Publishing

Hi everyone.

I’ve wanted to be an author pretty much my entire life. In high school I planned on pursuing writing, but my guidance counselor talked me out of it and told me it wasn’t stable financially. I was young and unsure of myself, so I listened and went into nursing instead.

Now I’m 8 years into nursing. It’s stable. It pays well. But I absolutely hate it. I’m miserable. And everything in me is screaming to go back to what I always wanted to do. Write books.

The problem is, I’m rusty. Once I started nursing school, I stopped reading and writing for fun because I had no time. Now I’m trying to rebuild that part of myself.

I’m curious how others have done it. If you wrote your first book, what was your process? And once you finished it, what did you actually do next?

I’ve briefly looked into Amazon self-publishing, but it seems like income can be very low unless you publish consistently or build a big audience. I am pretty shy and honestly I think I’d like to write under a pen name. So I don’t know how I’d be able to self promote?? 😬 I’ve also seen people say they’ve made only a few thousand dollars over many years using Amazon publishing.

So I guess I’m wondering:

-Did you self-publish or traditionally publish?

-What did the process look like after you finished your manuscript?

-Were you able to make meaningful income, or is it something you balance with another job?

-Thoughts on how to publish under a pen name/advice if you’ve actually done it.

I’d really appreciate hearing honest experiences.