Six Months Into My Publishing Journey

If you’ve been following my blog, then you know that six months ago I took a leap that was equal parts exciting and terrifying: I started publishing my own books and finally began seriously chasing a dream I’ve carried with me for most of my life—becoming an author.

When I started, I had a pretty serious backlog of manuscripts tucked away, some of them dating all the way back to 2002. I thought I knew how many stories I had waiting to be published, but apparently I underestimated myself. As I started going through old files, I kept finding manuscripts I hadn’t counted because, at some point, I had decided they weren’t quite finished yet.

One by one, I’ve been going back to those stories, finishing them, polishing them, and finally giving them the chance to exist outside of my computer.

And now, six months later, I have 35 books published on Amazon, available in both print and Kindle.

Even writing that feels a little surreal.

In the beginning, I’m not going to pretend I knew what I was doing. I was completely overwhelmed. There was so much to learn—formatting, covers, publishing platforms, descriptions, editing, all the little decisions that come with taking a manuscript and turning it into an actual book someone can hold in their hands.

Everything was new.

There were definitely moments when I wondered what I had gotten myself into.

But somewhere along the way, the things that once felt intimidating started to feel familiar. Publishing a book doesn’t scare me the way it did six months ago. I’ve learned a lot, made mistakes, figured things out, and kept going. What once felt overwhelming has slowly become something that almost feels like second nature.

I still have plenty to learn. I don’t consider myself a publishing expert, and I’m certainly not pretending to have all the answers.

What I do have is a deep love for storytelling and a determination to keep getting better.

These stories have lived with me for years. Some of these characters have been in my head for decades. Being able to finally share them with readers means more to me than I can really put into words.

My hope is simple: I want to write stories that pull you in, make you care about the people inside them, make you laugh or ache or fall a little bit in love, and leave something behind when you reach the final page.

If even one of my stories stays with someone long after they’ve finished reading it, then all of those years of writing—and all of the nervousness that came with finally putting my work out into the world—will have been worth it.

Thirty-five books in six months still feels a little unbelievable.

But more than anything, it feels like I’ve finally stopped dreaming about becoming an author and started living the dream.

And I’m only getting started.