 2013 I self published a novelette called ‘A Whisper in the Dark‘ on Amazon as an e-book and as print on demand. I have since rewritten that story and added two new chapters to it; one at the front, and one at the end. I plan to make ‘A Whisper in the Dark‘ available here and on the Calvert Press website available for free. You give me your email address, I give you a free digital novelette filled with swashbuckling action.
As my email list grows, I will be using to promote future published releases.