Those who are curious, there was a blog on my blog tour that was cancelled recently so I hijacked my guest post I wrote for it and decided to share with you all anyway. XO
This has already started off as one crazy year let me tell you. I have been diligently writing away continuing Alice’s story on top of making sure Finding Alice was ready for it’s release day. I chose to self-publish and when I chose this I did not know exactly what that entailed. Finding an editor, formatting the final piece for eBook and paperback were the obvious choices but I had no idea at the time I would be doing book tours, a book launch, contacting book reviewers to review my book, running contests so people would know about it, hire a photographer to do my cover and the list goes on and on. It was terrifying to be completely honest. All I wanted to do was write and get lost in a world that didn’t exist. My world went askew and then my first review came in from a beta tester and all of it vanished. They were sucked into the story and they excitedly told me what they thought while asking questions. It was so amazing to share that moment with someone and that is why I will continue to do it. My work means everything to me but I have found it touches and truly means something to others.
Really what I am saying is that writing, publishing or self-publishing is hard work. If you love your work and feel it must be shared people will feel that when they read your work. I’m currently trying to go speak at my old high school and the other high school’s in the district. I know that when someone I looked up to or someone who was doing what I dreamed I could looked at me and said, “you can do this and if you want it, work for it.” That is exactly what I am doing and if I can give hope to one young writer or dreamer, well it’s all worth it then isn’t it?