I have always been a writer. It’s part of who I am and how I see the world. 

My writing journey started with a Tamagotchi shoe box full of handmade children’s books that I wrote, which I systemically coded in chronological order.  Most of these early stories comprised of space ships and foxes with super strength. 

As I grew, my desire to write anything also increased.  I journaled everyday, and wrote out my feelings in poetry. I wrote short stories because that’s the storytelling model that was emphasized in school. But what I really wanted to do was write novels. 

Into my teen years, my novels were mostly based on the dreams that I had. They were not very well developed, and I had no idea how to make my characters real. 

By the end of high school, I was discouraged.  Having been told that there is no way to make money writing novels, I thought I would go into journalism. However, I was even discouraged from pursuing that reputable profession.  So, I decided to put my writing desires on the shelf for a while. And they stayed there for about a decade. 

Fast forward to Covid, the time when everyone was forced to stay home and do nothing.  It was during this time that I thought to myself, ok, I am going to get back into this writing thing. I challenged myself by writing a children’s story, which I thought wouldn’t be too difficult to complete from start to finish. And it wasn’t.  So, I kept challenging myself, scaling myself up from children’s picture books to middle-grade chapter books and then finally to adult novels. 

It was at this time that I dove head-first into learning more about writing and the overall publishing industry.  I hired illustrators for my children’s picture books using Upwork and saw some of the job postings for ghostwriters, proofreaders, and editors. I immediately thought, I’m sure I can do that!  Even though I had no experience at all!  And so, once again, I dove headfirst into the editing industry and have enjoyed amazing success since then!  And as my star was rising through my freelance editing business, my writer’s craft was being developed.  I learned how to outline how to properly plot a novel using principles of pacing, tension, suspense, foreshadowing, and more.  However, the skill set that I am most grateful to have mastered is character building.  I did this through daily writing practice, coaching other authors on how to do this, and learning about the show, but don’t tell the principal. 

As I began to work with more and more authors, I came across the same question, “What should I do with my book once it’s finished?”  “How do I figure out which publishing path to choose?” So, being the figure-it-outtype, I started to research the various types of publishing paths that my clients [and I] could take, the pros and cons for each path, and how to go about it. 

Thus, I’ve become well-versed in self-publishing strategies, book proposal writing, and spotting alternative publisher scams.  I’d love to share a few strange publishing stories that have either involved me directly or involved my clients.  These stories have shaped my overall perceptions on publishing: 

• After I finished my middle-grade chapter book, Like a Spark, I sent it to a press, hoping that they would be able to format my book and market it for me on a dime.  I was very wrong.  The publishing organization that I bumped into was a scam. They charged me thousands of dollars to do absolutely nothing to my book [they ‘proofread’ my book in 1 hour, returned my book to me in formatted condition, but it was not at all different than how I had already formatted it, etc.]. Then, they ghosted me for a while. I was fortunate to be able to fight with the credit card to get all of my money back.   
• I’ve watched as my clients choose small presses through whom to publish their work and receive absolutely nothing for their partnership [no book promotion at all, no say regarding the design of the book, etc.]
• I’ve spoken directly with literary agents regarding my science fiction novel and received feedback on it which made me very skeptical about the overall querying process.  [The literary agent I spoke with stated it would sell much better if I were to make huge changes to the premise that I was not morally comfortable with] 

After all of the experiences that I’ve had with various types of publishing paths, I’ve landed: You must take into consideration the unique goals that you have for each book that you write in order to choose the right publishing path.  So that means, for some of my books, I will choose self-publishing [without even thinking about querying for that particular book], and for others, I might take the querying route first. 

After six years in the field, I’ve ghostwritten numerous books for my clients and written four finished books, plus outlined countless ideas for novels spanning multiple genres, from fantasy to science fiction to historical fiction.

I have by no means reached a pinnacle of success. I am always learning more and always challenging myself to improve the services that I provide and my writer’s craft.  I am still doing all of this work because I love story-telling. That is my primary driver. And I think that’s why I’m still on the road.

written By Hazel Dains

author of the in the Shadow of Lions

series, NOW AVAILABLE Book 1: Seven Hills One Light