Now that I have completed my writing journey, and can finally claim to be a ‘published author’ (believe me you have no idea how good it feels to write that!), I thought it is only right to share some of the insights I have learnt, often the hard way, along my journey. Hopefully if even only one of these helps you as a ‘budding’ author then
it will be worth the read!
Discipline
The hardest part of being a writer, in my experience, is sticking to it and avoiding the allure of other distractions. In my opinion dedicating time to writing in chunks is the best and most productive way, as it often takes a while to get into the writing swing and for your ‘creative juices’ to start flowing once more. When I tried snatching ten minutes here or there just to get some words down often when I reread them they were rubbish, and required me to spend more time rectifying them during the editing stage. Going forward when I next write again I will block out three or four hours at a time to just write, and whilst this is often hard to do, maybe this will work out best for you too in the long run.
Patience
I warn you now; editing is a bitch! No matter how great you feel when you finish your first draft, be prepared to be appalled at the drivel you subsequently read when you edit (or that may just be me!). At times when I read my work I didn’t think I knew what a thesaurus was, and was shocked at my limited vocabulary, as I saw the same words or phrases constantly repeated. However don’t take it to heart; as soon as you realise that everyone’s first draft, and yes I mean everyone’s, is rubbish, the more you learn it is part of the process. But editing will take time, and you need patience. Countless times I thought ‘sod it’; just publish the book as it stood and get it out there. Luckily for me I didn’t, and I am thankful I persevered as the book I released, whilst not perfect, was a 100x better than my first draft. You owe it to yourself to make sure the book is ready before you release, so don’t rush the editing!
Loneliness
Being a writer is all about you. You get all the glory if it goes well and all the praise if a reader loves your work. But beware; the vast majority of other authors couldn’t care less about you. This may sound harsh but it is true– the majority of writers are selfish. Therefore don’t expect anything from any of them. Chances are they are busy wrapped up in their own writing, or the marketing of their own work, to give a second thought to helping some ‘wannabe’ who thinks they are the next big thing. It goes without saying that they will interact with you when you are praising their work or commenting on how useful their insights are, but don’t expect them to help you in any way. Of course there are exceptions to this, and lucky enough I stumbled across a handful of writers that really helped me out, but out of the thousands I know, it is less than 1%. Remember those that help you and make sure you help others when you make it, but don’t expect anything from them and you won’t be disappoint. Remember you are doing this for you, so be prepared to have to do it alone.
Formatting your ebook
Once you have the text in a final format, you will need to format it. If, like me, you intend to publish at first on Amazon, then check out these links which you need to follow to ensure the Table of Contents http://support.microsoft.com/kb/285059 and formatting will work for kindles etc– https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A17W8UM0MMSQX6
It’s also worth checking out this site which is helpful -
http://www.copyblogger.com/how-to-publish-kindle-ebook/
Personally, one of the things I did wrong was use double tab spacing, and by God did I pay for this when I was rushing to meet my publication deadline! So, to prevent you doing the same, in Word do the following: press Ctrl +A to select
all; in the top tool bar make sure you are on Home, and the click on the little box to the right to the word ‘Paragraph’.
Next when a new pop up appears, where it says ‘special’ halfway down on the right, select‘First line only’, and then click on the box at the bottom which says ‘Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style’. This will then format your book exactly how Kindle likes it. I wish someone had told me that when I started, it would have saved me
hours!
I will talk about marketing etc in a separate piece, but hopefully some of the above may have been of use. If you are a new author and unsure of anything, then please feel free to drop me a tweet and I will help out as much as I can, but I profess I am no
expert!
Thanks.
it will be worth the read!
Discipline
The hardest part of being a writer, in my experience, is sticking to it and avoiding the allure of other distractions. In my opinion dedicating time to writing in chunks is the best and most productive way, as it often takes a while to get into the writing swing and for your ‘creative juices’ to start flowing once more. When I tried snatching ten minutes here or there just to get some words down often when I reread them they were rubbish, and required me to spend more time rectifying them during the editing stage. Going forward when I next write again I will block out three or four hours at a time to just write, and whilst this is often hard to do, maybe this will work out best for you too in the long run.
Patience
I warn you now; editing is a bitch! No matter how great you feel when you finish your first draft, be prepared to be appalled at the drivel you subsequently read when you edit (or that may just be me!). At times when I read my work I didn’t think I knew what a thesaurus was, and was shocked at my limited vocabulary, as I saw the same words or phrases constantly repeated. However don’t take it to heart; as soon as you realise that everyone’s first draft, and yes I mean everyone’s, is rubbish, the more you learn it is part of the process. But editing will take time, and you need patience. Countless times I thought ‘sod it’; just publish the book as it stood and get it out there. Luckily for me I didn’t, and I am thankful I persevered as the book I released, whilst not perfect, was a 100x better than my first draft. You owe it to yourself to make sure the book is ready before you release, so don’t rush the editing!
Loneliness
Being a writer is all about you. You get all the glory if it goes well and all the praise if a reader loves your work. But beware; the vast majority of other authors couldn’t care less about you. This may sound harsh but it is true– the majority of writers are selfish. Therefore don’t expect anything from any of them. Chances are they are busy wrapped up in their own writing, or the marketing of their own work, to give a second thought to helping some ‘wannabe’ who thinks they are the next big thing. It goes without saying that they will interact with you when you are praising their work or commenting on how useful their insights are, but don’t expect them to help you in any way. Of course there are exceptions to this, and lucky enough I stumbled across a handful of writers that really helped me out, but out of the thousands I know, it is less than 1%. Remember those that help you and make sure you help others when you make it, but don’t expect anything from them and you won’t be disappoint. Remember you are doing this for you, so be prepared to have to do it alone.
Formatting your ebook
Once you have the text in a final format, you will need to format it. If, like me, you intend to publish at first on Amazon, then check out these links which you need to follow to ensure the Table of Contents http://support.microsoft.com/kb/285059 and formatting will work for kindles etc– https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A17W8UM0MMSQX6
It’s also worth checking out this site which is helpful -
http://www.copyblogger.com/how-to-publish-kindle-ebook/
Personally, one of the things I did wrong was use double tab spacing, and by God did I pay for this when I was rushing to meet my publication deadline! So, to prevent you doing the same, in Word do the following: press Ctrl +A to select
all; in the top tool bar make sure you are on Home, and the click on the little box to the right to the word ‘Paragraph’.
Next when a new pop up appears, where it says ‘special’ halfway down on the right, select‘First line only’, and then click on the box at the bottom which says ‘Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style’. This will then format your book exactly how Kindle likes it. I wish someone had told me that when I started, it would have saved me
hours!
I will talk about marketing etc in a separate piece, but hopefully some of the above may have been of use. If you are a new author and unsure of anything, then please feel free to drop me a tweet and I will help out as much as I can, but I profess I am no
expert!
Thanks.