So, you have published your book. Now what? There is so much excitement that comes with publishing your first masterpiece and all the feels and thrills when you put your hands on your book. The feeling itself of touching your very first published book is a feeling like no other.
Your book is now live for the world to see; in book stores, to order online, for download, and for you to sign your first copy! I would love to hear and read in the comments if you have published a book for the first, second, or third time how you felt when seeing your book for the first time.
You are now a published author and what do your days look like going forward? I would say the days ahead are like no other and you have an extra spring in your step. You smile a little brighter. You speak with confidence and with intention. Doesn’t this feel great? As you walk this path, your days as a published author begin with you wanting to get the word out about your book. You want and need the world to see this masterpiece that you have worked so hard on for many months, years, or even decades. Think about what inspires you and your strengths when it comes to sharing your masterpiece.
There are many options to share with your audience and connect with others. One thing I will say is that having a business is not a requirement for you to share your story with the world. You are your own brand and you set the path for sharing your story. Here are 5 things you can do daily as a published author:
Celebrate yourself each day as you are now a published author!
Touch your book every day and have your book in plain sight.
Connect with other writers, authors, and like-minded people and share your story.
Start with one social media platform to get the word out about your book and promote, promote, promote!
Always have copies of your book on hand for you to sign and send to people who want signed copies of your masterpiece.
These are just a few tips to get the word out about your book and there are plenty more. The main thing is to celebrate yourself each day and the connection with other writers and authors and people who inspire your journey will give you the drive to keep going.
Over the last year since starting the publishing side of my company, I have had the pleasure of working with some amazing first-time authors and some authors who are very experienced. I have learned so much and I am continuing to learn from writers and authors around the world. I encourage you to be open and do the same and connect with a community that supports you and offers true and authentic connections to inspire your journey.
Thank you for being on this journey with me as you write your story. One more note about publishing a book: You want to write from the heart and pour into the pages. Do not think about the number of words or pages; just write and let it flow.
I would love to work with you now and in the near future. Connect with me here on the blog and also join my mailing list for exclusive access to content and products to inspire your writing journey.
Look at you; all excited and you have your book and you are ready to be published! And then, you think about this: “Should I have someone else read my book?” or, “Do I really need someone to read my book?” The short answer is yes. The job of an editor is not to re-write your book in their words. It is to make your book and you stand out in your own words. Your book should be a reflection of you and your authenticity based on your experiences and what you want to share with your audience from the heart.
I must have read my book 25 times (I know, a bit excessive) and I am very glad I did. After many drafts and a few revisions, I felt it in my heart to publish my first book A Life With A View - the first in the series. In order for me to move forward, I had to let go and allow someone else to read my book. It is funny the things we tell ourselves. “This book won’t be good enough.” Or, “Why am I even going down this path as a first-time writer.” As people we do have to let go and allow the help of others. Extending trust and grace to someone who can help you in your book journey goes deep.
Here are 5 quick and easy tips to get your book from the editing stage through the beginning stages of being published:
Pull your book together in an editable format. (i.e. MS Word).
Talk to friends, writers, and authors for recommendations on a good editor.
Be open to feedback from your editor about your book.
Ask questions of your editor and do the research on best editing practices with your editor.
After working with a good editor, you will have clarity on the next steps in the book writing process.
While doing research for this blog post, I found a good number of articles, websites, and books on the editing process. Do your research! To capture the book publishing process to include selecting an editor, I created a best practices download about the steps to getting your book published. You can purchase your copy here and also on the website.
If you are anything like me, you began writing on strips of paper, notebooks, on the back of envelopes mailed to you, and anything your could find. Now, if you were ahead of the game in your writing you probably had a nice, themed journal and you were ready to get started. Maybe you had the nice, themed journal and wondered why the words did not map over to a polished manuscript. (Yes, this is me - I embodied the theme journals!) You know what though? Some of my best writing came from post-it notes all over the place, pieces of paper from multiple notebooks, and digital notes such as on my computer in Notepad. And guess what? It eventually did work out into my first book.
Do I recommend the above now that I have two self-published books? Probably not. It got me to where I am today and I am very proud of this and you should be proud you took the path you did - even if your book is in the process of being outlined, written, and published.
I am going to share with you 6 tips to get you started on the path to outlining your book:
Pull together your notes, post-it notes, notebooks, and journals into one place to account for what you have.
