Well, happy Friday, everyone, and thank you for joining me here on The Daily with Syl Stein. I am indie author Sylvia Stein, and welcome to the show. For today, I just kind of wanted to kind of, you know, talk a little bit more about my publishing journey. When I started as an author, I kind of gave a few little details of how I started.
And on Wednesday's show, when I was talking about, I went into the scene book, The Primer for the Fiction Writer by award-winning author Sandra Schofield, and we shared and discussed exercises and things that we can do to better our writing. And I still want to go into new books, like discuss more on Sandra Schofield, the exercises that we've done for Monday, and possibly start on the writing devotional with Amy Peters or Roy Peter Clark's writing book. But for today, I just kind of want to go into, you know, the publishing journey I've had so far. As I said, you know, I started with a group on LinkedIn, the Writer 750 group.
I started working on anthologies and wrote some, you know, was able to participate in the Giant Tales thanks to a wonderful author and friend, and she was the head of the writers group at that time on LinkedIn, the Writer 750, Heather M. Schultz, and all the wonderful authors I met through there. But I also met other authors, as I said. I was able to connect on Facebook back in, I think it was 2010.
I met another wonderful author. She's a best-selling author now, and she's always been a great writer and inspiration to all authors, Melissa Foster. So a shout-out to her and all the wonderful work that she does, and all the wonderful authors I met through Melissa's awesome support team I had mentioned before. And also on Southern New Hampshire, I was able to meet a very vast group of people that I got to work with while being a student there, and I graduated with a Master's of English in Creative Writing, and I'm so happy to have been able to come in contact with a lot of the colleagues that I met there.
And as I said, I had an editor for my first book, Closure, which she asked me to leave her, not reveal her name. She's also an author, and she does her own stuff. And she was very influential in me taking out Closure when I first wrote it as a first-person narrative story when I was at Southern New Hampshire. And this was – I started in 2012, September of 2012.
I got my degree in August of 2015. And she would always – she encouraged me when I took my Creative Writing class to, you know, pursue it into it and make it into a novella. So I started working on it in 2013. In 2014, the draft, it was in 2012, I started with the short story.
In 2014, in July, I released Closure, and that was my first novella. And it talked about a girl named Sarah Garrison – I mean, Sarah – excuse me, Sarah James, and the relationship she has with her father, Garrison James. Because of the loss of the mother, which was Lila, she passes away, and all these events occur. And there's this drama and this, you know, this horrific beginning for Sarah as a child because Garrison becomes a monster who haunts her.
And because of the fact that he deals with – it deals with the subject of alcoholism and the darkness that he goes through and the places that he goes through, and it affects his daughter and his relationship. So basically, Closure was a story I wrote of a broken relationship between a father and his daughter and then, you know, trying to make amends for that. So I started with that one, and it did very well when it first came out, you know, considering it was – and I did publish it through Amazon KDP, but I did work really hard on making the story the best it could be. And we'll be right back.
And welcome to The Daily with Silstein. As I was saying in the last segment – and happy Friday, everyone. Thank you for joining us here on The Daily here on Anchor. As I was saying in the last segment, I published Closure and released it on July of 2014.
And I was able to release it as a digital form and then paperback that same month. Then a couple of months later, I worked on the audio through Audible or ACX that is part of Amazon. And I was able to also have it in audio form. And Closure is the one that I've received a lot of high praise from as far as reviews are concerned.
A lot of people were very moved by the story. And they wrote how it helped them when they were going through a hard time. Because I do mention about what Garrison goes through with alcoholism and Sarah's story. And there was a lot of interaction and communication with that.
So I was really proud of that story and that people actually wrote that or wrote me and asked me about the story. This story is fictional. But it does have some type of overtones of things that I've gone through in my life. Not myself, but personally.
But there was some alcoholism that I had to deal with in my own family. And even though it wasn't the way Garrison and Sarah were, it still affected our family. And I wanted to show that side to kind of give people glimpses into what alcoholism does, what it destroys and what it affects. And Sarah was the main protagonist.
And I wanted to show her side of the story when I did this. And even though it's done in third person, I wanted to capture the essence of everything that's going on within her and within Garrison. And the things that she learns and how the journey portrays all through the book. But one thing that was really something that I was told when that story came out was how many people wanted to hear from Garrison and why he did what he did.
So this is why when I finished up, or I was finishing up my courses in Southern New Hampshire in my last two fictional classes that I had, where you're supposed to create a manuscript to publish or to complete, I created what is called The Diary of a Broken Father, which is coming from Garrison James' point of view. And this story is the one I just released in February of this year. But it was actually done during Southern New Hampshire when I was finished with my courses. And then I wanted to work on the draft and went through how am I going to do this.
And I had very good professors, which were very inspiring with their feedback. And there were other people that were very essential to this. And here I kind of derived the 12 steps into what he's writing in this diary. And you'll find out why I call it a diary instead of a journal in the story.
You have to read the book. But that was something very essential. And then I had to kind of show Garrison's side from his own point of view. So it's more written in a type of diary.
