As I said in the first installment of this column that achieving the publication of a novel (or nonfiction book) can make you feel good about yourself, particularly if you’re a person who feels your professional life has not been as successful as you had hoped for.
This happened to me.
My book authorship happened to me late in life and today is my proudest accomplishment.
My regular working eight-to-five job life a good portion of it is something I rarely think of and some of it today I would rather forget.
I am no different than you reading this. We both have had a measure of adversity in our lives and if you’re one of those people whose working life has been a catalog of proud achievements…I’m happy for you.
But if not, book publication can give you a new lease on life.
I was a newspaper reporter and a good one. I worked for the Mountain Democrat in Placerville, the Lake Tahoe Tribune (as a freelancer) and full time at the Nevada Appeal, a daily newspaper in Carson City, Nevada. There I was the crime and schools reporter.
I did these jobs, but there was still something missing. I wanted to leave behind a body of work that could outlive me possibly. That someone could read 50 years from now, for rarely does anyone pick up an old newspaper from 50 years ago and read an article you have written as a reporter.
I wanted to be a book author. I used to peruse the novels in the library in Carson City and thought how wonderful it would be to be an author. This was 28 years ago. I decided to write a novel a Western and sat down to a typewriter and did it (this was before having a computer in my house)…
I mailed the pages of the completed novel and got an agent for it he loved the book but for one reason or another couldn’t sell it. I tried to sell it, but finally, got discouraged and gave up. The unpublished book sat on a shelf in my house for years, a dusty stack of typewritten papers.
In about 2015; by now I had a computer in my home. My wife suggested to me, “Why don’t you email it (the book) to people.” No more clumsy big mailing envelopes and licking stamps.
I did this, got the typewritten pages of the book, converted them into a digital file and emailed it to publishers. I got a note back right away from a publisher of Westerns. The email note said, “Congratulations! We want to publish your story.”
I was like thunderstruck. After perhaps 25 years…..in an instant….I was an author.
The book was published and I began writing Westerns for this publisher. My books were acquired by another publisher and I was writing in addition to Westerns, Science Fiction and History novels.
I became a full-time author.
My high school had a website on Facebook. Former students posted and shared their fond memories, but not me. I had not enjoyed high school. I had looked like a 12-year-old I had not gotten the early growth of a man’s body like some of the guys on the football team….the big men on the campus. I was intimidated by them.
I took little part in high school (this was my own fault).
Out of a student body class of 480 kids, I had dealings (meaning I spoke at least a few times with them) with perhaps 50. The rest I didn’t know or say a word to in three years of high school. I knew who they were, but never spoke to them.
I also didn’t post anything (memories) on the high school Facebook page.
Until I became an author…..
A few years ago I posted the cover of one of my books on the high school Facebook page. About 60 of my former classmates saw the post, responded and hit the like button. Almost all of them I had no dealings with in high school.
Suddenly from being nobody; I became somebody.
One of the people I had dealings with and who had not treated me too good in high school said in a comment, “Congratulations on your success.”
Was that a sweet moment or what?
John Sammon is a freelance writer and the author of 41 books, many of which can be found here on Amazon. He is a resident of El Dorado Hills. His commentary is the first in a series on the trip of self publishing.
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