Welcome to my first blog.

So glad you are here. I want to share my thoughts with you on this process I began so many years ago. 2026 is going to see my dream come true.

As a very young person I had a dream to become a writer one day. The question was, what would I write about?

Writing requires a few character traits that I would need to develop; consistency, and dedication, and of course let’s not forget knowledge in a subject to add to this. These took many years to develop. Then, just as luck would have it,  I lost all my scribbles, and ramblings stored  in a bag of keepsakes at home.  The house fire of 2017 turned all to ash; all of my collection of thoughts, poems and ideas for that “someday” book that I had finally began drafting.

Drafts one and two were sitting on my desk, with the USB beside my computer, ready to do a backup when my home went up in smoke. This I thought was the “gone forever” moment of my life.  It was not!

Moving forward as I describe in my now “real” book, In the Company of Men, the next level of challenge was about to start.

Finding a Publisher

Moving into another world I knew nothing about, I thought this would be easy. Did I mention I can sometimes be foolish?

After speaking locally, I discovered that getting a publisher would cost money and have a process that once more I knew nothing about. No one I approached locally were available right away.

I wanted to stay in Canada, if not locally, then where?

You Need a Contract (with that, also $)

Upfront there are costs for evaluation, no that is not editing! Evaluation is just the first read through to tell you what your work looks and feels like to your publisher. I cried when I read mine, as it felt like I was reading about someone else’s work. Was that me they were praising? Words like, authoritative, authentic, vulnerable, were used to describe what the evaluator was reading.

Here too, during the evaluation, after some compliments comes the work or corrections. This person points out, with a page of examples of your work, all the things “an editor” needs to do. That will be a note for another blog. This could be the point of frustration or even fear. It looks daunting. Can you do this yourself? It is not recommended, but costs for editing are massive.

You will be offered various services, editing being one, all of which have additional fees, should you take them.

Will I Make Money

Think authors make money?  Think again. Unless of course, you make the New York Times Best Sellers List,or your story is so awesome that someone wants to make a movie of it, like Diana Gabaldon author of  Outlander.

There are a lot of people involved in the process, and printing of your work, so this will require an investment on your part. There is no getting away from spending some amount of dollars well into four figures.

Promotions are another thing. This, again, is up to you to pay for, or do yourself. In today’s world; social media, webpages, Facebook, etc., help, but they all come with an investment of either time or money, or both.

Signing the Contract, I’m Done at Last

No darling, you have just begun, unless you have money to burn, you have just begun an education into the world of publishing! You are not even close to being done.

I sent the “my final edit” to the Publisher in late September hoping it would be ready to print by Christmas…can you hear me laughing? It is now past the first week in January and I think, “my final, final, final edit” is approaching  the discussion stage of pricing, which I am not sure of, but might be close to seeing the first orders being made available soon. When we use the term “coming soon,” we are really being optimistic.

Once an order is made for print on demand, it can take 3-5 weeks to arrive.  Now I am not discouraged. I am grateful to the many friends who have helped along the way. Suggestions, on how to and where I might promote my book once printed, are coming in from friends. Some are asking to be added to my list when I make my own order.

Well folks, that is all for blog number one. This senior citizen needs a break.

Book Page

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Thanks for reading, all authors need readers like you.