Clicking the publish button - finally

So here's how I fulfilled my lifelong ambition of becoming an author:

I contacted a few self-publishing companies. I didn’t go through the traditional route of looking for an agent and getting an editor (I don’t know why) but perhaps I felt that would have been too overwhelming even though I got a lot of positive feedback when showcasing my work to agents the writers conference in Wisconsin.

After my research, I selected Createspace and got one of their best packages (more ablout this in my next post). I work full time, so the whole process still took me 2 years – from 2010 to 2012. In the end I had to choose a target date by selecting a book launch party day, and then started to work aggressively towards it.

I worked with three editors – maybe four including the Createspace one (read more about that in my next post -Lessons learned) who each had their own way of editing, and then had a friend edit it for free – she went through and sat me down and asked the right questions. We were finally ready, or so I thought.

Once the final version was ready, I still kept finding issues here and there, and it seemed the revisions would never stop. I changed the beginning, I changed text in the middle, I changed the ending. I got some very valuable tips from my dad which would further delay the process but helped offer more credibility to the book.

After two years, I finally clicked the "publish my book button" and "The Summer called Angel" was born.

Receiving the initial proof in the mail, with my parents around to see their child’s success is more than what I can describe. I finally understood what it meant when one’s dreams came true, when one’s hope of “what I want to be when I grow up” finally manifests. It was pure satisfying joy!.

Not to bore you with too long a post, the next one will be about the lessons I've learned and still keep learning in this writer life. Thanks for all your support.