Yes, I Want. Yes, I Can. How to Write Your First Book and Publish It Online.

YES, I WANT. YES, I CAN.

How to write your first book and publish it online

Joan Pont

YES, I DO. YES, I CAN. How to write your first book and publish it online.

Joan Pont Galmés [2020]

All rights reserved.

1- I AM A WRITER.

Dear friend, I have written seventeen books in five years. Considering that each book has about 80,000 words, I have typed approximately 1,360,000, and if we count the ones I have deleted, surely the amount is close to double.

Jack Kerouack boasted that he had written a million words, and it is very clear that Jack Kerouack was a great writer. I personally love him.

At the time Jack Kerouck wrote his works, mid 20th century, there was no Google Drive, no Amazon, no virtual bookstores, no possibility of publishing your work immediately on the ENTIRE PLANET.

Now you have all that within reach of your index finger.

And if you have all the tools, why aren't you using them already?

This book is the fruit of my own experience. From the first sketches of something similar to a novel without any respect for the tempos to the fact that, at present, a new work is published every two months.

Of course behind the result there are infinite hours of work, but it is an effort dedicated to something exciting.

I always say that the hours of dedication to something I love don't count.

So when you see my new work for sale on Amazon, what has been my production cost?

Simply zero.

The cost of publication?

Zero.

The cost of promotion and marketing?

Zero.

Everything is in our favor.

Let 's go there.

2- PRIORITIES.

Let's focus on our goal:

PUBLISH

And this involves two ideas that you have to be clear about:

1- Lower your expectations.

2- You are not going to write any work of art.

Let's analyze these points:

The literary market has changed a lot in the last few years with the appearance of online bookstores and the wonderful option of self-publishing, but at the same time that has favored an explosion of authors who are going to compete with us.

How can we fight against that?

WE ARE GOING TO FLOOD THE MARKET

There is nothing more frustrating for someone who is just starting out than to see a writer succeed with his or her first novel.

I will never achieve that.

"I don't have the ability to write a masterpiece.

That's probably true.

I have never written a masterpiece, and I don't know if I ever will.

But my mediocre works are read by many people and they like them.

I have worked hard and I have achieved my goals: I am publishing, I am an author, there are people reading me.

Ken Follet says he doesn't have a Nobel Prize in Literature, but he has a Rolls Royce.

There are probably many more people who haven't finished The Pillars of the Earth than those who have.

But Follet has his Rolls Royce.

What Ken Follet did and what you can do is exactly the same thing: work hard.

We have more of an advantage than Follet: we already have a publisher and our work can be read by someone who lives in Brazil, Australia or Japan the day after it is published.

It is fascinating.

Let's get on with our obligations:

WRITING AND READING ARE DAILY TASKS.

Surely you are already a great reader. And if not, you should be.

The ideal would be to write four hours a day and read as many hours.

Of course, the greatest effort will be devoted to writing, but never give up reading.

How do we get so much material to read?

Take the library, for example. Library books won't take up any room in your house, and since you are working many hours a day with your computer screen or cell phone, your eyes will appreciate the printed letters.

If you can afford it, buy books online, occasionally also from indie authors, which means independent, self-published. If you read so fast that it would be a ruin to buy all those books, look in the free book sections. There are many authors, as I do, who often release first editions of their series for free. This is a good opportunity to see how a successful series has started.

And an essential advantage of reading non-stop while writing is that you can copy to overcome blockages.

Yes, yes, you read it well.

COPY PHRASES AND PARAGRAPHS THAT YOU LIKE VERY MUCH IN YOUR OWN NOVELS.

There will come