Why I Am Writing

I thought it would be helpful to say a bit about me, why I am writing and why I choose to self-publish.

I've got a degree in Journalism, so writing is something I do easily and well. But I've never made money as a writer. I never made career choices in that direction. Until now.

I've written two novels and one non-fiction book. A couple of decades ago, I shopped around my first novel, with predictable results. That's when I decided I didn't have what it took to be a writer.

Then I discovered fan fiction. For the first time people were reading and liking what I wrote. I used fan fiction as experimentation. I discovered I could write humor. I played around with voice, point of view and tense. I had some good beta readers who pushed me to write better, and I did a lot of craft honing. Look for a future post on the good and bad of honing your writing with fan fiction.

I started my coaching business three and a half years ago, and began writing a non-fiction book about networking. I knew about Print on Demand and decided to publish that way. This book was intended to be a back of the room sale, and print on demand seemed sensible.

In the time it took me to finish that book (to be published later this year) the book industry has gone through a lot of changes. E-books are more common now. Indie authors are rejecting the big publishing houses. I started to wonder if I could make it as an indie fiction writer.

About that time, I came up with the idea for a series of fiction books about a warlock and vampire, set in DC, which is where I live. I started writing. The first story is written and going through a significant rewrite. I think it will be done in a few weeks. And then I start on the next. My goal is to have a few stories ready to publish before I make them available.

More on the series and how I plan to market it in future posts.

Just the Beginning

This is actually my second blog. I also do one daily on networking and social media. But this is going to be the home for my journey to becoming a self-published fiction writer. Along the way, I'll probably also talk about publishing my other (non-fiction) works because what I learn about self-publishing in one arena will affect the other.

So if you want to learn more about the process of writing fiction and self-publishing, please subscribe. I plan to update this blog weekly.