First off, let’s be clear: I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING.

However, I spent enough time waiting for boys to call when I was 15 (note to teen self: they never do) to know when it’s time to stop doing the same thing with literary agents. That’s right, I have decided to embark on the opaquely exciting journey of self-publishing and it all officially kicked off yesterday with a photo shoot for my cover pic.

Why a photo shoot you ask? Good question. Lots of people use stock images for their cover page but I am more stubborn than them and I really wanted to make my own. Plus, after all those hours spent in isolation at the computer, I figure why not have a little fun and boss people around for a while? Especially if you can get it all done for the price of bottle of Scotch.

My team included a photographer friend who did it because he’s a nice guy, a friend’s daughter who did it for fun and a make up artist from a local school who did it to build her portfolio. I paid for the make up kit, bus fare and some gifts and that was it. Pretty awesome.

And yet, that wasn’t the best part.

The best part was seeing them all come together and create a piece of my imagination in real life. For the first time in a long time, it made me feel that my story mattered. Thanks team.

So, do you need to shoot original pics? Probably not. Can you do it for almost nothing? Probably yes. And will it be awesome? Oh yeah.

And now, on to the actual design of the cover page now (and by me I mean another amazing volunteer).