Starting. Part One | 939
My Author Journey, Saturday, August 26, 2017
# 939 (countdown)
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Today I decided that on Monday I’ll start writing my third book. Compiling might be a better word because I have plenty of material ready, waiting to be assembled. I have written 300 000 words at least in 2016 and at least 100 000 in 2017 (end of August).
That’s 5 to 80 non-fiction books depending on the length of those books. And as an indie author you can experiment a lot. There is nobody who will tell you what you should or shouldn’t do. Sky is the limit as to what you can try and I believe indie authors can only win that way. As with anything in this world, those who play by the rules (do it by the book) have the deck stacked against them because most people play by the same rules and all can’t win.
A couple of lessons from writing my first and second book.
- Write that damn first book. If it’s an e-book and if it’s a non-fiction book don’t worry about making it perfect. Release it as soon as possible, provided the book has some decent content that makes sense and adds value. If you believe that’s the case (it’s only your own opinion), release it. People’s opinions do matter but when you want to write this first book ever how many people will you ask before releasing it? A dozen? Your close friends and family? That’s nothing. It almost has zero importance — you’ll still have no idea whether there are people in this world who will like what you wrote. Test it by writing that first book and getting it published. If there are some issues with your manuscript you can fix it later. Speed and momentum is what matters when you want to self-publish your first book ever. Lose your momentum at your peril. Lose it and you run a great risk of never getting anything published (traditionally or as an indie author). And if you’ll never write and publish your first book you’ll have no motivation to write anything. In other words, I don’t think telling aspiring authors Be patient, don’t rush the process is the best piece of advice. Rush the process. Immediately eliminate each obstacle, either by trying to bypass it or by eliminating the problem entirely, even if it means that your book will look unlike all other books ever published (don’t worry about that). In other words, don’t worry if you’ll break the rules. If you have something to say, make sure you say it in your book, release it ASAP and move on to the next book (this advice is only important and makes sense for those who want to write more than just their first book). On the other hand, be patient in general and don’t try to rush your process of becoming a great writer / author. All great things take a lot of time. Only your first book ever doesn’t need to be great if you’re committed and want to keep typing. All this advice how you should never do this or that, avoid this or that mistake when writing and releasing your first book (because someone else did it and you can be smarter and avoid those mistakes) should be ignored by new authors. Why? Because those who give you this advice became authors nonetheless, despite making all those “grave” mistakes. They made their rookie mistakes, learned, persisted and eventually won. Why not do it in the same fashion? Why be crippled by all those thoughts and the need to be flawless right from the get go (absolutely avoid the mistakes)? You’re not trying to tame a lion in a circus. You’re writing your first book. You won’t die if you’ll make a mistake. It’s way harder to start when you must have all your ducks in a row and that’s something almost all those who achieved success forget to factor in.
- If you have a child who is school age (which means there is this two-month break in July and August) it’s probably better not to plan a book launch during summer break. Summer break means your daily schedule doesn’t look like it does when there is no summer break. Ignore it at your peril.
- Writing your next book is a way faster / less strenuous process than writing your first book ever. The amount of stuff you need to take care of besides writing and editing your book, or things you need to learn, set up, or do for the first time is insane when you write your first book. It’s not that bad with the second (and I guess with each new) book because most of the things you learned and set up when you were in the process of writing your first book will come in handy. Which is, of course, quite obvious.
- Offering a book for pre-order has it’s advantages and disadvantages, as most things. The clear advantage is that you know that you have a deadline and you will do your best to meet that deadline. The clear disadvantage is that you must sit down and write this concrete book. Can’t write a different book. This is a limitation and something to consider.
Reading.
In the Shadow of the American Dream: The Diaries of David Wojnarowicz (20 min; on scribd app).
Listening to audio.
The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future by Kevin Kelly (25 min, on my scribd app).
Movies
Harry Benson: Shoot First (on Netflix). Watching it now for the second time. It is so good!
The Fundamentals of Caring (on Netflix).
My today’s answer on Quora:
Music for this writing session: Glass Piano (Extended Version) by Philip Glass (on spotify).
My today’s route.



My today’s favorite. A drunken young man. I like how I captured his wobbly walk in this photo.

My today’s photos on flickr Warsaw, August 26, 2017.

