Book Idea

In the future, I want to write a book about my experiences in self-publishing. I want to write about what I did right and what I did wrong to inform anyone who’s thinking about self-publishing. I find that those books – the ones written by people who are writing from experience and personal knowledge – are the better among the writing books.

I’m not going to write it now. I need more experience. I’ve seen a lot of people push out books on Amazon or elsewhere that claim to be writing advice. A lot of those books are by people with no other books out – no publishing experience. (And when you ask about their experience, they either don’t respond (suspicious) or get snippy.)

Personally opinion alert – while I write fan fiction myself, it is not a viable experience point if you want to charge people for books about writing. I’m not going to take you seriously unless you’ve been in the field a while, in a position that makes sense, like a writing instructor, literary agent, professional editor, or a writer who’s got books to prove they know what they’re doing, like Stephen King. I’d take his writing advice any day of the week. (His biography/writing advice book, On Writing is great.)

That’s why I haven’t written one of those books. Who am I to command these rules of writing? Wannabe freelance editor? Wannabe author? Exactly.

I scrutinize the authors of those books more so than other books. I want to know that the author knows what they’re talking about and didn’t just reword all the writing advice he found online in attempt to make a buck out of it. (Read some of those, too.)

My book wouldn’t just be about writing, but about my path into the self-publishing world. I consider myself new to it – it’s only been about a year since I published my first book, (or maybe two by the time this post is published. I write in advance.) I’d like to touch on the emotional/mental health aspect, too, because this has been a spot of constant struggle for me.

That spiral of depression gets me sometimes, and it’s tied to my writing career. I’d like to give my personal experience with that side of writing, too, to let future writers know that they’re not alone in their struggles.