Do you fear publishing your writing? Do you worry about the judgement you might receive as a young adult? Don't let your fear hold you back any longer. In this post, I'll show you why you should self-publish, asap. I'll show you all the experiences and wonderful moments in life I've gained from doing so. Your own moments are waiting for you. Here is the mindset that helped me reach mine. As a young writer, you may fear publishing and readers' high expectations. Your fears are misplaced. Fear never getting self-published; fear never having the experience. The more experiences you have young, the wiser and more successful you'll be when you're older. Strive for wisdom, not perfection. Using my personal experiences from publishing at 17 years old, I'll show you why this is a motto to live by. STRIVING FOR PERFECTION. When I first started reading over the first chapters of my novel, I saw how horrible they were. I could never publish that. I thought I could only publish perfection. This was a debilitating mindset. When I read better writing, I compared how much worse mine was, instead of analyzing how I could improve. I thought that I would never publish, never have readers for my work. Every mistake I made glared at me, blocking my vision for my writing future. But then, my English teacher at the time gave me great advice: there will always be room to improve.
Never get caught up on your mistakes. Keep your eyes forward, on your goals. Finish the novel, then edit. I started striving for experiences, instead of perfection. I finished the first draft. Check! I got alpha reader feedback. Check! I published at seventeen. STRIVING FOR WISDOM. My writing wasn't going to be perfect, arguably it wouldn't even be great. But I wanted to know what it felt like to hire a cover artist. I wanted to know how to create a manuscript. I wanted to be self published. I craved wisdom from these experiences. And I got it. With the wisdom I have gained and continue to gain, my next book will be that much better. Consider this: what harm are grammatical errors when you can say you've published a novel at your young age? WHAT I PUBLISHED. After only about three drafts, and never hiring a professional editor, I published my novel. It felt amazing, even though I knew it was far from perfect. More than 300 pages of my own creative mind was open to the world. More than 100,000 words. As I write the second edition (two years later), I realized how imperfect my book was, with a happy smile. I never let these mistakes hold me back: hundreds of commas where there should have been nothing or a period, improperly used italics, indented beginner paragraphs (a very rookie mistake), a character that had been unarmed magically unsheathed his dagger, over two thousand adverbs (10% of which were quickly), even a sentence that just cut off in the middle! I regret none of it. THE EXPERIENCES I GAINED. With this error-riddled novel, I still experienced things of my dreams. I had a huge accomplishment: I had published at 17. If I never strived for wisdom, I'd still be editing my work's drafts. BOOK FESTIVALS. A Vow to Fury was accepted to two book festivals, one of which was state-level recognition. I learned how to pitch my book. I created an author booth, flyers, bookmarks, business cards and more. Each improved from the first festival experience to the next. I met people that changed my life. When you publish and tell others about it, you too will meet influential people. COLLEGE RECOGNITION. The higher ups at the college I attended for my first year heard by mouth that I had published a novel. I made it to their website. This encouraged me to take creative writing classes. And in my first creative writing class, Dr. Carter convinced me to take my writing and my skill more seriously. It is now my declared minor. Once again, when you accomplish a published novel, others will notice it and you will have influential experiences. COMPLIMENTS. Most important of my experiences were the compliments I received. While I never made a ton of sales, I got a compliment from every passerby that stopped to glance at my achievement. The most common were "that is amazing" and "keep writing". These compliments showed me my potential. They showed me that mistakes are a part of the process, that experience triumphs everything. Most influential, was a few words from an older author, who never sat down to get published until he retired: "you're my hero". He loved my determination, the skills I had gained that he waited too long to get for himself. So go out there and self publish. I want to make note that I did also receive some disheartening words. But there's always going to be negative people. I have received overwhelmingly positive words. Keep your chin up. Never take negative things to heart, just analyze them. There may be some truth to what the person is trying to say, even if how they say it is unnecessarily rude. Typically, however, don't even consider it a problem unless you hear it three times, otherwise it's likely just a problem with that person. THE WISDOM I GAINED. From these experiences I have gained a considerable amount of wisdom. Wisdom does not come from old age; it simply that older people are often wiser because they have experienced more. No matter how young you are, you can become wise. BROKEN, BUT NOT IRREPARABLE. Because I self-published, I can go back and fix any mistakes whenever I want. This was a big help in getting out of my "striving for perfection" mindset. You have no reason to dwell on errors when you can fix them at any time. THERE IS A READER FOR EVERYONE. Do not worry about getting readers. Do not fret if the only readers you have are friends and/or family. Everyone's, even just one person's, opinion on your work is valuable. And, in my experience, many readers put story content over grammatical errors. Use the comments, no matter how little, you get to improve. BETTER NEXT TIME. With every experience I had, I became a better author. As my wisdom grows, so do the number of skills I can apply to my writing career. My first novel may not be drop-dead-wonderful, but my next novel will be better than the first, and that's what matters. You must have your goals set on improvement (not perfection!), even the most miniscule. BE PROUD OF YOURSELF NO MATTER WHAT. If I had focused on my mistakes instead of my accomplishments, I would have never talked about my novel. I would've never applied for book festivals. I was proud of A Vow to Fury, and it led to many of my awesome experiences. Even further, if i was never proud of every step that I made when I wrote A Vow to Fury, I would have never self-published it. In conclusion, you have every reason to be proud of yourself. Read this until you believe it. Happy Writing, with love,
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More InfoErin blogs because she wants to help other young adult writers and new writers. It's aimed to educate others on the writing and self-publishing process. If there is anything you'd like to know that she hasn't covered yet, please contact her! |