Questions Answered by the Author

Q: Why did you publish both of your first books indie?

A: It all goes back to 1985. We had an assignment in Creative Writing class and my teacher Mrs. Bryant had invited a journalist student from Tulsa to spend the day in class with us students. The journalist collage student had issues with pride, and she was never wring about anything.
I was not looking forward to her coming to my desk. When she did I hid my work, not out of shame, but out of preservation. Mrs. Bryant FORCED me to show her my work. She took my personal account that I wrote at age 17 about an event from my childhood and made it hers. I was dumbfounded. I asked it not to be published in that years magazine, Mrs. Bryant did so anyway, but under a pen name. From that day forward I viewed publishing editors as the same, although I know it is unjustified.
Later I sent in some of my poems and got a similar reaction, not that I was not good, but they felt the changes they offered would be better.

In the end, I'm not afraid of rejection, I just do not like my work becoming someone's else. Granted I understand the need for an editor to offer suggestions and corrections to your work. My present editor offered a lot with "David's mark" and most were taken, even though painful because I knew he was right. So it is not pride or fear that I went indie, it was an act of preserving my art.