Journey of a Young Writer - Self-Publishing My First Ebook (soon)

I've always wanted to be a writer.
Well, that's not saying much. Anyone with a pen and paper can be a writer, because the writing process is really just that. You and the paper. Or you and the screen or you and...whatever you use to carry your stories.
But I wanted to be a real writer, I wanted to be a bona fide writer, with published books and signings and all that jazz.
And for the past 5 years, ever since I got to seriously considering what I might like to do with my life, I've told myself I'm doing the big thing. I'm writing. I've been telling myself I am amassing a collection of stories and written words that I may one day publish. You know, for real. But now, it seems that 'one day' has come. I am no longer at the tender age when worrying about publication seems far away and far fetched. Not in the slightest. I am at the point where I should really be working for it.
Which is what I've been doing, for the past few weeks. And let me tell you, I really thought that writing was the hard part. It always seemed like if you have the stories down, it's all downhill from there. Well, let me tell you it is not.

For various reasons, I have decided to self-publish a book. An anthology of stories, really, called grimmest things.

Now, I thought that finding a distributor would be hard, but after a little researching, I found the best way to go, which – to me – seems to be a website called Draft2Digital.
Funnily enough, I just got an email from them about their origins.
Draft2Digital are a huge distributor of ebooks, reaching platforms such as Barnes&Noble, Kobo, Scribd, iBooks and of course, Amazon.
Given that I was initially thinking about publishing on Amazon alone, this has really added some nice stuff to sweeten the deal, it seems.
So, finding a distributor wasn't the hard part.

I then set about building the book, you know, selecting the stories that I would include in it, which although grueling (sorting through over 120 stories), wasn't too bad. I managed to narrow it down to 70 stories which I will be featuring in the anthology.
Now, I still have to put those back to back and do a bit of editing, but that shouldn't be too bad.

After that, I set about designing the cover. I've had the title for some months now. It occurred to me once, you know, just popped into my head and I wrote it down, knowing exactly what it was.

But the cover was a bit trickier, since I'm no great visual artist and I pretty much knew I'd have to come up with a picture or pay someone for it. And I did not want to do that. So, the past few weeks, I've been on the lookout for something cover-worthy to photograph. However, the picture I did end up using was an accident, really, it was something I only took a picture of because I was right there.
And to me, that's even better than finding the perfect image. So, after a lot of editing and playing around in the editor, I came up with what will be my cover for the book.

What do you think?
I'm pretty pleased, to be honest.

And then, after having done all this, it occurred to me it was really all for nothing, if I didn't set up a promoting system, you know, something to get the book out there.

Website? Check.

I admit I had no idea how to do this, but I'm pretty pleased with how it came out!

Patreon page? Check.

I've actually had a Patreon account for a while, but it was out of use, so I figured I would blow some life into it!

Facebook Page? Check.

I set up a page for my writing on Facebook, which you can find [here](

Now, if any of my Steemit friends could help me with a like, I would really, really appreciate that!

Twitter account? Check.

I've also started a Twitter account, in order to reach more people.

Again, if any of you could help out with a follow, that would be great!

If you've been following me, you know I'm not the type to ask for help or play on the goodwill of the community, but the truth of the matter is getting your wings as a young writer is hard and any help would be hugely appreciated!

Besides, I like to think I've given you a reason to like my writing, in this past year. With that in mind, I will be giving out a free copy of my ebook once it's out to the first 10 people who help me out with a follow or a like!

Getting back to what I was saying, I was surprised to find it's such hard work, publishing a book, designing images, promoting, all that. Although it stands to reason. I never thought it would be easy, I'm not saying that. Just that it's trickier than I thought.

And it feels good.

It's an incredible feeling, knowing that you're doing something to reach your goal and it's great because it pushes you further, fills you with the desire to see it through. I'm incredibly grateful to be on this journey. I am constantly in awe at myself for doing all these things and I am hugely grateful to this platform, because without its support, I wouldn't be doing this. If I hadn't written here more or less every day for the past year, I wouldn't be trying to publish this.

Thank you.

Thank you.