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Dear Reader,
If you're already a part of my email list, then you know that 2018 marks my 5th year as a published author! There are sometimes where I still can't believe it! I wanted to kick off the first of many "Author Life" blog series by sharing with you how my epic fail at the start of my writing career actually blossomed into something great.
One thing people always ask me is how did I get my start? I started out as a reader just like you. Now, although I’d been “writing” since I was a child, I hadn’t really put anything out to the public aside from a couple Fan Fiction stories back in middle school(Don't act like ya'll weren't writing about Bow Wow and B2K back in the day).
So, in 2013, I was like hey, maybe I can do this. I started by writing short stories, and then ended up talking to my older cousin who told me about self-publishing on Amazon. He was like, as long as you can make a book cover, you can pretty much do everything yourself. So, with little to no money in my pocket whatsoever, that’s exactly what I did. I downloaded a free Adobe Photoshop trial, bought a few credits to purchase a stock photo and YouTubed the hell out of tutorials on how to create a book cover in Photoshop. Once I was satisfied with my cover, I went into Amazon and uploaded “Bi-Curious: An Erotic Tale” in July 2013.
A month later, I uploaded my second short story, “House of Cards." I was so undercover with it though, it was ridiculous! I didn’t want ANYBODY to know that I was writing erotic stories. Why? I really didn’t want to be judged. I also didn’t know anything about promotion, and even if I did, I didn’t have any money to do it. I honestly just thought that I would upload the book to Amazon and it would sell like hotcakes overnight. WRONG! I probably made a whopping $10 if that from my first Amazon check.
To be honest, the ball really didn’t get rolling for me until around fall that same year when I randomly met a woman at my day job. She asked if I knew anybody who wanted to be published, and I was like uh, hello, me! I told her about the two short stories I had on Amazon and she looked them up. Later that night she basically hit me up and was like WE NEED TO SIGN YOU! Later that year, I had my first novel, “Diary of a Hood Princess,” published.
As you can see, I started off not knowing a THING about publishing, the book industry or anything for that matter, but over the years I’ve managed to find my way. I’m continuing to grow my brand, produce dope books and meet my readers all around the world. If you're reading this, thank you for being a part of my journey and I can’t wait to see what the rest of 2018 has in store for us both!
Signed,
A Very Hopeful Author
A.K.A.
Author K.L. Hall