The Journey Begins: Where to Start On Your Road to Becoming an Author

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to self-publish because I didn't want the hassle of trying to get the attention of a publishing company. However, I didn't realize what a journey I was in for with self-publishing. I'll start off by saying if you don't want the down and dirty, hard core truth this blog isn't for you.

Now that we have that out of the way, I'm going to tell you about my journey to authorship in the hopes that it helps others. I started my journey out with a realization that I had become miserable in my day job and needed a way out. Now for most that would have lead to dusting off the resume and starting a job search. You see I had become jaded by the whole idea of corporate life and the thought of trading one company for another didn't generate any warm and fuzzy feelings. I decided I wanted to overhaul my career and find something that would stop draining my soul. That sounds overly dramatic, but when I look back at the person I used to be and can barely recognize who I've molded myself into to be the perfect corporate citizen I feel slightly nauseous. All of my creativity and fun loving personality had been replaced by this overly serious, politically correct zombie.

You may not be in the same boat but I'm sure there is a reason you want to become an author. That is where I'm going to start this blog. Yes, I'll eventually answer those nagging questions about how to write, how to publish and what tools you need. But the journey we are going to take together is more comprehensive than that. There are tons of resources now available for self-publishing, but my struggle was that everything was in bits and pieces. That is why I'm writing this blog. I want to help other aspiring authors by building an actionable roadmap that covers the points from A-Z.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have all of the answers. I learned some hard lessons along my way and I learn new ones every day. My intent is to share those lessons and the resources I've found to help you on your road to authorship.

So, here we are at the beginning. It all starts with what seems like a very simple question on the surface: Why do I want to be an author?

Generally there are two reasons that I've found. A) I want to write a book because I love to write and I have tons of ideas that I think could one day lead to a full time writing career. B) I have a specific goal in mind (message to convey, boost for my business, etc) or I want to write as a hobby. The roadmap to authorship looks different depending on which camp you are in. Take some time and really think about your end goal. Then tell me which group you fall into and what your "why" is.