HAPPY NEW YEAR  !

Kate and Sunjae are almost here!!! 
You will get to share their adventures SOON!

I am so close to publishing. The team who is formatting and assisting me with publishing are working on the final edits to the manuscript. My editor Robin and I went through this last iteration meticulously. I ran into some issues prior to this and honestly the learning curve was steep. Personally, since I started in 2018, I have had several life altering situations, so I relied on people who while very nice weren’t the best at what they do. I don’t believe in dragging people down, so I won’t go into that part any further.

I have been approached by colleagues and friends who ask me how I got started. Why I did it. How can they do it too. People asked a lot of other questions too. I say the only mistake is when you don’t even try.

Enough preaching.

Here are some basic steps to getting started as a self-published author.

1. Idea
2. Plot it (Some people are formal with this. They have it all written down and some just have it in their head. You do you!)
3. Build the characters and world. (When I first heard the term world building, I thought it was just for people who were writing fantasy. NO! It’s for any book. You must keep characters, locations, and other story pieces organized. This is helpful especially if the book becomes a series.)
4. Draft
5. Edit (Repeat 4& 5 several times. One of the writers I follow does it 5 times before she lets anyone see it. She goes through each session looking for different things. One might be a story sequence, the next one just mechanics, etc.)
6. Alpha Readers (They tell you if the story makes sense.)
7. Edit
8. Beta Readers (I created a group who looked for different things. I had a Manhattanite, a Korean American, K-pop fan, Korean national, a voracious reader, a librarian and others.)
9. More editing and polishing
10. Cultural Sensitivity read if needed. (I used one because I am not Korean and even though I’ve lived here for a long time I still wanted someone else’s thoughts. She helped me a ton! Thanks Meli!)
11. Line edit
12. Cover design
13. Back cover blurb
14. Formatting
15. Publish
16. Other items like ISBN, Copyright are in there as well.

Remember getting the story down is the first giant step.