The Brothers Pendergast , Book I: John was originally titled The Pendergast Prerogatives.  

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The Pendergast Prerogatives was the second book I wrote, but the first I self-published.  (My first effort at writing was Suppositions, which was started five years previously as an idea with two pages that were fleshed out almost fifteen years later.)

 

I learned a lot about my writing skills from Prerogatives (I had none when I started), and also about the scam called "self-publishing".  (I learned about Amazon Publishing about a month after I signed the contract for The Alberta Connection, and have used Amazon for all of my books since.)

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The publisher I contracted with for Prerogatives did a little editing (very little), designed the cover, and signed me for a contract of seven years.  In those seven years, they sold no books.  Finally, they offered me a buy-out of $99.00.  I didn't have the money, so I waited.  A year later, they said they were terminating the contract.  I owed nothing.  I had my book rights back.

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However, I had learned a lot in the years since the first draft.  I had learned about "show, don't tell".  I learned that a sentence should never have more than 25 words (20 is better).  I also learned about character development.  (My character development.)  Vanity publishers think that the author has done everything needed to write the book.  All they are there for is to put out a printed copy of the book if one sells.