the biz

I thought long and hard about the topic of this blog. I decided to tell my publishing journey as briefly as possible in hopes that it would assist someone else.

Here goes nothing…

Late September 2007 I was working full time as a nursing assistant and attending college full time to obtain my nursing degree. I was in hell. Tired all the time from studying and struggling to keep my family fed, I was always crying. Crying and writing. Writing and crying. That was my every day routine, until my son asked me why I was studying to be a nurse when all I did was write.

Out of the mouths of babes…

I dropped out. I really had no choice. It was either that or quite my job, and I had grown far too accustomed to eating daily to quit my job. That was the time I decided to finish my book and try my hand at being an author. I’d started writing my first book “Strawberry Mansion: A Philadelphia Story” when I was sixteen, and over the years I’d accumulated a lot of material.

Long story short, I wrote the damn book.

However, I couldn’t find an agent or publisher that was willing to give it a shot. I did a little (and I mean little) research on self-publishing. I did not like what I found. I couldn’t afford it. At the time I had trouble paying for oodles of noodles at the supermarket, so how could I come up with hundreds of dollars to publish my book?

I didn’t have a clue…

I lived on myspace and I had several friends on my list who self-published so I started to ask them how they were doing it, and how could they afford it. They weren’t telling. Point, Blank, Period. If I wanted to know, I was going to have to find out on my own. So I did.

I moved into the writing section of the bookstore and read everything they had on self-publishing. I started listening to Blogtalkradio whenever an indie author was on, and I learned that I could do it and do it cheaply if I applied myself.

So without further ado, this is what I did…

1)      I bought and followed Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual like it was the gospel, and published my book in three months. I recommend this book to everyone thinking about becoming a publisher.

2)      I hired a kick ass editor named Nora Gruenberg she’s on my friend list on facebook

3)      I spend a lot of money on my covers (books are judged by them) I use Junnita Jackson who is also on my friend list

4)      I network as much as possible on social media (I don’t beat them over the head with a lot of by my book please nonsense) I truly try to build relationships.

5)      I advertise as much as my budget allows (I treat my writing like a business)

6)      I use both, a small run printer (A&R printing 615-797-9220) long runs (tps1.com) and createspace

7)      I published ebooks with Amazon, Smashwords, Pubit.

8)      I constantly try to grow as a writer

Well, that’s the short and skinny of it. If you have any questions or need any help contact me on facebook, because I live there. lol

Until next time

Julia

www.JPSimmons.com