Am I Up to the Challenge?

As a wannabe writer, one of the most valuable assets I can have is an idea.  From an idea can spring characters, a plot, that masterpiece work that lifts us into the ranks of a JK Rowling or Stephen King or Henry David Thoreau.  I seek them out all the time.

I've had the good fortune and the torture to have found what could be just such an idea.  A retelling of a classic story in open domain.  I don't see any tellings along this line.  I'm excited, itching to go...

And completely convinced that I don't have the talent to pull it off.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm going to try.  I can't not try.  But I'm scared into trembles that this great, terrific, earth-shattering idea isn't meant to be mine.  OR, this isn't the fantastic twist on a classic tale that my head tells me it is.

Inspiration can be a bitch of a muse, sometimes.  But I have to try.

Uneasy Feeling

Those of you who haven't noticed, I'm a wannabe author.  Got a whole novel written, currently going through third revision and being shopped to agents.  I'm also getting some good feedback from a local critique group.

I was somewhat disturbed, however, when a representative for a publisher called Greyden Press.  I don't mean to sound alarmist, but I can't help thinking that a publisher who has to come searching for authors, authors that would pay them to publish... well... that just doesn't feel kosher to me.

So I went looking at Greyden Press from Dayton, OH.  The domain is registered by one Jeffrey Relick, of Promatch Solutions.  A POD (Print On Demand) printer.

A search for Greyden Press through the Better Business Bureau reveals one complaint, and Greyden did not respond (could not, in fact, be found for a response).  Greyden's own site has a title proclaiming it in Dayton, yet the BBB lists it in Columbus, and with a disconnected number.

You know what?  No thanks.  Maybe this is a legitimate publisher, but I'm not going to pay someone if my work is at all able to stand on its own two feet.  And there's some red flag flying going on here that I wouldn't put money in even if they could guarantee sales of my book.  I'm not sure I would buy that guarantee, either.

I really don't think I could recommend them, either.