How I finally published my first book – Yesterday!

Hi Friends,

Yesterday was my one-year anniversary of taking writing seriously.

And it actually happened: I published my first book! 

This is a pic from a friend who forked out $10 for the very first paperback (Don’t worry, the ebook is only $0.99). It makes me smile every time I see it. Two other friends also bought copies. How cool is that?

And I’m keeping the link to the first three chapters up for another week, if you want to try before you buy:

Combat Origin Chapters 1 – 3

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A few of you have asked about how I started writing and mentioned you have a book or two you’d like to write yourselves.

So, here’s a little glimpse into what I’ve done to get started (though I’m still a total newbie)

• Aug 1st, 2018 – I committed to write 2k a day, 6 days a week. (Or 2 hours of editing/plotting)
• I wrote 4 books, a prequel and a short story in this last year, though there is still editing to be done.
• I gathered a group of awesome early readers who tell me what I mess up so I can fix it.
• I joined the 20BooksTo50K Facebook group and read all the info I could find from generous and very successful independent authors.
• I listened to author podcasts during my daily runs, which let me learn more while also combating my diabetes and depression.
• I ate lots of chocolate – good for depression, not so much for diabetes. 😀
• I did lots of crazy tech stuff: I set up a website, a Facebook group, a mailing list, an ebook delivery system, a Bookbub page, a Goodreads page, yadadada… 😀
• I played upbeat music while I wrote and my youngest danced behind me in the empty bathtub, watching herself in the mirror (I write in my bathroom – it’s supposed to be quiet there)
• I stared this newsletter and worked with other authors to so we could help each other find more readers.
• I did a happy dance or three when my first reviews and sales came in – Thanks!!

One of the best parts of writing is hearing from fans. It’s still a little surreal that people I don’t know are actually reading my stories and enjoying them. If you read Combat Origin already, I’d love to hear what you thought (so would people on Amazon – review it here).

I’ll report back next time on how the first week of my brand-new author career turned out.

Thanks and wish me luck! 😀