OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
Warning: Personal, sentimental post!
In the last few weeks, I have been considering writing fiction. Shock horror!
For a non-fiction author, this feels like an almighty shift within me. I wanted to share this change with you, because I think many writers feel the same way.
I didn't write a book for many years because I was afraid. Fear of rejection. Fear of failure. The usual reasons. I didn't think I wrote well enough. Why would anyone want to read what I wrote anyway…. You know what I mean!
I wrote my first book because it became a burning need to change my own life. I self-published to get the message out there regardless of what any establishment thought. I wrote the next 2 books and started this blog because I wanted to share how amazing the world is for authors now, and communicate how other people can achieve their book-dreams also.
It has been 14 months since I self-published my first book, and I am about to get the 2nd and 3rd onto Amazon.com. Wow! I couldn't write for over 20 years because I was afraid of failing. Now I am writing every day, and desperate to find more time to write other things!
OK, so I am not a best-selling author (yet!). But my books help people, I am useful and that is my own success. I get emails from people who like what I write, comments on the blog and positive tweets. This is much more feedback that I ever got from my own silent diaries, full of unrequited writing.
Self-publishing has liberated me from fear because it enables me to reach people on my own terms. I know that on the internet people will find me who want to read what I write.
I want to write more. I want to try all kinds of writing. I am already spinning ideas in my head and I have NaNoWriMo (November) in my head as a time set aside to write this fiction piece. I don't feel silly saying this anymore, because I have learned the fun and play there is in writing.
I am also inspired by the podcasters I am meeting online and listening to: JC Hutchins, Seth Harwood, Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris. I am loving their stories and their success with reaching out across the world. They challenge me to write and to express as well.
I truly believe that the experience of self-publishing has banished my fear of writing. It has not made me a millionaire in money, but I am all the richer for the experience. By releasing the fear and enabling my first book, it paved the way for the next 2, and who knows how many more. I am 34 right now. Prolific writers get through at least 1 per year, so that makes a good 60 more before I pop off!
To those readers thinking about writing a book – do it now. Self-publish it and get over your fear. Your next book will be the better for you getting the first out of the way.
To self-published readers – what has self-publishing done for you?
Image Credit: Flikr Creative Commons ArchanaR Freedom
View Comments (16)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1 2 Next »You should go for it Joanna.
However do be warned. Writing fiction is easy. Writing good fiction is very hard. Making money from writing fiction, either self or traditionally published, is harder yet again.
But nothing beats the feeling of holding your own book in your hands :)
I'd have to agree with this thought.
I have a similar story, though haven't actually self-published.
Twenty years of those same fears and doubts, though admittedly when I start out as a teenager I had a much higher opinion and thought I'd be the Next Big Thing. Luckily I quickly grew out of that before embarrassing myself.
Lately I finished (for a given value of finished) a collection of short stories and compiled them into a PDF and shared them on a couple of websites I frequent. Much to my surprise I got a response very soon after from someone who had read it and though very highly of it, and couldn't wait for the next lot, which I said I was working on. In fact he said I should start charging for it, though I wouldn't say it is quite up to that standard yet.
It certainly has done a world of good to the old confidence and got me working hard on getting the next lot done.
I couldn't agree more. I finally found a traditional publisher to publish my first book, and now I can't wait to get my second book published. In fact, I am so anxious that I am just going to self publish and get it out there. Why wait? Self publishing is so fast and inexpensive that my opinions is that if you have something to say, write it down- and get published.
I totally related to this. About a year ago, I had stalled on my book. And then I just told myself, "I'll self publish it." And that did it - I totally could write again. I finished it. The ironic thing is now being evaluated by a traditional publisher, but just having that mindset that I'd do it my self liberated me to focus on the writing.
Just keep writing. Worrying about the reception of your work has never made anyone's book better or worse, although it has been the cause of a great deal of paralysis by analysis.
I love your 'Author 2.0' concept. The only way in which I ?think we vary is that you posit that it will make you more appealing to publishing houses. I say: it will make you more appealing and raise your visibility to the people who really matter: your potential readers.
Forget publishers.
Content will find its own readership, if you help it find its feet in the world via effective SEO/SEM and community-building.
Thank you for encouraging self publishing and for sharing your story! I've engaged in 'radical' self publishing (ISBN-free, purposely not selling through Amazon or BN) from the very beginning, when I published a niche career guide for a very specific audience. I enjoy the entire creative process although I'll admit, by the time I was done with the book I was DONE with the book (but then the editing phase begins)! I recently published my second book for another microniche and I can't wait to self-publish again.
Thanks Andrew - I still think some people would like a traditional publishing contract and the platform building helps them - plus the process educates people all the way to self-pub and community building once you start in that direction.
Thanks Jane, radical self-pub sounds very cool! Glad you have your 'tribe' all ready for your work - that's exactly the way it should be done! Thanks for sharing!
