CK Fiction

I started this series to document the process I was going through while writing and publishing my first book.  I figured that maybe there would be other people out there who have a desire to try to write, but have never made the attempt.  (That should be a safe assumption based on all the people who say they’ve always wanted to write a book or have been thinking about writing a book whenever they find out I’m an author.)  Along with that process comes other topics that could be helpful for people to be aware of.

For me, my interest in writing came from a love of reading.  I certainly don’t have a background in writing outside of simply being an avid reader.  So when I started writing, it was a challenge to find my voice – to figure out my writing style.  I knew what I liked to read, so my assumption was that my writing would be similar to that.  Man, if only it was that easy! Continue reading →

Now we have a completely finished product, so it’s time to sit back and rake in the cash from all the sales, right? Not so fast. After all the work we’ve done to get here, now comes the hard part!  Yeah – the hard part.

Writing is the easy part. That’s the part we’re comfortable with. Well, aside from the insecurity.  I can fight through the self-doubt and everything that comes with the writing process, but then what? Advertising and publicity is a whole other ball game. There’s an entire industry that is overflowing with experts on how to sell things. I don’t know about you, but I don’t do that and have no idea where to start…and it shows! This is where being an author turns from writing stories to becoming a small business owner. Didn’t know you were signing up for that, did you? I sure didn’t!

Just because you’ve written a book doesn’t mean that anybody knows about it.  Or even that they care about it.  Sure, you may get a few supportive family members who buy a copy out of obligation, but trust me when I say that even these sales aren’t guaranteed.  There is a lot of work involved to publicize your work once it’s released in order to get people to actually give it a chance.  That last sentence says there’s a lot of work involved to publicize your work once it’s released.  In reality, if you wait until it’s released to start publicizing, then you’re already behind the eight ball. Continue reading →

Okay, I know. I’m a few years overdue for this post. If you’ve been following along with this series and going through the process of writing a book, then you’ll remember we left off with a finished manuscript.  (If you’ve been waiting on me this whole time before proceeding, then shame on you!  And me.  Also shame on me.)

This is where it starts to get really exciting, and even more difficult to stay patient. The last thing you want to do at this point is rush to the finish line just so you can say you’ve written a book and are a published author. For me it’s really tricky to control my excitement, but trust me, it’s absolutely necessary. I know authors who get excited and breeze through some of the steps I’ve already mentioned through this series, and it shows. For the sake of the example, we’ll call this person Jim. Jim’s work is sloppy, full of spelling errors, subject/verb agreement issues, hell, I’ve even seen a book that had the same chapter printed twice. I’m talking about people who have published over 10 books. I imagine the excitement doesn’t go away just because you’ve done it before, but stay patient. I also know authors who have published one or two books, the right way, and they put out a completely polished, professional quality novel. You would never guess that they’re a self-published, independent author. That’s the power of proper planning, a keen eye to detail, and patience. Continue reading →