The long road of writing a book.

Publishing a book is a journey on a rocky path that involves several stages, from writing and pre-editing to editing, formatting, selecting the right cover, and marketing. While the process can be daunting, knowing what to expect at each stage can help ease the stress and make the journey more enjoyable. Let’s go through all the different steps involved in publishing a book.

Writing

The first step in publishing a book is writing it. This is the part where you put your ideas on paper and create a draft of your novel. It is important to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your book, such as the theme, genre, and target audience. This is probably the fun and pleasant part, as you don’t care about the style, typos, or plot holes. Here you just listen to your characters and follow their lead. 

Pre-editing.

Now, here is where you start crying. Once you have a draft of your book, the next step is to pre-edit it. I suggest leaving your manuscript aside for one or two weeks before starting this process. This involves reviewing your manuscript to check for inconsistencies or plot holes. What during the phase of writing seemed great now sounds ridiculous. You will feel like your novel is nothing but rubbish, and the imposter syndrome will strike. In this phase, keep calm and see how you can improve it. So you delete, add, change, and polish. Only after this phase, when you no longer think you have failed in writing a good novel, you can ask friends or beta readers to give you feedback on your book.

Editing

After pre-editing, the next step is to edit your book. This involves checking for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and typos. This is crucial, and you need to hire a professional editor to look at it and give suggestions on how to improve the plot, characterization, style, and much more. This brings to a new level of depression, but even in this case, remember that everything can be fixed, and by polishing your novel, you will have a jewel in your hands.

Formatting

Once your book is edited, the next step is formatting it. This involves choosing the right font, spacing, and layout for your book. You can either do the formatting yourself or hire a professional formatter.

Choosing the right cover

The cover of your book is the first thing that readers will see. Therefore, choosing the right cover that will grab their attention and entice them to read your book is important. I strongly suggest hiring a professional. This is a critical step; your book cover should align with your audience’s expectations. Good knowledge of your genre is a must and requires a lot of research. This doesn’t stop at the first book because the trends are evolving, and your cover should develop accordingly. 

Marketing

The final step in publishing a book is marketing it. This involves creating a marketing plan and promoting your book through various channels such as social media, book signings, and interviews. It is important to have a marketing strategy to ensure your book reaches its target audience. This is also a very important step, and as a self-published author, you must do a lot of research. Some research tools are available for free, while others need to be purchased. There are several platforms where to market your book, but the most successful are offered by Amazon ads and Facebook.

During your career, you will be approached by thousands of people who are ready to take your money for five minutes of visibility. Don’t rush; join one of the many writer’s communities to ask their opinion whenever you get offers. You will find more precious information this way than by spending money uselessly.

In conclusion, publishing a book is lengthy, steep, and draining. By knowing what to expect at each stage, you can make this journey more enjoyable and successful. I hope you have enjoyed this blog. Take care and stay tuned.

Writer's life and social themes

When a writer is going to set him/herself in front of a blank screen, he might already have some ideas about the theme.
Sometimes we are inspired by a piece of news that shocked us. A crime news section, which piqued our interest because of the thoughts it generated in our souls.
Then a plot is born based on that piece of news.

There are many discussions, which appeared on my Facebook feed about what is allowed and what is not allowed in a novel.
Well, here is my point of view.
If your aim is to bring a social issue to the spotlight, because you feel it would generate thoughts, then basically everything is allowed.

Stories of violence, abuse, and similar need to be told, to raise awareness, even if we are writing a novel. The boundary that should not be crossed, in my opinion, is when the writer is no more using the story to provoke thoughts in the readers but makes it an apology to a determined act of violence.

There are many aspects in the making of a novel, and the writer often deals with his/her own demons, which will translate into different characters.
The villain of the story will have his own time to show how evil he can be, but also the reason why he is acting that way.
The duty of the writer, in my opinion, is to offer a full description of the characters, their actions, and their internal struggles. The reader will pick his/her own conclusions and will take his sides, whether the villain was rightly condemned, or was perhaps a victim him/herself.

When I wrote my novel, I tend not to censor my character. There is a reason why the villain is acting the way he/she does. None of those reasons are justified in any of my novels. The villain, and the hero, are there telling their own version of the story. I am just a transcriber of their feelings and their actions.

I generally prefer the reader to draw his own conclusions and take the story as a way to reconsider the people around us.
So, what is your opinion? Do you think there are taboos in writing a novel? Should a writer focus on lighter themes?
Concerning me, I guess my readership already knows the gloomy shades prevailing in my writings.

Nevertheless, as the weekend is here, let's just focus on rest and having fun.
See you next week!

