Why My Self-Published" Novel is Worth Your Time
As for actually "publishing" the work, well…that is the hard part. My book is self-published via AuthorHouse. Typically, when I tell someone in the writing, publishing, or book distribution industry that I am self-published the response borders on outright disappointment. They indicate that anyone can write a bunch of words and pay someone else to print them regardless of the writing quality or merit of the story…, which is quite true. Nonetheless, after years of searching for a writing agent and years of inconsistent rejections for various reasons from people who have not even seen so much as a paragraph of my story, the self-publishing route was the right choice for me.
Although other frustrated writers tend to blame this lack of response on query writing skills or a lack of persistence, I can now tell you based upon my experience that this is simply not the predominant reason. The publishing industry, from trustworthy editors and agents, to big name publishing houses simply cannot respond to the sheer volume of manuscripts. They do not have the resources to separate the profitable writers from the unprofitable ones. Let's face it, we are here to provide a product and make money. Regardless of our reasons or of how badly we want to tell a story to the world, we cannot do so without eating.
In the end, I decided that it is much more important for me to leave this story to my three young boys, so they will understand what their father did (and why) during his time in Special Forces. The story is much too complex to describe in a few minutes, though I have often tried.
I decided to edit my own work and to ask my wife, who grew up in Latin America, to edit the Spanish phrases used in the story. I also had a number of friends and uniquely qualified subject matter experts review it. These authorities included two highly experienced Special Forces Group commanders. One of these senior officers is now a high-ranking US State Department Official advising on counter-narcotics and counterinsurgency around the world (having spent many years in Colombia and Latin America in general).
Another senior officer is a full professor at the US Navy's Post-Graduate school and the author of both a government sponsored review of US counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, and an unclassified book published on the subject. I also had my novel reviewed by a Special Forces operative who served in Peru on a very similar mission to the one I describe.
These men overwhelmingly offered positive feedback and allowed me to quote them on the book cover. Although these people cannot speak to my writing skill, they can certainly vouch for the realism of the story, the accuracy of the history, and the exactness of the social and political dynamics in this and similar conflicts.
Interestingly, I made every effort to tell the story from the perspective of multiple sides-from the Green Berets, to the Sendero Luminoso guerrillas, to the desperately poor Native Americans caught in the middle. This is not a Special Forces hagiography; rather, it is my best attempt at telling the "whole" story.
In the end, it may happen that I am not a great writer. Even so, the story is worthwhile because it of its authentic history and the first hand experiences of my colleagues and me. Do not interpret any "artistic license" taken by me in the story as exaggeration or deceit. Rather, it is an attempt to wrap up a number of years experience in various countries and on different missions into one concise story. All of the events have happened to some extent somewhere and at some time during our operations in Latin America in the 1980-90's. However, it is very likely that no one in the US outside of the Special Operations community has heard much if anything about them. This is especially the case now that we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and these two conflicts receive the bulk of the popular media. Nonetheless, Special Forces are still operating around the globe in conflicts that most people in the US will only hear very little about-unless someone like me takes a stab at telling their stories.
I hope you enjoy reading "White Passage: Red Sun" and that you encourage your friends to give it a read as well. I have a day job, so the royalties (such as they are) do not largely motivate me. Teaching the world about this unique and little understood conflict is my goal, which is especially important now that the world needs to understand the root causes of unconventional warfare and terrorism more than ever.
Matt Rowe
June 8, 2009
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