finish writing my book

Wow, I am so proud of myself for finishing.
Even if hardly anyone reads it, I still feel I succeeded just because I saw the project through. The worst feeling in the world isn’t failure, it’s regret for not trying.

This morning at 2:30 am, I became a published author!!!!!
The writing is finished, from the cover page to the works cited.
A little over 4 months ago I sold my soul to Microsoft Word, typing, editing, typing, editing. It’s finally complete. I published an e-Book through lulu.com. It is free to download at http://www.lulu.com/content/1244074

I will release a paperback version soon, but I want to build up some reviews first.

I can’t believe it’s finally done.

God, writing a book is like giving birth- not that I would know first hand. I’ll think a chapter looks complete and then remember a paragraph I need to add.
I’m starting to get nervous that no one will buy my book! I’m like “What if it’s horrible?” “Am I writing in circles?” “Does any of this make sense?” “Is my writing shallow?” “Am I crazy for trying this?”
pulls hair out
Crazy or not, I’m moving forward. The worst thing would be to give up and then always wonder “What if…”

I’m still editing. I have a really encouraging friend who is reading my chapters and giving feedback. She’s a grammar nazi, so she keeps my punctuation in line!

I wonder if I will ever feel like the book is finished or if I will just have to make myself quit revising.

I have a friend looking over my chapters and making comments. It’s been really helpful and has encouraged me to keep going with the process. She thinks it’s really funny writing, which was my goal, so that makes me happy!

I’m writing a guidebook for people who are leaving Christianity. I’m an ex-Christian myself, and I know how badly our community needs resources.

okay, I took the nerve-wracking step of putting my work out there and asking some people to proof read. I hope they like it!

Something happened with my laptop and I no longer have access to any of my files (music, doc, pics). Maybe I can recover them, maybe not. BUT the good news is that I thought to back up my writing on a flash drive so I didn’t lose it!

So, I want to remind my fellow authors to always have your work stored somewhere in case your computer crashes.

I formatted my text to book size and it came to 123 pages! I have more writing to do before taking on editing, but this is progress! It’s starting to hit me that this is actually happening.

I’m thinking about self-publishing through lulu.com because in my situation, with wanting to keep a low profile, it would be best. Plus I was really dreading the search for an agent and a publishing company and all that jazz.

I wouldn’t think that a book about leaving the Christian faith would have a wide readership. We exians are definitely here though, and we need more resources. I’m not expecting NYT bestseller list, but I would be happy to have it promoted on ex-Christian sites. Because ex-christians usually stay closeted for a while (like I am, still) the internet is where most of us look for information.

Wow, I’m wound up! It’s going to be hard to sleep tonight.

I have written 21,000 words of my book, which equals about 70 pgs. Wow! I have never written any paper for school longer than 6 pages, so 70 is like a miracle! I’ve been writing 500 words per day for a while.
I hope I don’t run out of stuff to write!