Congratulations, you have caught the “writing bug!” Believe me when I say you are among the chosen few to have the personal privilege of being a writer. It matters little whether that opportunity happened as a result of a hobby, as a means of therapy, through educational requirements, or by the request of someone. Please be aware this can be both the most pleasurable and painful thing you will ever do in your life.
The pleasure comes from the sense of accomplishment you will receive from doing something the great majority of the population plans on doing one day, but rarely does. You have already met that goal the first time you set pencil to paper or your fingers to a keyboard in deciding to write.
The pain comes the first time someone reads your manuscript or published book, and honestly does not like it. (Every human being is entitled to the respect of their own opinion whether it is one you like or not.) Only you know in your heart the true reason you brought this work to life from your logic and imagination. If you believe in yourself and your central message, which needs to be determined before the writing process begins. In the long run I feel that’s what really counts. Remember, you are the best one to write or assist in writing your own unique story.
It never hurts to see what’s out there in book form, and read authors that are writing similar to you in style or topic. This can help fuel more ideas for your own unique story rather than discourage you. Remember every well-known author had to start out somewhere.
Some of the best choices you can make on the road to writing are as follows. A good investment is a thumb or jump drive (portable memory storage unit), which runs around $10. It allows one to write, save information, and transport that information from a one computer to another or to a laptop. (These can be easily found at most computer/office equipment stores.)
How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author by Janet Evanovich is a fun, easy-to-read, instructive book on the writing process. I highly recommend it for your own personal library.
An investment in a good dictionary and grammar book is always a good idea as well. Spell check on a computer will not catch every writing error. Another decision that may be costly but always pays off in the end in author satisfaction and book quality is a professional editing of your finished manuscript.
Due to an author’s emotional connection to their work, many times they will miss left out words, spelling, grammatical, or tense errors on subsequent readings. When your manuscript does make it to the publication stage be as actively involved with things like interior book design, marketing, and cover design as you feel comfortable doing. (In my opinion the more involvement you have with your book the better.) No one knows how your book quite as well as you, the author, does. You will do a large majority of your book correspondence materials to your publisher via e-mail. Become familiar with it.
In regards to your cover, a busy world will often determine with a glance at the front or back cover whether your book is good reading match for them. The book cover is your sixty second calling card to the world that your book contains some real value for them as reader. Make both your front and back covers imaginative, unique, concise, and totally all you. Let the reader know precisely why your book should be chosen over others that may be similar in nature to it. Best of luck on your wonderfully, addictive journey of writing and publishing. You can do this. May God bless all your work.
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