I have only been writing for just over a year now and to discover a new and unforeseen passion at my age has been a revelation. My writing career started with a dream and has progressed rapidly to self-publishing my first novel entitled “A Questionable Hero”. I have also finished my second novel “Consumed By Fire”; this is being edited by a professional copy-editor as I write, and I have also started my third novel “A Path Not Taken”. These are some lessons I have learned along the way.
1. My Biggest Mistake
When I started writing I was full of enthusiasm and thought my friends and family would be as interested as I was. I would write a chapter and email it to a few friends and wait for their input. Then I would re-write parts of the chapter and send it out again. As you can imagine my friends and family soon became fed up and bored, and rightly so. The lesson I learnt is no matter how hard it might be, keep your writing to yourself until you have finished the first draft. Then get people to read it and ask for feedback.
2. New Technology
With the advent of technology at my fingertips, I have found being dyslexic has not been a great hindrance to my writing. With the help of word processors, spell-checkers and then with a good editor and proofreader, I have created a reasonably professional finished novel that I am proud of.
3. Never Give Up
With my background and poor schooling, I have learnt not to give up, no matter how difficult the road is. If you have a dream, pursue it. Try and see a positive aspect in every setback. Also, sometimes, what appears to be a positive step can turn out not to be. So, keep an open mind and believe in yourself.
4. Old Age Is Not A Barrier
I do not know if I am going to be a successful author, but I do know getting older will not stop me from trying, I think in some ways it might be a little easier, as I have more experiences to draw on. I have used bits and pieces from my past in my stories.
5. Read, Read, Read
If you take notice of other author’s advice and I try to, most say reading is a very important part of writing. I am sure they are right, but in my case and others with reading difficulties, this is not possible. I believe as long as you have a good imagination and take a chance you can win through.
6. Self-Publishing
Self-publishing is not hard to learn. There is a lot of help in cyberspace on the Internet. There are hundreds of blogs, writing groups and useful sites to help you get started, and lots of advice on how to publish. Company’s like Amazon and Smashwords make it fairly straight forward to self-publish. It just takes perseverance and the will to push on.
7. Promoting My Novel
For me, book promoting is far harder than writing. I have tried most of the popular social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and have been quite successful in attracting followers and likes, but I am not sure if any of this effort has turned into people wanting to read my novel.
Getting noticed can be hard if your book is not in the top echelons of bestsellers lists. There is the possibility it might go unnoticed. In order to address this, I suggest you do as much as you can, using methods such as guest posting at other blogs, and doing virtual book tours. Another way to get more exposure is to sell more books.
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