But there are narratives that he shares in there about his own demons and what's going on. And there was a little bit of criticism on that because people didn't understand what I was trying to do at first. But then once the draft started getting worked on, and I need to thank especially the polished pearl, Sandra Ellie, for the proofreading of that book. Because when I first got it edited the book, sorry, when I first took it for editing in a service I thought had done their job, they missed a lot of key elements.
And then I also had my beta readers, which were very essential to it becoming the work that it did. And I'm happy to say that I'm really pleased with the work now. I hope you'll go out and get it. And I was just recently nominated for a, or the book was nominated for an Indie Book Award.
And I'm so excited about that. And just like I said, you know, people say this all the time, but I really, I mean that. Just to be nominated, it has been phenomenal. And we'll be right back.
Happy Friday, and welcome back to The Daily here on Anchor. As I was saying on my last segment, I was very excited to hear that my book, The Diary of a Broken Father, was nominated for an Indie Book Award. And I am just really excited and ecstatic. And like I said, I really am excited about being nominated.
The voting, I believe, starts in September through Metaphor Publishing. And I'm really, really excited, you know, to see what happens. But like I said, it's, you know, to have my book nominated is still really big and huge, especially being an Indie author. And the title of The Diary of a Broken Father, I wanted to send a shout out to him because he is one of my colleagues and fellow friends and writers on the Southern New Hampshire group.
Christopher Barlett, he helped with the title. I always tell him, you know, you were essential. I was trying to think of a title, kind of had it. But until he said, what about, you know, I said, I want to do it about a diary.
Okay, well, he's broken. What about The Diary of a Broken Father? So I wanted to send him a big shout out for that, helping with the title on that. And as I said, you know, before that, in the middle, of course, after closure, I did a YA, a young attempt at YA called Chasing Clarity.
And right now I'm having it re-edited by the amazing Kim Huder and Wordsmith. But I want to make sure I get the name right because I don't want to make a mistake on the name here. It is Wordsmith Proofreading Services. And I am having her proofread The Diary of the Broken, I mean, sorry, Chasing Clarity, which is my YA.
I didn't really have a one set editor. I had a great proofreader who had formatted it initially, which was Regina Mitchell. Shout out to her. And then the draft was worked on briefly by Michelle Austin Witte.
So I wanted to send her a shout out. But when I initially started with the idea of publishing it, I didn't really have a set publisher. Or sorry, a set editor. Sorry about that.
And I wanted the work to be like a polished diamond because I learned that when I was an intern, as I said, an editing intern, and then an editor at Stitch Smile Publications. Lisa Vasquez, who is the CEO, has a wonderful set of editors. And Donnell Whiting and all the other great editors that I work with, all of them. I learned a lot from each of them.
And that's one thing. You have to really work on editing and doing a great job like with the coffeehouse writers. Our captains, as I mentioned, Jessica or Jess Knoppel and Luke Savage, you know, they both have a great set of editors that we work with. And I've learned to work with a great deal of them, Caitlin Haynes, Lisa Mildon, Carissa Lahi, and all these great, great editors that I've come across.
And I forgot any of you. I apologize. And like I said, you've got to put in the effort to get that great editor. And I've had great proofreaders like Sandra Ellie of The Polished Pearl and also Emerald Barnes, author.
And she's also a great proofreader. She does editing also and proofreading services. You might want to check those out. And like I said, I've learned a lot from a lot of colleagues, authors everywhere.
They've all been essential and wonderful. And, you know, like I said, if I've forgotten any one, I do apologize. But and then I released Chasing Clarity after I worked on it from National Novel Month. And this was about dealing with grief and the loss of that special someone.
I wrote it through something that happened that summer in 2013. I heard about someone that had passed away. And then I took all of that and put what would happen if you lost that someone. And I created Mia Gerard and her story.
And then it went from there. And, you know, it's like I said, I try to write different things. And in the next segment, I'll tell you what I'm working on. We'll be right back.
And happy Friday. And welcome back. And I am Silstein. And welcome to The Daily with Silstein.
As I was mentioning before, I was I have three solo books out. Closure, July 2014. Chasing Clarity, October 2015. And The Diary of the Broken Father, February 2017.
Prior to that, I did some anthology work. And I'm still working on an anthology. I have one coming out with the wonderful group set of authors, Jackie Sheets. And it's for anti-bullying.
And I do have one on mental illness that came out. And I'm really proud of that. And, of course, The Giant Tales, as I was mentioning before, which I started with on with the writers groups on LinkedIn, 750. Thanks to Heather Marie Schultz and all the wonderful authors there.
But I wanted to also mention how working with Chasing Clarity, you know, I learned a lot about different things and how editing plays a big part in and what you, you know, you want your work to be a polished jewel, as I said. And I learned that when, of course, from all the colleagues I met through, Melissa's awesome support team, the authors that I met through there and I've worked with. But especially when I worked as an editing intern and then an editor for Stitch Mouth Publications, which mostly worked with the horror genre. And Lisa Vasquez, the CEO, shout out to her, has a wonderful set of editors.
