Announcing REEF POINT PRESS!
WHEN I STARTED out as a brand-new writer on Medium three years ago, I had a very humble and simple goal: to complete and publish three short stories online. At the time, it seemed like a herculean task, and one that I was not completely confident I would achieve. The first story I published on Medium (in The Junction) was a Western about a cowboy who stole a box of golden nuggets and was then chased through a saloon by a baby-faced bounty hunter:
During the past three years I have just kept on writing. A collection of some of the stories I published on Medium during my first 18 months as a writer was released as a paperback in 2019. Since then, I have kept working on new projects, some of them on Medium, and others more independently. But Medium has always been the place where I have repeatedly returned to check in with other fellow writers and to see what everyone is working on. We share our triumphs and simultaneously vent about the frustrations of this slippery craft. I am always excited to learn that another fellow writer has published a new book or has achieved some other level of success. Even though our tiny group of fiction writers may not be the “big fish” on Medium, I think that we hold our own and add great value to this platform. Quite frankly, I think the fiction writers are having all the fun here!
I have enjoyed the freedom of being an indie fiction writer. Even though I know that I will never make the big bucks doing this all on my own, the creative freedom has been the only shoe that fits my foot. So, this month I started my own humble “micro press” — REEF POINT PRESS — to give my precious books a worthy home. I don’t currently have plans to publish books by other authors, but who knows? For now, I’m just keeping it simple and going with the flow and enjoying the process.
Without Medium, I am not sure that I would have taken to writing like I did three years ago. Although I am a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to technology, I must admit that this has been a nice place to call home for dozens of my beloved tales. I am continually inspired by the quality of writing of many of the writers on here.
So, thanks again everyone! And here’s to the future…
Follow REEF POINT PRESS for more musings about the fiction writing process…
J.S. Lender’s books are on sale now! — reefpointpress.weebly.com — Copyright © J.S. Lender / Reef Point Press 2021