To enhance your creativity with your book, grab a storyboard or poster board and organize the ideas for your book.
Identify the purpose for your book and ask yourself (Who, What, When, Why, How) and determine the purpose of your book.
Choose a Title which resonates with you and encompasses your book’s purpose based on your ideas.
Use your main ideas as the chapters for your book.
Write an outline for your chapter using your main ideas and add supporting bullet points.
Once you have your outline, just write and do not worry about chapter length. You can go back and move wording or text around and, during your editing process adjustments can be made to your chapters. Some chapters may be longer in length and in text than others. Having your words in your voice jump off of the page is most important.
Have someone you trust take a second look at your book and securing an editor who has walked through the book publishing process, will propel you to success. Here at A Life With A View Publishing there is a digital download guide for purchase that is a roadmap to your success to publishing your book. There are free consultations available if you have questions about your book project and an editing service. I stay with you through the entire process from start to finish.
Welcome to A Life With A View Publishing! I am so excited to share with you the very first blog post for the publishing side of A Life With A View. Thank you for stopping by the blog and the newly designed website so I can focus more on you and, getting your voice heard and your work out for the world to see. The next few blog posts will focus on setting yourself up for success while journeying through the book publishing process. There are so many tips to share and many paths to take. In a future blog post, I will share my story from the beginning and a day in the life of A Life With A View.
For this first blog post for the publishing side, we will focus on 5 things you need to do when publishing your first book. You may be thinking: “How did I get here?” and, “Yes, I want to write a book - where do I begin?” Believe me, I had all of those same thoughts about 5 years ago when I was writing and working to pull together content. The excitement alone kept me going as I was working to bring my personal blog to life and share my journey with the world.
Here are 5 things to get you started on the path to publish your first book plus a bonus tip to help you pull your book together:
Create a Theme for Your Book: Identify your writing interests such as self-help, cooking, fashion, or sports. Write down words which inspire a theme in your heart and mind.
Develop and Create Your Content: Once you have your theme, gather books, magazines, website content around your theme and begin writing. If you already have content, begin following blogs, websites, and other forms of media to enhance your content. Having content volume is good!
Collect Your Writings in a Safe & Comfortable Location: There are so many digital tools to store and collect writings like Dropbox and Google Drive. Goal planners and journals are good to store writings especially when you are on the go and thoughts around your topic come to mind.
Identify Your Audience: Who are you writing for? What do you want to share with your audience? Write this down as if you were having a conversation with your audience.
Speak Your Book into Existence: Talk out loud while writing your book and pulling together your content. Don’t be afraid to mess up and speak as if you are talking to yourself and your audience.
BONUS TIP: Depending on the length of your book and the number of days in a month, if you write one page each day you will have at least 30 pages of written content. Think of a Word document; single-spaced which equals at least 2 pages in an average-sized book (5x8).
So what’s next? Well, we have a nice long journey and partnership ahead and I am so glad you are here. The newly designed website has resources in our Resource Library to help you with all facets of the book publishing process whether you are a first-time author or if you have a few published books under your belt.
I would love to work with you to get you started no matter where you are in the process of publishing your first book. Connect with me here and leave a comment below on where you need help. Feel free to click here to email me anytime. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Writing is very personal and it tells a story, your story. In this blog, I write quite often about using your voice to tell your story and more importantly being comfortable in your own skin and not letting fear determine how you walk your path. Telling and writing your story is more than saying a few words every now and then about what makes you happy, sad, passionate, or determined. It is also tied to walking in your purpose, your path to what makes you complete and whole.
When you first sit down and think about telling your story in written form, what do you think about? I find it best to approach this just like you are sitting down with friends and family and having a conversation in your own voice; being yourself because that is what people love most about you. Many people now say “being our authentic selves” and I say let yourself be vulnerable and it is ok to feel some discomfort when telling or sharing your story. This is what stretches us and makes us relate to people who may be feeling the same way about telling their personal story.
I think back to 6 years ago when I started blogging and looking back at those posts, I totally want to refresh them and expand on them. I am definitely doing this one day in the near future! In looking at those posts and reading them now, I sounded so tentative. Now, I am not being too hard on myself and what I am seeing now in my writing are areas for improvement and where I can be more transparent.
