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So You Wanna Be An Author?


RuthisianCodex

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I've finally begun writing The Ruthisian Codex and am currently working on the first chapter. Now since it's been years since I've written any stories and I've never written, much less published, a full book in my life, I needed to do some research and make some considerations before I decided to seriously go for this. How much time would I be willing to dedicate to this per week? What is the best way to organize my thoughts and ideas for the story? What do I want the actual plot to be? How does an author go about getting their book published in the first place? Is it better to go with traditional publishing or self publishing? Do I need an editor and if so, how much does that cost? What are my weakest writing points and how do I fix them? Do I want to publish under my legal name or spend the time and money on a lawyer so that I can write under a pseudonym? How do I go about setting up my author's website and how much per month am I willing to spend for that? Who is my target audience?

Lots and lots of things to think about here so I started with the easiest things first like planning my writing schedule, looking up tutorials and information online on things like character development strategies, grammar and punctuation, the average cost of an editor and reputable sources where I can find one when it's time, and thinking about my social media presence to help get my name and book out there once it's completed. 

Time wise, I can reasonably dedicate at least an hour a night during the week and a few hours on the weekend either writing the story, studying about technical aspects of how to improve my writing, or work on character outlines and development. As for financial considerations i.e. getting an editor or the total approximate cost of getting my book published, this can easily range from a few hundred dollars up into the thousands depending on what I want and the level of quality I want. There is no way in Hell I'm dedicating a bunch of time and energy into this only for the final product to be shoddily put together. I want the highest quality that I can get for a price that is the most feasible for me at the time. The way I see it, it's going to take me at least a year to get a finished product that is ready to be edited and published, so now that I have a ballpark price range in mind that I wouldn't mind spending, I can use this coming year to set aside money specifically for this purpose. 

Another major concern for me is my privacy and how much social media presence will be expected of me. I am NOT an over sharer. Like, at all. So I need to decide what the best steps are to ensure that I can still market my work without getting myself into a bunch of situations that I am not comfortable with. I've found a few techniques already to help keep most questions on the topic of the book itself. I've been looking into a few different sites that I may be able to use to create my author's website and I also think having a Discord in lieu of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. may be the route I'd like to take first.  The lead character owns her own catering business and some of the food will be described in detail, so I'm even thinking about doing YouTube videos where I show people how to make the dishes in the book. There is a huge misconception that anyone who wants to become known for something such as acting, writing, music, etc. has to abandon their rights to set boundaries and that any information about their life is for the taking, which I find to be completely absurd. 

Something else I've been thinking about is whether or not I can see this becoming a series of books. That's something I'm not really going to know for sure until the book is done. The book will have at least ten chapters, so I could definitely see the potential for it to become a short animated series or something. And along the lines of visuals and additional mediums, what do I want for cover art? How about an audio book? Lots of options to choose from. 

I'm making sure to write down my ideas and look up information and tips from best selling authors as well.

This whole thing is one big learning process. 

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