Friday, January 06, 2017

Book blogging (or blogging a book)

It was two and half years ago when I finished writing a book. Sort of. I found out about a contest a book publisher was running where the top three finishers would get a free publishing deal. I had written about 75,000 words on my blog and various articles and, over a period of a month, pulled them into a book. A little too quickly. The book was not ready to be submitted as a manuscript but I thought our story about Allie would be compelling enough to overcome some of the book's incompleteness. The book got finished, but the manuscript was rough and unedited outside of my own proofing. When I didn't place in the contest, I had an editor friend and some other writer/editor friends give me some feedback and we went back to the drawing board.

A book on a blog?

Here's the thing, though: once you get published, especially if you self-publish, you have to promote, distribute, build an audience, do ebooks, etc. Even really well-known authors have a hard time these days getting any kind of return on everything they put into it. Publishing houses are shutting down left and right or merging with stronger competitors. Because of the internet.

Because of the internet, anyone can see their words in print and hope to be found and build an audience. You don't have to mail tons of manuscripts to publishers or pay to self-publish. You can publish your work your self on your website or blog. All it takes is your time, your work, your story, and your passion.

We've been on a journey for the past decade that has revolved around caring for the most awesome, loving little girl in the world. Allie was born as our granddaughter but we've adopted her as our daughter. She has profound special needs. There are snippets of the story here on this blog, but the complete story is emerging here. We'd love it if you joined us as we tell how this little girl has changed our lives.

Read the first post here.


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