My book, Stories by the Seashore, has been on the market for a little over a week now. I am honored by the support you all have shown: from liking my author page to sharing links, writing reviews and purchasing and reading my stories. Thank you so much!
Within a few days of my book release, I had three people approach me on different occasions and tell me that they, too, would like to write a book one day. Thus, here are my top five steps for making that dream a published reality!
1. Eliminate distractions
I was inspired to write my first book in December of 2017. I decided, shortly thereafter, that if I was serious about accomplishing this goal, I had to get rid of major distractions. In January of 2018, I quit social media cold-turkey (Facebook and Instagram, my main vices).
I didn’t announce it, so some wondered if something happened. I was off of Instagram for about 6 months, and Facebook for 10. It was a rewarding, peaceful time, with those extra, weekly hours going towards my book. Looking back, I have absolutely no regrets.
2. Time is on your side
When I began working on my 40-day devotional in December of 2017, I told myself it would take me a year to complete it—the book would be edited, published and put on the market by December 2018!
Christmas-time rolled around, and I realized that was not a realistic deadline. While I was finished with all 40 entries at the beginning of the month, I still had not sent them to an editor or thought about the book cover. If it was going to be a work of excellence, I needed more time. Ultimately, it was ready and available for purchase on Monday, March 25, 2019.
3. Get help
Those that have gone before you are your friends. Reach out to people that are already published. A cousin through marriage, Sonya, was a lifesaver! She literally saved me thousands of dollars. An author of a couple of books, she told me self-publishing (through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing) was the way to go! (I had researched going through various publishing houses, too.)
She also encouraged me along the
4. Find an editor
I cannot stress this point enough. As a writer, I am constantly rereading and editing my work. I call my husband, a voracious reader and excellent writer, my first editor.
We knew this project was big and important enough to merit a professional editor. I had previous writing project experiences where I enjoyed being edited, and others where an editor stripped me of my voice, resulting in my entry sounding quite different.
Sonya reassured me that this was part of the process each time. I was delighted when my highly-qualified editor, Luci, made me sound superb while keeping the overall feel and tone of the book.
Editors make us look good! We would be lost without them.
5. Let go of perfection
That was a difficult phrase for me to write. Once my husband uploaded the manuscript onto Kindle Direct’s program, we constantly went over the entries, introductions, and acknowledgments, tweaking parts each time. We took turns feeling frustrated and wanting to pull our hair out!
We had to get to the point where we said, “We’ve (our whole team) all done our best. It’s ready.” I would like to say this resulted in an absolutely perfect book, but it did not. It is, however, a good book.
Overall, I found self-publishing to be a user-friendly experience as a first-time author. I could not have done it without help, though! If you, too, have a dream to write a book one day, my question for you is, “How can I help?”
Here is the link for my book, Stories by the Seashore.
Great advice! It’s very helpful and a powerful way of reassuring anyone who has ever wanted to write a book, but doubted themselves. Thanks Giana for outlining your own writing experience and some key elements in your success. Congratulations in accomplishing your first published book!