And then my first book came along in 2015. I thought about how I would write a book, get it published, most importantly get my book in the hands of people who were interested in topics of faith, love, and happiness. This was my theme and remains my theme today and using my voice to tell the stories around these topics are just as important to me now as they were back then. I am still amazed about how I came to publish my first book and then the second book followed by a book collaboration with 6 wonderful women.
With my first two books, A Life With A View and Inspiring Creative Passion I wrote those with a sense and feeling of purpose. Being around other people and telling my story in my own voice through book collaboration efforts enhanced my storytelling even more and has allowed me to share more about me, my story, where I stand today, and where I want to go. Have you had those thoughts and feelings? I am here to help since I have lived it and I am continuing to live through the process of using my voice to tell the world my story.
Having a voice for the things we are passionate about breathes life into our stories and they live on through us and helps other people. This is why A Life With A View Publishing exists to help you tell and share your story to the world.
Now, how can I help you tell your story? Leave a comment below and let’s chat about it and also stop by to book a one-on-one consultation and check out our Resource Library. Suggestions? Leave those below too as I am always looking for creative ways have our voices heard and our personal stories share who we are and connects us with all that is in store in our lives.
I am from a small family where my father was an only child and so were his mom and dad, my grandparents. On my mom's side of the family, my mom has one sister and her mom and dad had a couple of siblings each. I have one sister who is three years younger than me and we are pretty close. Only living about 15 minutes from each other, we mostly text and when we talk it is almost like we just talked a few hours ago. With busy schedules dictating our lives, family has always been important to me and I consider friends my family also.
When I was younger and living in New Jersey, I always wanted to write as I was very expressive as a child and talked a lot. {at least that's what my mom told me} I always had something to say and being expressive through smiling at others is always the first thing people say when they meet me. Most times I get asked: "Why do you smile so much?" Is it for me or to help others? Feeling naturally good is always something I've felt inside even when times were tough. I relied on my faith and feeling good internally to get me through any pain I may be experiencing. Smiling during those times was all I had at one point so I latched on and never let go.
Since 2009 only a year after my daughter was born, I found out my father was very sick. He passed away the following year in February 2010 and my life has been a bit of a roller coaster since that time. I have always been a very happy person; I get along with just about everyone that I meet and interact with in my personal life, at work, and people I meet in the grocery store and anywhere else in my travels. There are always some exceptions…
Since 2010, so many trials and tribulations have come my way and I feel like I have handled them well - except coming to the realization that my marriage was over. My first thoughts were "no not me!"..."but I'm a nice girl!?!"... "we have 2 kids - what do I do now?!" Going through my divorce only three years after losing my dad was pretty traumatic. 14 and a 1/2 years of marriage and 2 children, was the icing on the cake...and it wasn’t the pretty buttercream or chocolate icing that we are used to. My kids are now 19 and 12 and we are doing well (thank you for asking). They are great kids, strong and resilient and also full of energy. If it weren't for my kids, my family and friends who knows where I would be today. This journey called life brought me right here to A Life With A View.
I talk about my journey in a lot of my blog posts since one post just won't do it. Right here on the blog, I highlighted Join Me On The Blog Journey and you can access the post here. Bringing everything together over the past 7 years has been a journey in itself - one where I would not change one thing. The constant thing about this journey is me, the girl behind the dream, behind the brand, and now in front for the world to see.
A Life With A View has grown and is still growing and expanding with more of a focus on you and what you want to see. Being an author of 2 books and a collaborator on 1 book, I see the need to share this knowledge and more of my experience as a published author and to help other share and tell their stories. Through this journey and the people who I have met while walking my journey, through networking events and by coincidence, I felt within my heart to share more through my work about the book publishing process.
Becoming a published author is not something that happens over night. After over two years of blog posts, I felt compelled to combine those posts into a book since the blot posts told my story and shared a peek into my experience as a writer. The first book, A Life With A View, is more of a short story version of my life through snippets of my written blog posts. The second book, Inspiring Creative Passion, dug deeper into my writing and the energy behind expanding my writing and growing as a writer shined through the second book.
On this blog and through our digital space, we will journey together so you can tell your story and be proud of what you are sharing in your own way. Our Resource Library has a host of people to help you get started no matter where you are in the process.
What’s your story? Are you still writing it? My story does not stop here; it keeps developing with me and the main thing is connecting with others and sharing our stories and continuing to grow.
