My Journey as an Independent Author and Publisher

When I was twelve, I became obsessed with the idea of writing a story in a notebook and then coming back to it years later, embarrassed but secretly proud of myself that I had written so many pages... The story doesn't exist anymore. I burned it in a bonfire in my backyard because I never wanted anyone to read my writing. It was too personal, too horrible, too much for a tween.

When I was fifteen, I got into writing fan fiction. I was introduced to it, and life was never the same after that. I wrote every week a chapter of a story, each chapter ranging anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 words. Sometimes more or less. It became something I fully immersed myself in. It was the first time I realized what I wanted out of life. It was to be a writer. (P.S. All the fanfic has been scrubbed from the internet haha :))

When I was seventeen, I took a creative writing class, where we tried all sorts of different genres and pushed ourselves to the limit of our creative abilities. This class was the first time I was introduced to free-form poetry. I was taught that I could format the way I'd like; all I needed to do was make it my own.

So I wrote. Everything I felt, I figured out a way to write it down. Those poems are so deeply personal and a bit intense, to be honest. Those poems have somewhat seen the light of day. Let me dive deeper into it.

From the ages of eighteen to the present day, I have written probably about three to four poems a week. A line or word would come into my mind, and I wouldn't be able to leave it alone. It would consume my thoughts until I wrote it out.

One day, I was in the bookstore when I decided to publish my poems. I was twenty at the time. I am now twenty-seven and have published my first poetry book! I am so proud of it. It took so much work and commitment, and actual action to get this book into the world.

I decided to go with self-publishing for many reasons. One of the big ones being these poems are incredibly personal to me and to different points in my life that I didn't want to have someone telling me I need to take out or put things into something so personal.

Another thing I didn't want was to be rejected a bunch before getting my work into the world. Thankfully, we live in the day in age where people publish things on their own and can promote it on their own. I got to do this on my own terms, and I am incredibly proud of it.

It doesn't mean that I am opposed to a publisher or editor, but this book I wanted to have on my own. I paid for an editor, had a friend design the cover, and made sure everything was perfect before putting my work into the world.

I love these poems with everything I have. I am proud to have this out in the world with my name on it!

This blog will be where I come to update everyone on my current projects and post the occasional book review! I will be posting once a week!

Thanks for reading:) Catch you next week, happy Thanksgiving!