I've always wanted to write books. Journalism never intrigued me, but writing the science fiction and fantasy novels that I lived in growing up was a major motivation for me.
So was having enough money to support the family I created... Finally though, I decided to get off of the video game cycle where I sank the majority of my off time and do something about it.
I needed to test the waters though. Self publishing is an opportunity now, obviously, but I didn't want to LEARN how to self publish with my first fiction novel. That said, I have a lot of experience in other areas of life. So, how about starting with some non-fiction to learn the ropes...
Raising the family and loving sports, led me to write this gem:
https://www.amazon.com/Coaching-Flag-Football-volunteer-succeed/dp/197595839X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Learned a lot about self publishing with that. Not advertising it much, just a little socially. But it's still making a passive income especially during the times of year when new parents are starting to volunteer coach. Also, it's good. I didn't just half-ass a book to see how to self publish. I wrote a good guide to coaching youth sports there from the beginning to the end. I'm actually proud of that.
I also had another idea that I wanted to get out there, one that I had a lot of experience with as well. That became this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B9Y7W5W
(These aren't affiliate links or anything, just links to Amazon)
That book was actually written for a few of my Catholic friends who hadn't read the Bible since they were kids and I wanted to give them some historical context and commentary to help them read it. I used the commentary of that and a Public Domain version of the Bible to do my third book, which is a commentary and the New Testament together.
Now, I have a clear understanding of the work it takes to write and publish books. Also, now I understand how hard it is to actually COMPLETE a book that makes me proud. I refuse to publish something that isn't what I would consider worthy of the money being spent on it.
And so now I start my novel. I'll use this Steemit blog as journal for the writing. A kind of ars poetica… Already have a first chapter in first draft (that might just become a memory as I write...) I'll post it here eventually. Because it's a first draft, it means it's rough, not edited, stream of conscious type of writing. I want to lay the bones of the novel out before I add the flesh...
Regardless, this is what this account will be about... Writing my first novel, Publishing that novel and marketing it as well... I welcome any comments/ help along the way.