Welcome to the Learning Curve
When I decided to write a book, I thought the process was fairly straightforward. You have an idea. You sit down. You write it. Eventually, you type The End.
Congratulations. You wrote a book.
Seems reasonable, right?
As it turns out, writing the book was only the beginning.
I had no formal training in writing or the literary arts. I was simply a regular guy with an active imagination and a story I wanted to tell. I took pieces of real life, mixed them with fiction, and started writing. I didn't strive for perfection or correctness. I wrote what came to me, followed the story wherever it wanted to go, and enjoyed the journey.
Then I finished the manuscript.
And that's when I discovered the learning curve.
Apparently, Books Need More Than Words
I knew books had covers. What I didn't know was just how complicated a cover could become. Trim size, bleed, resolution, barcodes, paperback specifications, hardcover specifications—and then there was the spine.
I have spent more time discussing the width of a book spine than I ever imagined any human being should. At one point, 1.225 inches became a very important number in my life.
Before writing a novel, I can't remember ever giving the width of a book spine a second thought. Now I have opinions about them.
That's what publishing does to you.
Then came ISBNs, formatting, copyright, proof copies, ebooks, Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, and distribution. Every time I learned one thing, it seemed to reveal three more things I didn't know.
I didn't know what I didn't know.
And then came marketing.
A website. Social media. A book trailer. Bookmarks. QR codes. A media kit. Amazon Author Central. A+ Content. Google Analytics. Search Console. SEO. Newsletters.
Somewhere along the way, I even learned what an XML sitemap was.
I can assure you, when I started writing The Journey of a Salty Soul, I wasn't sitting at my computer dreaming about XML sitemaps.
Yet here we are.
Just recently, I even set up a Google Business Profile for Salty Soul Chronicles. For someone who doesn't consider himself particularly tech-savvy, that felt like an accomplishment all by itself.
I'm certainly not ready to call myself a technology expert, but Non-Techy Guy, First Class has a nice ring to it.
Then a Box Arrived
There were plenty of times when something didn't work. I made mistakes. I asked questions. I researched. I tried things. Occasionally, I started over. Then I moved on to the next thing.
Somewhere along the way, things that had seemed intimidating became things I simply knew how to do—not because I became an expert, but because I'd done them before.
Then the proof copy arrived.
Until that moment, The Journey of a Salty Soul had mostly existed on a computer screen. But holding the book was different.
It had weight. There was a cover. There were more than four hundred pages inside. There was a spine—and yes, the spine was finally the correct width.
And my name was on the front.
Something that had once existed only as an idea in my imagination was sitting in my hands.
For a few moments, all the things I'd had to learn didn't matter.
I had written a book.
Untie the Lines
The funny thing is, I'm still learning.
Salty Soul Chronicles now has a website, the Captain's Log, social media pages, a newsletter, and a growing collection of things I never imagined I'd be creating when I sat down to write that first chapter.
And we're only beginning.
I've spent a lot of time around boats and water, and there's something about beginning a voyage that reminds me of this entire experience. You can study the charts, plan the route, check the weather, prepare the boat, and try to anticipate what might happen along the way.
And you should.
But eventually, if you actually want to go somewhere, you have to do one thing.
Untie the lines.
I didn't know everything I needed to know when I started writing The Journey of a Salty Soul. I certainly didn't know everything I needed to know about publishing it.
I learned along the way. I'm still learning. And I suspect I always will be.
I started this journey wanting to write a book. I had no idea how much the book was going to teach me.
Maybe writing and publishing aren't so different from any other journey after all.
You don't have to know everything waiting beyond the horizon before you begin.
Sometimes... you just have to untie the lines.
Fair winds,
Michael Hoskins