Anyone Can Write A Book

Introduction

The title is an untruth. It's like anyone can win a marathon, anyone can swim the channel, anyone can climb a mountain, and anyone can play piano.

The digital age has made it much easier to share your work with the world. When I first started thinking of making a record or writing a book, you had to get a record label or publisher or fork out for a run of whatever your art was. Then find somewhere to sell it and hope that people buy it, and you don't end up swelling out bargain bins.

The music is "Mr Writer" by The Stereophonics

So, Can You Publish A Book?

In 1971, Project Gutenberg started, transposing out-of-copyright books to digital storage. This is their current mission statement:

"You will find the world's great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired. Thousands of volunteers digitized and diligently proofread the eBooks, for you to enjoy."

This was really where the ebook started, long, long before Amazon.

For music, we now have Soundcloud, Bandcamp, where you can directly upload and price your Music:

This is about publishing a book, which, in theory, anyone can do, but first of all, you need to write it.

I see ads for "AI" products that will write your book and make you a fortune, but as someone said, "Why would I read something you couldn't be bothered to write?".

I do use AI to generate images for my Vocal stories, but that is just because I cannot afford to pay an artist what they deserve.

This record cover was one of mine; the band did the writing. They asked me how much I wanted. I told them I gave my work away, but $20 would be fine. They said that was not enough, and then forgot about me, but I am fine with that, and I really like the record, so they got more money out of me than I did out of them.

This is about a book, though.

Vocal allows us to produce stories, and when we get enough of a related type, we can gather them together and actually publish a real book.

I produced a guide on how to do it via Amazon here:

This was a follow-up to me accidentally publishing a book based on Vocal stories that I had published here. So if you publish on Vocal, you can publish a book.

I suffer, like many of us, from imposter syndrome, but thanks to the support of my friends and audience, I have the confidence to actually gather together some of my Vocal work and publish.

I recently collaborated with Angie Livingstone (The Glittering Fox) , and together we produced the most expensive book I have been involved in publishing, and it has become my best seller. I was a bit worried that might put people off, but it seems to have attracted people, although the main selling point is Angie's artwork:

I learned a lot publishing this resulting in me publishing two more books soon after.

Conclusion

So, effectively, anyone CAN publish a book, but you need to put the work and the effort in, and it is achievable as long as you keep on the road to get the book out.

If you are uncertain, ask others. Also, try things that may seem mad, as often some things unexpectedly work. I actually find that at work in my job as a finance system administrator, never be afraid to try something that you haven't done before.

Thank you so much for giving me your time to read this, and I hope at least one of you will take the plunge and make a start on your book.