Donnell Whiting and all the wonderful authors and editors there. Jeff Brown, all of them have said, you know, your work needs to be like a polished jewel. You want it to show your best work. And because of that, I am having Chasing Clarity re-edited by the wonderful Kim Huther and her wordsmith proofreading services.
And I'm really excited about that because every work should look your best. And I am so grateful to be working with her to get that book to where it needs to be. Because they always said they liked it, but they noticed that there's a lot of things that could have been changed and worked out better. And as an author, I've learned that.
That you have to take the time to take that criticism or critique and take it and not be angry about it, but be grateful that they pointed it out so you could do your best work. And this is why another author friend, he mentioned about The Diary of a Broken Father needing some proofreading, some tightening. And I was able to get Sandra Ellie from The Polished Pearl, shout out to her, to tighten some of the proofreading that had been missed. And I appreciate this author mentioning, you know, this letting me know what needed to be done.
And also, I wanted to thank Lori Fontenet's author because she recommended Sandra Ellie and The Polished Pearl. And there's a lot of wonderful proofreaders, editors. Author Emerald Barnes also does proofreading. And there's a lot of great people out there that you can just do your research, you know, look up reviews.
But for right now, you know, contact Wordsmith, proofreading services. Don't let the price draw you out. When you want some good services, you have to be willing to pay that money so you can get your best work done. So, you know, don't be afraid to, you know, work out a payment plan, whatever you want to do with, but do your research when it comes to editing, because that is important and it's influential.
And like I said, you know, I've been so grateful to have been working with a lot, a lot of other, you know, great authors and editors and also at the Coffeehouse Writers, where I am now, where I write for Millennials 365, Medium, and Odyssey through the Coffeehouse Writers. And our captains, Jessica, or Jess Knoppel, and Luke Savage, who's also an author, poet. And the wonderful editors there are all wonderful. And shout out to all of them and the writers and everyone I get to work with.
But never be afraid to get that extra help to make your work look the best. And on the way back, on the next segment, we'll have the wrap-up. Okay, and now it's time for the wrap-up here on The Daily Wasil Stein here on Anchor. And thank you for joining us.
Happy Friday. I do appreciate you all being here. hope that you like the advice I've given you this is from my own experience but I just wanted to say you know right now I am an indie author working to um learning new marketing ways of helping authors and writing tips and I will be sharing any other marketing tips that I've learned but one thing that has happened since 2009 when I began on this journey back to writing and uh back in 2012 when I joined Southern New Hampshire in 2011 when I joined the writers LinkedIn and then in Facebook you know I met a lot of great authors and wonderful people I've been able to create my own podcasts um I've been able to give writing advice for other authors and writers throughout my blog throughout my books and paving it forward for other authors because that's the key element for me um to help other artists I have this podcast here on anchor I have another podcast which I do for other artists as well and the thing is that the whole point is to push people forward you know to to give their best potential and I believe every one of us there's enough room for all of us to do that now as an indie author I also have uh write my own blog and I also wanted to pursue a blog and I kept saying I wanted to write for the Huffington Post blog and I finally got that wish um uh in 2016 I uh I remember uh June I think it was um I had applied for it early in the year and I kept saying I wanted to write for the Huffington Post blog and I kept saying and I believe I uh I remember uh like it was yesterday that I wrote because they had said well you need to write for you need to uh send out your queries to uh or letter that you write an email to directly to that person and I wrote uh before Ariana Huffington stepped down I remember as clear as day when I uh uh sent her an email and this was back in April I think it was March or April uh I'm trying to remember when I had written her I think I wrote to the Huffington Post around March or April but then in June of last year I wrote her before my birthday um and uh and and I remember getting the email later on that in the middle of the month um and it when she said you can yes uh we've approved you um for your writing tips and you know and uh you're gonna get in contact with the editor uh and they'll they'll let you start your blog on the Huffington Post and and for me that was a big thing because I set a goal to do that to to pursue uh and give advice and do author spotlights and I did it and I was able to get it and I said I want to do a podcast and I said that and I did it and now with Anchor you know here with the Daily Whistle sign I'm able to give more writing tips more advice and help more and more listeners to give my own you know my own examples of what I've been through and the books that I feel have helped me and been influential in what I do so I really hope that you never give up you keep pursuing those dreams I'm now working on a thriller uh that's out for next year I've been working with great cover designers from Natasha Brown to um to a very talented artist and tattoo artist uh Michael Dangerman I'll be revealing that um in September and then of course our CEO and and uh or the CEO and our boss at Stitch Smile Publications when I was there Lisa Vasquez is a very talented artist herself so if you have not checked out her work please do so she's on Facebook um and on Twitter and her name is Lisa Vasquez for Stitch Smile Publications she does wonderful cover art and of course I'll be looking out for the talented and amazing work of Michael Dangerman and again I really want to thank you for joining me today here on The Daily with Silstein and I'll have more for you on Monday happy Friday everyone