How to write a story that doesn't suck

Self Publishing

It's been a bit since I've last dabbled on this book but I think now is a good time to talk about how you can self publish your book. My book, Land of Armonia, is currently up and available on Amazon and Kindle for those of you interested in reading it. It is a $14 purchase, or free for those of you with Kindle Unlimited. 

So how can you do do this? First off, I can only speak from experience with Amazon Kindle, so this chapter will likely not be very helpful if you want to publish somewhere else. I will also talk about posting your stories on Wattpad a little bit, so stick around for the end to get to that.

Before you even THINK about publishing your wonderful story, you need an editor. Whether you hire someone or get a friend to edit for you, it doesn't matter. You will need another set of eyes reading this. Now, if you want a friend to read this to edit for you, it would be best if it is a friend who maybe doesn't know a lot about your story. You know, someone who you didn't info dump every aspect of your story on while you were putting it together. You need someone who can be fresh with the information and skilled when it comes to literature. The more people who read it, the better, especially if you can get a diverse pool of people to read your draft.

For me, I was in a writing internship with a Christian home school academy (though I am neither christian or home schooled) and I had my boss read it. Let me tell you, I am fortunate he took it seriously. I finished my final draft of Land of Armonia in December of 2021, but I had him reading it since May of that year. He dove deep into each chapter and would call me weekly to give heavy critique, tips, and to help fix grammatical errors, but he also told me the things he liked about whatever he'd read and what he wanted to see enhanced for better enjoyment. He and I worked hard on each chapter to refine them to perfection which took so long, it wasn't done being edited until October of 2022. 

He was definitely the biggest help because; 1. We were not close like family and the relationship felt professional and genuine, therefore, he wasn't afraid of hurting my feelings with his criticism. 2. He had his daughter (13) read it without thinking of what she wanted to change or add to it because she was my target age group and the perfect test subject. Knowing that she absolutely loved it and was practically begging me to let her see the draft of the second one so she could read it sooner was incredible for me. 3. My boss, as a person, didn't know or understand a lot of the concepts in my story such as being LGBTQ+ (a minor part of the story that I rarely mentioned), the ideas of hidden oppression, Native American culture, and so on. So as an outsider to those ideas, it really helped me to be able to explain the things I wanted to convey and how I should better explain them to reader who, like him, may not know what a chanupa is (ceremonial smoking pipe used by the natives) or why one's gender may affect their lives as a whole, even when hardly brought up.

In addition to him, I had my friends read it. Some of them have known about every part of my decision making process throughout making the story come to life since the moment I started stringing it together in 2016, and writing it in 2018. Some of them had no idea what it was, only that "I know who Amante is because I've seen your art of him and I think he's hot lol." It was harder to get genuine responses out of them and occasionally they made fun (in a friendly way) about how I described some actions or how I totally missed the opportunity to put a pun somewhere. It was all good feedback, but it was mostly positive which is, (and this may surprise you) a bad thing. You should WANT negative feedback so you know to fix it, and this is why having your friends and even you family be the only ones to read your work is not the best idea. You'll be clueless to what needs fixing. 

Have someone from your target age group/community read it. If your target audience is 10-13 year olds but the information you put in it is complex and will fly right over their heads, you're gonna need to know how to adapt for THEM. You can't make the reader adapt to you. You work around your audience. If your target group is specifically adult women but your book disturbs them, or is inaccurate to the female experience, you need to adapt TO THEM. Even if your target group is a community you are a part of, have someone else read it. You know and love everything about your story, they do not. This is why I was fortunate to have my boss's daughter read it, as my book is targeted toward 12-16 year olds specifically (though older age groups have still enjoyed it).