Self-publishing is a lot of work. For those who have taken it upon themselves to publish in this manner, they learn quickly just how much work it really is.
I’ve been self-publishing since 2010, and I’ve learned a lot. I mean – A Lot! When I first started, there weren’t that many others out there mapping the way. We were all kind of stumbling around trying to find our way. There weren’t any road maps with arrows pointing the direction.
I think the hardest was learning how to format the books. I still stumble when I try to make an ePub.
Every writer has a purpose when it comes to writing. Some are trying to find a way to communicate, or educate. Others just want to entertain.
Me, I started off just wanting to play the what if game. My daughter was giving me trouble at the time, like many teenagers give their parents. I needed an outlet. A way to vent and play my wildest fears. That was how Friends of Choice came about.
I didn’t have the intention of writing a cautionary tale. This was my what if, would I survive if the main character died? Did I have the guts to kill her off?
The next book I wrote was Aaron & Keja. This was my story of escape. I wanted to escape the land – world I was living in – all the problems and stresses – and see if the Orcs could keep the elf king from gaining magic by kill a Time Dragon. Aaron was my heroine. At this point, I thought about romance. But the romance never blossomed. I wasn’t a member of RWA at this point and have never read a Romance, which was why the romance died in the first part of the book.
I wouldn’t call the romance off for Aaron just yet. She has another story coming up in the near future. The plot is still brewing.
Witch Book followed Aaron and Keja. I had a lot of fun writing this story. It seemed like the prose flowed from the ends of my fingertips. I was able to write that book in 90 days.
Road Salt came next. This was a return to my contemporary – Friends of Choice. The story needed to move forward and my daughter’s little adventure prompted part of the story line. The rest came from the fact that I am the mother of an Addict, which is my son. This disease has crippled many. Thankfully he never tried Bath Salts. I used the substance in the story after hearing my son’s rehab counselor speaking about the substance on the Sunday morning news. I ran the idea that next week across to her and she loved it.
It took so long to write it because no one knew much about the substance. I have to search the internet, and at the time there wasn’t much information to be found there either. It wasn’t until I had an epiphany and contacted an old co-worker of mine who happened to be an EMT. When he heard what I was trying to do, he was ecstatic to help. I wish I had added more about Spice to the story line too. I guess someone else can tackle that substance for now.
My most recent release, Along Came Neil, is my very first official YA Romance. This was the book that brought Friends of Choice and Road Salt in a new direction. One thing I learned at the rehab sessions, was that everyone deserves a happy ending. So I made sure that Karla, the main character, received her happy ending. What better way to end the series?
I do have works in progress at this time. The one that I can talk about the most is, Sleeping on the Beach. It will be an NA Contemporary Romance featuring a new set of characters. I do believe it will be a single title and the main character is having an issue with Sleepwalking. She meets a lifeguard who is also a firefighter.
I will tell you more about it as I develop the plot more…
Linda Nelson 
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