Good Decision/Bad Decision: Writing a Book

Good Decision/Bad Decision

Today’s subject will hopefully be part of a regular series of Monday posts.  As you recall, I recently started Gratitude Wednesdays.  This series will focus on my past decisions to shed light on some financial wins and losses.  My hope is to discover what I did right, and help others avoid my mistakes.  Whether epic fail or triumphant victory, these were my decisions. The topic for today is writing a book.

Have you always dreamed of being an author?

Good Decision

I had a secret dream which I never discussed with anyone.  A dream not extraordinary in content (I mean, who doesn’t want to write a book?), but deeply rooted in my psyche.  I wanted, more than anything, to be an author. A real author.  One who got invited to book stores and events to give readings and sign copies.

This dream although strongly rooted in my being, slithered and sputtered during medical school and residency.  I was busy acquiring experiences, the fodder for writing, but had little time to actually put pen to paper.

My big breakthrough happened when I discovered blogging in 2005.  A world opened up of medical blogs and creative writing.  I quickly signed up on Blogger and began to write.  I wrote for years.  Blog post after blog post.  When I looked up in 2015, I had hundreds of posts written.

Realizing that I had a cache of material and that I was ignoring my dream, I hired an editor and began the process of compiling a book.  After extensive research, I decided to self publish.

I cannot describe the pride I felt as the final proof of my book arrived in the mail.  A lifetime of hope and expectations boiled down into 232 pages of text.  It was the highest peak of the journey.  I had reached the mountaintop.

Unfortunately, the rest of the road was downhill.

Bad Decision

The amount of thought and care I put into crafting my masterpiece was inversely proportional to the energy spent marketing and publicizing my book.  As I briefly mentioned in my post goal planning blog, I was so blinded by the perceived peak of the mountain, that I had no idea that the climb was just beginning.

Pouring my heart and mind into words on paper was wonderful and life changing, but because of poor preparation, my work was seen by only a small minority of my reading audience.

Could I have done things differently?

Of course, I could have studied more about the mechanics of publishing and learned strategies for marketing post publication.

More importantly, I could have done more thinking about what my goals truly were.  Readership sounded good, but I already had readership with my blog.  It would have been great to make money, but I had plenty of money in the bank at the time.

In Summary

Writing a book was a wonderful experience that helped me fulfill one of my lifetime goals.  When I look up at the bookshelf and see my creation, I experience a great sense of pride and joy.  I have a collection of my most important stories to share with my family and friends.

My advice to you, if you are interested in writing a book, is think deeply about what you are trying to accomplish.

Fame? Fortune? Advancing your ideology?

Answering these questions will deeply affect the path you choose to follow.

If you have interest in learning about the two books I have self published, please say so in the comments and I will email you a link!