Hello Annie,
Welcome to the Steemit community. Your love of books and writing are a good combination. I am not a published writer anywhere except here on Steemit. I have seen plenty of writers who have come here though and publish their own work that had been previously published elsewhere. That scenario has caused them much frustration because there is a bot that searches the web for "matching content". When it finds a match it will upvote your post , but warns you , that continued publishing of content already out is not viewed in a positive way here with out citing the source where it came from. Even though you are the author you need to reference where it has been published. The same goes for photos, if the photos are yours , put a reference that tells they are yours.
I would hate to see you fall victim to the bot that goes by the name @cheetah ,
Enjoy your stay here and happy birthday. I will check back on you in the future and check to see how you are doing, Take care,
@sultnpapper