Her plan to get out of this is to keep plugging along. We're both public school teachers. She has a masters; I have a doctorate (and the student loans to match). I'm not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel using her method. So there's my method . . .
Lottery Tickets . . .
except I have really friggin' bad luck, so that's not really panning out either. Plan B . . . I've always wanted to be an author. Like the type that can make a living from his writing. I'm not going to be the next Steven King or anything, but I'd happily settle for . . . well one of those people you can remember title of the book, but can't place the authors name . . . I know, I have big goals. So I fire up the computer, open a document file and type away. There's a problem though . . .
I have come to a realization lately . . .
I don't know the first thing about becoming an author.
Sure I can write, words on the page aren't that hard after all. I've developed a habit of writing at least twice a week. I'm hoping to carve out another day, but with two small kids, that's not all that easy to do. I'm sitting on a 100k word manuscript (which is crap and will probably never see the light of day) and, as of posting this, 65k works into my second manuscript. So the words come without much of a problem, but everything I've read or listened to lately about publishing and being an author has talked about marketing, not writing.I'm not a marketing expert . . .
I never wanted to be one, and I'm willing to guess if you're reading this neither did you. I don't have an answers for you . . . not yet anyway. I will however invite you to come on this journey with me while I figure out how the heck to make this writing thing pay off.
Every time I read about one of those "5 Strategies" posts or the "Make Money With Writing" posts, they're always from people who have figured this stuff out, and honestly a lot of them are people who have been in or studied business. I studied Literature and Teaching, neither of these talk about how to sell stuff.
What I haven't found yet is the person who is going through it now, trying to figure it out now (probably because people like me don't even have the questions to ask yet).
Here's my promise:
I'm going to figure this marketing thing out. This developing a platform thing. This publishing thing. And this writing thing. I'm going to do it because I want to do it, more than I want to do just about anything (except hug my kids).
When I was eleven, I joined the Boy Scouts and decided I wanted to become an Eagle Scout. I had my Eagle Ceremony back in 1997. When I was in high school, I said I wanted my doctorate before I turned 30. I earned my Doctorate in Educational Leadership with a focus of Curriculum Design and Instruction back in 2011 (same year I got married), only one year shy of my goal. Now I'm saying that I want to be a published author with a readership by the time I'm 45 . . . That gives me seven years to figure this out.
I will do it. If you want to join me on this journey, I'll do what I can to help you do it too. Ask me questions, challenge me, and tell me your challenges. Put my research skills to use while I, a novice who doesn't even know what I don't know yet, explore and win at this whole getting published thing.
