If you are a writer, someone may have asked you that question. You may have asked it of yourself. Is it that easy? Do you “just” self-publish? Do you wake up on morning and say, “I think I’ll self-publish today.”?

The truth about how to do it, how to make sense of the options, and how the money works is not so easy to come by. Nora Gaskin, a self-published suspense and true-crime writer, developed her publishing model through determination and trial-and-error. She adapted the model to establish a small, non-traditional publishing company, Lystra Books. She has now published three books of her won and more than thirty books by other people. The “Why Don’t You Just Self-Publish?” workshop focuses on the nuts and bolts of her model and outlines a process that can help you evaluate whether or not self-publishing is for you. If the answer is yes, you will have a well-tested roadmap to follow.

Nora Gaskin is a lifelong resident of the Durham-Chapel Hill area. She has a bachelor’s degree in English with Honors in Creative Writing from UNC, and a Masters in English from the University of Washington in Seattle. She spent more than 24 years as a stockbroker and financial advisor with a major investment firm, working in the Durham office. She retired in 2005 to focus on writing. Her first published novel, UNTIL PROVEN: A MYSTERY IN 2 PARTS, appeared in October 2012. While the book is entirely fiction, the seed for it was a real murder that happened in Chapel Hill on Christmas Eve, 1963. In 2013, Nora published a nonfiction book about that Christmas Eve murder, TIME OF DEATH, to further explore the questions it raised. Her second novel, THE WORST THING, appeared in May 2018. Her small, non-traditional publishing company, Lystra Books launched in 2013. In early 2020, she published her 30thbook for other writers. She lives and writes in Chatham County, inspired by her native landscape, her husband, and dogs. Her favorite expression is “y’all means all.” Her favorite word is gratitude.