I’ve long cherished a dream of seeing my work published. At first it was a desire to see my work in print, displayed on a shelf in a bookshop, but in recent years my dream has been refined.
Instead my plan is to self publish my work, as an ebook initially; effectively becoming my own agent, publisher, marketer, as well as chief cook and bottle washer. After attending the Guardian Masterclass ‘The Secret to Successful Publishing’ led by Joanna Penn, I feel like I’m genuinely a step closer. As ever after hearing Joanna speak, I’m filled with the feeling that I could move mountains. But more importantly, that my self-publishing dream is achievable. I’ve seen the steps I need to go through, been given guidance on where to find the information I need and discovered that the plans I already had were taking me in the right direction.
There’s still a long way for me to go, but without realising it I’m still on course to publish on the date I set for myself. The process won’t be easy but I’ve taken the biggest step by having written two books already. This is nowhere near enough – according to Joanna you need at least five books available to make any real money – but it’s a good start.
Despite having to cover a lot of ground – the whole process of self-publishing in just seven hours – Joanna makes the process seem accessible. By breaking it down into sections, from prerequisites to ebooks and print-on-demand to marketing, there was a lot of information to take in but now I have a good idea of the overall journey from raw manuscript to self-published book. I won’t show you the pages and pages of notes I took, but in the coming days and weeks I’ll be processing all the information.
So my next steps will be to answer some of the key questions Joanna set during the workshop: how do I define success and where would I like my writing career to be in five years. Joanna is keen on five years, as that’s how long she’s been working on her writing. To see what she has achieved in such a short period of time is not only fantastic but also inspirational. Now I just need to decide what I want to get out of my self-publishing adventure. It’s scary but I’m still going to do it. It may take some sacrifices but if it does lead to publication then it’ll be totally worth it.
So, Joanna, I’m prepared to get up a bit early to create a bit more writing time. And, I’ll even be making a concerted effort to watch less TV!
For more advice about all things self-publishing, pop along to Joanna’s website http://www.thecreativepenn.com/ where you’ll find everything you need.