A Writer's block (writers and bloggers)

Have you ever been in front of your blank page planning to do some serious writing to share with the world but then…
crickets….

Nothing comes to your mind. That page you are staring at remains white, time is passing by, and nothing is happening. Actually the more you stare at the page, the more the blankness seems to spread from the page to your mind.
This is how it started this morning when, diligently I sat down at my desk, with the full intention of writing my weekly blog.
I thought that this is the problem that many writers or bloggers find themselves in a few times in their lives. You feel like you had many ideas, but they all disappear as soon as you sit down in front of the screen.
But is it just the fault of the screen? Would it work better if we would sit down in front of a screen that already has something written on? Would you then, get some extra inspiration about what to write to entertain your audience?
Is the daunting Writer’s Block something that has to do with the fear of dealing with the emptiness of the page or is it just a way your brain conforms with the blank page?
I do not have all the answers to this questions, but at least in my case, as soon as I started to write about having my ideas failing me, as I sat in front of my computer things started to change.
It was like the words found their way from my head to my fingers and to the keyboard, finally. Once I got the flow, I just kept the pace.

The writer’s block is something that each of us experiences in a different way, just like everything else in life, and there isn’t a solution that works for everyone. Some of us need just some rest and think about something else, in order to have their ideas flowing like a river. Other needs to read to get their rhythm back, and so on, I could cite all sort of remedies I have heard about how to fight the writer’s block.
For me, there are two ways, one is just to take a walk in the forest, the other is just starting to type even nonsense on the keyboard. Once I get the writing flow, the right inspiration will arrive, and the writing will be once again restored.

I admit one thing, sometimes it takes writing a lot of nonsense before starting to get things on the right path, but at least I have a good laugh when I am at the purging stage.
Have you ever experienced writer’s block?
How did you overcome it? I guess it would be interesting to list all the ways people have tried and see what it worked and what didn’t work.
I am sure we will find quite an impressive list of solutions and, perhaps we can find new creative ways to fight it next time we will find ourselves stuck in front of the blank screen.
So for this time is all, and as usual, I wish you all a great weekend!

The strange connection between procrastination and writing

I have no idea how it all has started.
As a child, I do remember my mother's recommendations about always try to take care of my duties before relax and take care of more pleasant activities.
Sure at the kindergarten, the motto was, duty first and pleasure after. At the elementary school too, they taught us that once you have done all your duties, dedicating yourself to your hobbies feels even better, because you don't have anything else to bother yourself with.
For my childhood, complying to these golden rules wasn't really easy, mostly because I couldn't care less about the duties, so I couldn't be bothered about the fact that I had left something unfinished.
This attitude, last for many years, and particularly during high school, with life waiting for me outside my house, deciding whether to study or having fun with friends wasn't a difficult choice.
Nor I was bothered when the teachers called my parents about my performance.
At their inquiries, I always replied, "Life is out NOW! I can study, and I do, but this doesn't mean that because of a number, I will sacrifice something that is not coming back."

Strange enough, during the University years, I was able to find a balance where before it wasn't even possible, I was studying, working and also having fun with my friends.
Procrastination was something that didn't have a place in my life anymore.
With that, it seemed like my life found a direction also following those guidelines I received as a child.
I was indeed scheduling my time in order to take care of my responsibilities and also finding the time to live the life that was happening NOW.
This state of grace lasted for about twenty years.
Then, something happened...
I published my first book...
I became an author too...
I cannot pinpoint in time the exact turning point, the switch that brought me back to the procrastination path.
What I can say is that I am afraid that with all the things that need to be done, I do not really procrastinate, I just start forgetting them, to remember about them a few minutes before the scheduled deadline or just at the last minute.
Though, there is a pattern in this, I have noticed that my job comes first, together with the writing progress.
The rest, which means marketing, connecting, and blogging (sometimes) tends to be selectively ignored by my brain.

Is this a sign of me getting old?
I prefer to think that this is a question my brain tells me what it dislikes to be bothered with.
It might also be that this is a way for my brain to remind me that I am not a machine, and I cannot take care of every little thing in this world.
What is your experience?
Are you a procrastinator, or diligently follow your schedule planning a to-do-list and going through it at any cost?
What kind of things you seem to forget? Is there any sort of connection between things you procrastinate and things you really don't like or they stress you?
Is there such a concept like a serial procrastinator? LOL
Here I do not have any solution, but I believe that by finding the reason for not taking care of certain duties, we might come to a reason why and perhaps even with a personalized solution... who knows?
Some thoughts for the weekend...