Boyd Morrison | industrial engineer | serious energy | published author

The astronomical growth of the self-publishing industry has opened the door for many aspiring authors. But marketing your own work takes some serious energy — and innovation.

THIS WAS THE DEAL: Boyd Morrison’s wife wanted to become a doctor. So, even though Morrison dreamt of a far more creative future for himself, he promised to stick it out as an industrial engineer for the nine years it would take her to get her medical degree and finish her residency. Then he would get nine years — to try to become a published author.

In 2005, with his now-MD of a spouse giving the go-ahead, Morrison said buh-bye to his job at Microsoft and started writing. Over the next two years, he penned two thrillers (in addition to one he wrote in 1996) and in 2007 made one of the most sacred connections in all of publishing: He found an agent who was keen on his novels and thought she could sell them to a publishing house.

It seemed like he was about to arrive at his goal long before the clock ticked engineer again, right?

Not quite.

“I got what I call great rejections,” says the Seattle-based Morrison. “They said all these things they liked about [them] but then ultimately decided not to publish [them] for whatever reason.”