And I thought Writing a Book was Tough...
It was just another day at the office. I walked in, took a seat at my desk, typed up a story on Charlize Theron and discussed my interviews with Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman from the night before as I prepped for our daily live show.
My boss came in, worked for a bit, then told me she had something to tell me as she waved for me to follow her. I did - suddenly interested in this obviously juicy gossip - and a moment later found myself standing in a conference room with our frowning HR rep. I was given two sentences on how I forgot to send an email, striped of my phone and computer, and told to leave without going back to my desk or saying good bye to anyone. No warning. It was just over.
An hour later I sat in a park, while my dog ran laps around me, debating how long it would take me to adjust to only one meal of Top Ramen a day, when suddenly I stood up, wiped the tears, and decided now was my opportunity to focus on my side project - my novel.
For months I came home from work, went straight to my computer and typed until I fell asleep. It was finally finished and now I had all the time in the world to get it out there.
I had just started sending it out to literary agents in the weeks prior and it seemed to be getting some good feedback. But I no longer had time to wait on them if I wanted an income, so I decided to self publish. And thus began the most frustrating-exciting-self loathing filled-rewarding process I've experienced yet.
I made a Createspace independent publishing account and a Smashwords account and got to work. I did every single step wrong five times before I did it right. I lost hours of my life and probably some hair over the process but seeing the finished product up on Amazon and Barns & Noble was my proudest moment! It was worth it.
Note: If you're the kind of person who looks at a piece of IKEA furniture and confidently believes you can do it without the universally friendly directions . . . step away from the self publishing process. I fully believed it would all be intuitive until I found myself staring at my lap top after my 7th try screaming "what am I doing wrrrrrooooooonnnnng?!?!?!?" Take a beat. Read the guidelines. It will save you days.
My boss came in, worked for a bit, then told me she had something to tell me as she waved for me to follow her. I did - suddenly interested in this obviously juicy gossip - and a moment later found myself standing in a conference room with our frowning HR rep. I was given two sentences on how I forgot to send an email, striped of my phone and computer, and told to leave without going back to my desk or saying good bye to anyone. No warning. It was just over.
An hour later I sat in a park, while my dog ran laps around me, debating how long it would take me to adjust to only one meal of Top Ramen a day, when suddenly I stood up, wiped the tears, and decided now was my opportunity to focus on my side project - my novel.
For months I came home from work, went straight to my computer and typed until I fell asleep. It was finally finished and now I had all the time in the world to get it out there.
I had just started sending it out to literary agents in the weeks prior and it seemed to be getting some good feedback. But I no longer had time to wait on them if I wanted an income, so I decided to self publish. And thus began the most frustrating-exciting-self loathing filled-rewarding process I've experienced yet.
I made a Createspace independent publishing account and a Smashwords account and got to work. I did every single step wrong five times before I did it right. I lost hours of my life and probably some hair over the process but seeing the finished product up on Amazon and Barns & Noble was my proudest moment! It was worth it.
Note: If you're the kind of person who looks at a piece of IKEA furniture and confidently believes you can do it without the universally friendly directions . . . step away from the self publishing process. I fully believed it would all be intuitive until I found myself staring at my lap top after my 7th try screaming "what am I doing wrrrrrooooooonnnnng?!?!?!?" Take a beat. Read the guidelines. It will save you days.
No comments have been added yet.
