Monday, September 17, 2012

Oh! The Places You'll Go....

          That's the name of a book that was given to me by a friend long time ago when I first moved to Alaska from Texas. I wanted to be closer to my dad so I went from extreme heat to extreme cold and didn't quite like the transition. 

            My next best thing was the Pacific Northwest and I fell in love with it. I call Portland, Oregon my home even though I live across the river in Vancouver, Washington. Hahaha. They're both connected pretty much that I can toss a stone and hit Portland from where I live.

          I've found a blog from a guy name Joe Konrath who has inspired me to self publish (vs. going the traditional route.) Joe is making so much money it's not even funny and yet, I'm struggling to keep food in the fridge and feed my animals. I live alone, with one cat, one dog, one bird and one beta fish. I have a girlfriend who loves me and is supportive and who's kind to my animals whom I consider my children (except the fish). Haha!

         This is my first blog entry to document my journey on this road to self publishing. About a month ago I came up with the idea of publishing a book called "Got Ghosts?" that is a collection of emails sent to my group - The Ghost Education & Research Center. I'm a paranormal investigator on my spare time and it's something I really enjoy. I've been doing it for over 11 years (since 2001) and I've got enough emails that I wanted to throw something together so I can get my Amazon account up and running.

          I have a book that is just about finished called "The Journey of Anica Storm" and it's going to be a long series.Over 89 thousand words, 475 pages and it needs some polishing. I still have work to do on it but I wanted to get something started on Amazon so I started with something simpler. 

          Come to find out, it wasn't as easy as it looks because I'm on my own - no one is holding my hand to show me how it's done. Figuring out how I was going to get my book edited and ready was quite a challenge... but I did it. Getting it uploaded and ready to Amazon has taken the most time (it seems)... at least at first.

          I know that if I am to upload another book I think it'll go by faster next time now that I have the basic concept down. We'll have to see when that time comes.

            But I wanted to make this blog to document my journey from being poor, always worried about how I'm going to pay my bills, always being jealous of others who drive fancier cars (I drive a beat up 94 Saturn) that needs an oil change that I can't afford. I am working as a security guard but I only get paid twice a month, one pay check barely covers my rent - the other my bills. 

             From what I read, there's a huge demand for E-books and it's possible that I might be able to make a decent living doing what I love... writing and being creative. I hope so... but that remains to be seen. From what I can tell, there's going to be more E-Readers than E-books available and if so then at the moment the scales are tipped in my favor. Imagine if I sold my book for $1.00 and a million people over a year's time wants to read my book... that's a million bucks!

               Okay, let's pretend I get 1 million downloads and make 1 million bucks. (Yes I know others get their cut but let's pretend). Well, it's just going to sit there... waiting for another million readers to come along... and so on and so on. Maybe a million readers is high, maybe it's unrealistic. I agree it has to do with the quality of the writing... the story you're telling that makes the difference but let me put it to you this way...

                 I bust my ass for 9.75 an hour x 40 hours a week working as a security guard. In 1 year, before taxes, I make $20,000 bucks (before Uncle Sam takes his money out).

                 If only 20,000 people bought my book on Amazon... I wouldn't have to work the rest of the year. Imagine that... the free time I'd have to write, travel or relax. Maybe that should be my goal... 20,000 downloads...

               Wow. I can't even imagine that. Later today I will publish my book and it will go live to the world. 


It should be interesting to see how it does.

               I don't even know if anyone will be reading this blog but if you do, I hope you join me on this journey and keep me company and I'll do the same. Thanks!

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