When I was a little girl, my daddy said, “You will never be sent anything that you don’t have within yourself the power to overcome it. You just have to believe that you can.”
-Author Janet Hafner
This past week, I had the honor of interviewing author Janet Hafner about her journey to publication. She had years of experience writing grants, but did not discover creative writing until a few years ago. While she was able to publish her first book, things did not go as expected, but it was a tremendous learning process and a successful “experiment” that helped her to learn and grow as an author.
Janet is in the process of going back and revisiting her first book, which is something that rings very familiar with me. I’ve spent much of the last year reviewing my first published book, The Animal Court, running it through a reboot of sorts to make it as good as I’ve always known it can be. There were so many elements to writing a book that Janet, myself, and maybe a few of you, didn’t realize when we started our journeys. Like:
- Cover Design specific to genre and audience
- Reviews inside/outside the cover
- Acknowledgements
- Table of contents – is this appropriate for my genre or not?
- Chapter titles – are these acceptable for my genre?
- Owning an ISBN vs buying from a publisher; what are the differences?
The writing journey is one that is long and wonderful, frustrating and beautiful. There are days when everything goes right, you write 2,000 words, you get those likes on Facebook, and there are days where you have zero engagement, and the muses don’t touch your shoulder. But, one thing I have learned from these author interviews is that success is not made overnight, that it takes a LOT of hard work, whether you’re traditionally published or independently, and that, above all, the writing community is SO supportive and so ready to talk about their stories in the hopes that other authors may avoid their mistakes.
I’m going to start generating more content on this blog, so let me know in the comments below what questions do you have about the writing process? About what happens after you type those sacred words, “THE END.” If you’d like to learn more about my writing journey, sign up to my newsletter, where I drop a note once a week talking about writing tips and peeks behind the pen of my writing happenings.
Cheers, Dears,
S. Faxon
S. Faxon Productions 