Put YoursELF on the SHELF
My writing dream sparked over 45 years ago. Last year, I self-published my first book in a planned series, The Golden Age of Charli- RSVP.
Tweet ThisCome stroll with me, we can stop and have a latte and talk about our writing journeys. In 2015, I shared a series of posts on how my book became a reality. I am sharing the series again with you with some updates.
I am as real as Lisa Geneva and Andy Weir. Yes, I am a real author and I know you have resolved to be a writer, too. We’ve been working and creating all month, right?
January is named after Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions and comes from the Latin word for door. January is the door to the year and I hope you have walked through the portal and made a solid start on writing your book. You may recall that in my first post about making 2016 the year you write your book, I teased you by writing,
Every morning I wrote 1,000 words. Then one day, while I was checking the online thesaurus…
Ready to learn what happened next? As I typed and searched for a synonym, I saw an ad on the page, “Are you writing a book?”
“Yes! Yes I am!” I bit my lip, inhaled, smiled and clicked on the link! Within the hour a consultant from iUniverse called me and spent all the time I needed explaining the benefits of self- publishing. I signed a contract that day. Why?
- I wanted to get going! I had procrastinated for years. I had finally written a book. I wanted to publish it.
- I believed I would be in good hands with iUniverse and their promise of supported self publishing. They delivered- I used their complete editing services, cover design, publishing and marketing services.
- The team at iUniverse was professional and accessible. And because of their support I have completed Book 2 in my series, The Golden Age of Charli.
I enjoyed writing my books, currently editing Book 3 in the series, and I have loved selling and promoting my books. Here is something that has caught me by surprise and made me chuckle. Someone will approach me and gush, “At first I didn’t want to read your book because I didn’t think it would be any good- I didn’t know if you were a real writer. But I read it and I LOVED IT! So warm and funny! It’s a great book.”
If I am not a real writer, as a self-published author, I am in good company. Lisa Genova self-published her debut novel, Still Alice with iUniverse. She sold books from the trunk of her car. The rest of her story- Simon & Schuster bought Still Alice and you may have seen the critically- acclaimed film.
And here’s another real author, Andy Weir. He had given up hope of becoming a published writer- not a single agent or publisher was interested in his book. He posted his writings online- chapter by chapter. The Martian is now a successful book and movie.
About the Author
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