My First Publication

So I did it, guys. I actually have a published book. Now, granted it is self-published, but hey, I'm much farther than I was before. The story isn't even my favorite thing I've written, but it's a start. My real dream is to write and publish a stellar sci-fi novel about space travel and crazy physics, but I'm still working on that! Until then, I had to give in to Cody's nagging and publish my zombie novel (but that sequel... I dunno if I can do that, what would the plot even be?). Honestly, I saw that winning NaNoWriMo gave me a CreateSpace code to get five free copies of my book, but I didn't realize that I had to actually publish the book to do so. I just wanted the physical copies! Now I've made $13.70. So far. Haha.

I don't want to sound whiny, but I don't think this story is my best writing. HOWEVER, I think it's an entertaining story and just something fun to get into for a few hours. Now that it's in a permanent state, of course I think of things I wish I added to the story, or changed, or just fixed so it sounds better. That being said, I still think it's pretty good for being written in thirty days and only edited for clarity. Also, the money is going to a good cause: my college education! So I'm absolutely happy for whatever money comes my way and I'm actually more concerned that people simply enjoy the story and maybe laugh a bit, perhaps spark some zombie apocalypse conversations. Because those are always fun.

But publishing was so much harder than I thought it was! I mean, I knew it was pretty involved, but I tried to shove everything into a week because I was not very smart and didn't realize my code expired on June 30th (I actually totally forgot about it and got a reminder email from the NaNoWriMo site). I did one edit while I was still in Lawrence, had Jesse and Mookie do a read through on the plane home to San Diego as well as having Mookie rewrite his creative zombie killing scene in Walmart, and then did a marathon session of reading my book aloud with my sister. I'd like to say I caught most of the errors, but now I'm scared to read through my book because I know I'll find commas I forgot to take out, or weird sounding sentences, or just any typos in general. The more I think about the story, the more I realize it was pretty poorly planned, leaves lots of questions unanswered, doesn't have great descriptions or character development, and probably could have included way more awesome stuff, but I have to stop thinking about that! It is what it is and I had fun, learned lots, and now it can hopefully make other people smile.

All those negative things being said, I absolutely love the fact I can hold my writing in an official form. I love that my friends and family are excited for me and willing to spend some money to read my story and support my hobby/fanciful future job/college education. It's so cool that I've taken a step in the right direction and gained some experience and insight for future publications. Now I know to think about having an author picture in my book, writing an about the author blurb, how to make a cover image, how to format a book in Word, book prices, royalty amounts, and all these little things that never really crossed my mind. It'll definitely make my next story much better. I hope I'm not saturating you guys in too much talk about it, but I really am excited despite the fact I get all shy when people talk to me about it.

Now I wanted to dress up for Comic Con this year, but didn't know what to go as, so now I have a character! My own Rayne, loosely based on me, is the perfect candidate, haha. I even have the one outfit I described her in, so it shouldn't be too hard to get the other accessories I need (I have friends who say they can get me aviator goggles and a sidewalk scraper :D). I bought thirty copies of my book at my special author price and I'm hoping I can sell them while I walk around the convention center. I thought that was way too many copies, but my parents are sure I'll sell out. I dunno myself, but it'd sure be cool. I'll be selling them for $9 and signing them on request, if anyone would actually want that. Gawd, I even made a twitter account and email should anyone want to contact me about my book. @ZombieTJO and zombie.t.j.olson@gmail.com in case anyone was wondering.

So here's to more writing and publications! Thanks for all your support and listening to all my blatant self-promotion. :)

Amazon/Kindle Link
CreateSpace Link