You Wrote It!

By Joshua C. Cook

So you've written your first book. Now, what comes next? Self-publishing isa wild journey sometimes, and more than that, one that changes, constantly. It uses it's own terms, and sometimes finding the right help can be daunting. Add in the large number of scammers, those who leech off new writers, it can be discouraging to say the least. 

That's where this book comes in. 

Simple things to know. Why it's important, and what I've learned in my seven years of this side job, that started as a hobby. The goal is to have you understand what you are going to need to understand, and why as you take the book you worked on, and labored over into the marketplace. You wrote it, now, take the next step.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joshua Cook
• Release date: May 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201334086

Book preview

FOREWORD:

Hey! Welcome to the world of writing. You are about to take something that you labored over, something you created, and share it with, well, everyone. That takes a lot of time and energy, so good job, right off the bat.

Now, what next?

Maybe you’ve gone on message boards, or googled things. You’ve seen a lot of terms you don’t know what they mean, and don’t want to ask because hey, it’s the internet, and some people get touchy, well a lot touchy, with newcomers asking questions. I get it.

That’s why I wrote this.

Let me introduce myself.

My name is Josh Cook. While my ‘day job’ is in IT, I’ve been writing since 2014. Along the way I’ve learned a lot and made a hella lot of mistakes. A LOT of mistakes. I’ve been that guy asking questions, getting conflicting answers, and wondered why it all was far more work than I thought it would be. Then it occurred to me...

See one thing I have always hated is buying a book about a subject to learn about it, and have the book mostly be fluff. The actual information is in there, but it’s mixed with so much extra stuff that it gets annoying. I’ll be honest, I’ve sometimes wondered if they add all that extra stuff to pad the word count to make the book bigger so they can charge more.

Why can’t I just get what I need to know in plain talk?

Sound familiar?

So here you go. It’s not long because it doesn’t need to be long.

I don’t have all the answers. But I can help you get started. I can tell you this, if you need help, let me know. I’m willing to listen and help if I can.

Let’s get started, shall we?

—Joshua C. Cook

May 8th, 2021.

https://www.joshccook.com

Congratulations! You’ve spent the time and written a book. This is no small accomplishment, as many people say I’m going to write a book and then of course, don’t. Or start to and have no idea what to write and stop. So great job!

And... Now what?

You’ve got two routes in front of you to get that book you’ve spent all that time on, to be in front of a reader. One, what is called by most writers the ‘traditional’ publishing game. This is the ‘send out query letters, synopsis break downs, maybe sample chapters as well to an untold number of literary agents, and some small publishing groups. It’s called the ‘traditional’ method because until around 10 years ago, that was how you got published.  You played the game and hoped beyond hope that someone would see the promise in your work and sign you to a book deal.

There is nothing wrong with this. And a great many very successful and fine writers go this way. But this is not what this book is about. For two main reasons. One, I don’t know much about this route, as I tried it for a few months, and then decided it wasn’t for me and was a waste of my time and energy. And two, once you get signed, whomever you’re signed with will help you through most of what I’m writing about.

Note, there will be times in the book, when I write about things to look out for, I’ll mention it counts for both routes. Sadly, along with the rise of self-publishing, came the rise of self-publishing scams and criminals. But I’ll get to that in a bit.

So, what is this book about?  What as a total newbie to the self-publishing world, you need to know in as clear and concise manner as I can provide. When I started as a self-published writer, I made a lot of mistakes, and saying a lot is a bit of an understatement. I pretty much self-sabotaged my early books by my complete and total unawareness of what I was doing and how it all works together.

I’m not a Master at this yet. But I do consider myself a Journeyman. And in this book, I’m going to give you, the Apprentice, a leg