Since I was a little kid, I dreamt about being an author. From the first story that I ever wrote, I knew my heart would always belong to a blank page and a pen. Unfortunately, I was seven when I first discovered this. And, well, I had a long way to go until I could consider myself a proper author. And, even more unfortunately, I was (am) quite the ambitious kid.
By the time I was in sixth grade, I had a good amount of writing experience under my belt. So, I decided that I was going to publish a book before I graduated high school. After all, that was six years away — plenty of time to write and publish a novel. Besides, how hard could publication be?
(Hard. Really, really hard.)
But, like I said, I was an ambitious kid. And by August of my senior year, I had a self-published novel ready to be sold. This was how I did it:
Step One: The Idea
The idea is, arguably, the most important part of a book. If you’re trying to write a story that you don’t like, it’ll never get written. Don’t worry about being too serious or world-changing. Write the story that you want (or need) to write.
In my case, the idea was a sapphic retelling of The Little Mermaid. Maybe not the most world-changing novel, but I had a lot of fun writing it, and that’s what matters the most.
Step Two: Drafting
Drafting is the process of turning an idea into a novel. I typically do three drafts:
The first draft has the hardest job: to bring the story into existence. Don’t worry about formalities or mistakes here. Make your story exist on paper. After that, you can worry about refining it.
The second draft turns the first draft into something comprehensible. I like to completely retype my first draft into a new document in order to make my second draft, since I catch more mistakes that way. This is also where you take out scenes that don’t fit and rework any major plot holes.
The third draft is your “polishing” draft. This is where you round out the edges — add scenes for context, wrap up any loose ends, and take out anything that doesn’t make sense. By this point, you should have a comprehensible story that you (and other people) can follow without much difficulty.
Step Three: Alpha Reading
At this point, you should be ready to show your work to some people. Find a few people who you trust and see if they’d be interested in giving your book a read through. Alpha reading is for content, which is why your draft doesn’t have to be as polished. If you’d like, you can skip this step and go straight to editing.
Step Four: Editing
Now that you’ve received content edit feedback, it’s time to start editing. Typically, my first edit is based entirely around the feedback received by my readers. This can vary in scale depending on how severe the feedback is.
Then, it’s time to start polishing. Correct grammatical errors and make sure the story flows the way that you want it to. This can be a long process, so I like dividing it up into sections so I don’t hyperfocus on one part of the story.
Step Five: Beta Reading
Now that your story is polished, you can send out another draft to beta readers. Typically, this read-through is based around grammar more than content, although content should still be taken into consideration. If you already did the alpha edits, you don’t have to do beta reading. But, I highly recommend that you send out a draft at least once to other readers.
Step Six: Polishing
Do a couple last read throughs and/or edits to make sure the story is where you want it to be! This will be your last chance to edit, so make sure it’s something that you’re proud of.
Step Seven: Publishing
In order to publish, you first need a site. I used ingramspark.com for my book because of the support it lends for independent bookstores.
Before going in, you need certain things that aren’t your manuscript, including cover art, deductions, acknowledgements, and a synopsis. Make sure you put time into these pieces, as this will draw attention to your book.
After you collect all of these things, you’re ready to publish! Follow the steps from the publishing site you’re using and submit your work.
Step Eight: Celebrate
Congratulations! You now have a book that’s published.
Obviously, all of these are the steps that worked for me in publishing my own novel. I highly encourage you to play around with the process and find something that works for you. The most important thing (in any endeavor) is to have the perseverance to keep working on it. It can be difficult to keep writing or editing or drafting, but with enough work, you’ll have a beautiful finished product.
So go, publish your own novel. You can do it. And don’t forget to buy The World Above the Waves before you do.