I have been writing my entire life, which is odd to think about since I was destined to become an animator at an early age. That determination turned into filmmaker in my early teens. But what is most remarkable is that I have always been writing. In elementary school I wrote 20 page novelas as assignments when everyone else wrote a 2 page story. I created an original comic strip with a friend who together we cotninued and devloped for several years. Once we had a computer I kept journals, a dream log, and began a massive collection of story ideas. It wasn't until the summer of 2005 that I realized what I had: a growing collection of short stories involving time travel. I formulated all of my childhood questions about life into silly extreme scenarios to ponder the answers. What if every night we see into the future, but we completely forget that vision when we fall to sleep? What if I had an invisible entity flaoting around me at all times giving me the answers to everythingf I ever needed? Why do we attribute good luck when bad things happen? What amazing things could be accomplished if I could duplicate myself? How amazing would it be if I could rewind time just for 10 minutes here and there?
I told my brother about this newly realized collection of short stories and he told me to run with it. It was great advice. Why not? I'm already doing ti on my own without realizing it - why not aim to complete a collection of short stories? OVer the next year I completed my outline for this collection: 40 short stories involving time travel and misplacement. I had no idea what I wanted to do with it, but writing all of these ideas was something I needed to do. Whatever I ended up doing with it later was not a concern.
In June of 2006 I moved to Los Angeles to break into the TV/Film industry. While this story is a long one, I will hold off on these adventures for another time. My stories were always in mind for something I wanted to work on. In fact, I began reading about publishing, a world I knew nothing about. I bought a book, "The Self-Publishers Guide to Publishing" in 2007 and read it. Fascinating stuff, but I still had no idea how and where to start. I knew I wanted to publish the book, but not being a celebrity of known expert in the field of time travel, this would be a difficult task to find an investor or pay for the book, let alone an interested publisher to sign me up having never written a book before.
Lucas, a friend of mine from undergrad who lives in LA, called me up one day with a phone number. "Do you know who Allan Rich is?" he asked. I didn't know him by name, but he assured me I knew who he was. Lucas told me to call him and gave me his number. "Allan just published a book through a self-publishing service and I talked to him today about it - he said he would be more than happy to tell you about the process." Seeing how Quiz Show was one of my favorite movies, I at least was 100% familiar with one of his acting roles. I waited a day and gave Mr. Rich a call. He was pleasant and extremely helpful and outgoing "Anything for a friend of Lucas Tanner," he said. Mr. Rich published "A Leap From Method" through Authorhouse, a self-publishing company. This was the the first publishing spark that guided me in the direction I needed to be: a publisher.
The purpose of this blog is to log my adventures publishing my first book. There are many things I did right without knowing it, other details I wish I did differently, and everything else I wish I had guidance on. It has been an uphill battle of finances and business, with a hint of creativity on the side. I can only hope that this blog will be an educational tool for anyone looking to publish or carryout their creative endeavors.
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