Hello, fellow YA authors, readers, dog lovers, wine lovers, etc. Like many of my fellow YA authors, I am starting to build my online author platform. So, I’ve joined twitter, started a Facebook page, claimed a domain name, and started this blog. I thought it would be fun to blog about my journey to become a published author.
To start with, it’s completely intimidating. Can I get an “amen”? I mean, I just started out by dreaming up a story to write during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) with my students-yes, my day job is teaching. Well, I got carried away and here I am 7 months later querying agents and madly trying to create an online author platform. I’m working on my website, but am deathly afraid to push that awful, looming button labeled “publish”. It will be entirely real at that point and open to all kinds of mean, nasty comments. Yikes. Oh, and don’t forget that somewhere in the midst of all of this online crap, I still need to actually write. You know, like books. I finished my first manuscript, obsessed over editing it for several months, and am now working on the sequel. I love the writing. I can go to my happy place, usually accompanied by several glasses of wine, and have a great time figuring out what my characters are going to do next. Those crazy kids! But the work of trying to get published interferes!
Well, I feel a little bit better now. I will move on to something else (yes, I am writing this blog at work-shocking I know! But I’m on my laptop and it totally looks like I’m working. Tee hee.) Maybe you’re in my shoes, a newbie struggling to get published or maybe you’re further along on your journey. Wherever you may be, I wish you well!
Amy Reece 