Joanna
Hi Joanna
I'd never really seen myself as a writer even though I've written most of my adult life. But my writing was always done in a business context: proposals, reports, manuals, methods and the best damned letters around. I was often approached by people who knew someone who knew that I had a gift for the exact turn of phrase needed to communicate a difficult idea. But I never really considered that to be writing. I mean, in my book, any idiot could that! (As an aside, I now pay attention for that dismissive attitude towards ANYTHING in one of my life transition coaching clients. It usually points to one of their great strengths that they totally dismiss. My response to them typically is 'no, not any idiot can do that. It takes a special idiot to be good at that!')
But I digress. My beginnings as a 'writer' really happened several years ago when a business partner and I were offering a series of specialized personal growth coaching certification programs. At the final level folks had to write a closed-book exam. I can still remember two startling insights: one morning I sat on the side of my bed and thought 'shit, they have to have a study guide to get them ready for the exam. I guess I'm going to have to write one.' And then several weeks later as I was plugging away at writing that 'study guide' I really realized that I was writing a book.
My business partner had already self-published two of her own books so I had a mentor for the process of getting my first book out there. It wasn't hard from a technical perspective, but it was often terrifying from an identity perspective. What if everyone thought I was an idiot? What if people were underwhelmed by my understanding of my topic? etc., etc. But the big thing was that I got it out there.
Not long after I produced a chapter in a collaborative book telling the stories of 17 women who had life altering experiences.
Last year I wrote and illustrated a small book of my life stories, poems, photos and paintings as a 60th birthday present for my husband. I published it through Lulu and then customized two separate additional versions for each of my step-daughters. By the time I'd completed those, I realized that I had an inspirational book on my hands. Interesting that your Twitter post showed up today because I just put the finishing touches on that 'Choosing Life' book this afternoon and will be uploading it to Lulu next week!
I have 2 other books about 70% written (one for beginning artists; the other about business start-up) and recently downloaded a whole pile of blog postings about retirement. I realized that I have about 35K words about retirement already written so I guess there's another book almost done. Whew! No wonder I feel overwhelmed sometimes.
All that to say, I find that my 'best' approach to writing a book is to back into it! I usually don't start out to write a book. I start out to write about something I'm passionate about and that I think I have a contribution to make around. And the book just evolves from that.
I think that we live in a truly magical time for anyone who wants to express themselves creatively, whether it is through art, music, writing, speaking, film ...we have tools at our disposal that almost take my breath away. I'm old enough to have lived most of my life in a pre-technology world. I learned to type on a manual typewriter and remember being terrified when someone sat me down at an electric typewriter the first time! I'm not the teary type but I remember crying the first time I tried to learn computers. You had to code in Fortran and I just couldn't get the hang of it. Way too much attention to detail for my big picture brain. I now embrace new technology because I am clear that it is the pathway to the creative expression I crave and am no longer willing to live without.
If I can offer you one piece of advice about writing some creative fiction it would be this. Don't set out to write a novel. Sit down and write the story you are passionate about. If you simply invite the story to flow through you, I know that you'll end up with something great and it will create its own shape and form. It'll be rather like a chanelling process, where you are both the channeler and the channelee! ...personally, I can hardly wait to see what you produce.
In addition to books, I write articles about personal growth, creativity and small business which I publish on my website. And I've got a gig writing a monthly column for a local lifestyle magazine. It requires that I seek out interesting and unusual folks in the area. One of my best stories was about a 93-yr old woman who still teaches Tai Chi. And this month it is a photo-essay about quirky rural mailboxes in the area. Been at that for 19 months now and it hasn't lost its lustre. In fact, I love the adventure of it.
Whew, that was a big dump! Thanks for the opportunity to talk about something I am so passionate about.
Gwen McCauley
Hi Gwen, wow! That was a brilliant comment - more like a blog post in itself. I so appreciate your sharing your story, which is wonderful! I love the fact that self-pub means you can create a book for your family, or for the general public. You sound like a prolific creator, even the quirky mailboxes sound very cool!
Thanks for your encouragement and advice for me and others. I have started the novel process, but have also returned to almost fulltime work so a little overwhelmed! I will get there though, because creation is an important part of my life, as it is for you!
Thanks, Joanna
Well, I'd be interested in reading what you write in a fiction novel. :-) I think you've gotten some of the platform already down for selling fiction. I know who you are and am interested in the book just because your name is on it. That's not a bad start. I'm assuming if there's one person who feels this way, then there's bound to be others who'd agree.
Anyway, I think once I set aside the "I have to traditionally publish" mantra that was among all of my writing peers in my writing circles, I really started to get passionate about writing. It was no longer me writing for what a publisher wanted. I was writing what I wanted, and that's when I became more passionate about writing than I'd ever been. Traditional publishing has its place, but it would not allow me to be who I really am. (This, of course, is just me and my experience.) I think self-publishing opens people up, and it definitely eliminates the fear of rejection.