Mistakes of a writer.

I wrote my first book during my late teens. I hadn't researched more about the world of publishing, and decided to self publish with a vanity press. I regretted it. My work contained massive amounts of typos and grammatical errors. I felt ashamed and decided to do a bit of research before sending anything out to the public. Luckily, this book hadn't been read as I expected. Then, after huge amounts of rejection from Literary agents, I decided to turn to Amazon Kindle store due to the success stories of Amanda Hocking and John Locke. That didn't work for me too, at least as of now. Why? Because I was too impatient to work on my craft as a writer and give the world my very best.

I released, two novels and two novellas. One of the novellas was edited by a professional editor in Canada, so it was readable. The two novels were copy edited, but to my surprise, readers still found out errors. One advice I would give to upcoming authors, especially indie authors, is that make sure your work is at its best. If you don't have money, save money, and hire a very good editor to work on it, even after giving friends and family to edit for you. This pays a lot. Most of the reviews I received on Amazon and Goodreads were talking on the same subject "typos and grammatical errors". People won't have the interest to read your entire book if they come across flimsy typos. Also the usual "you're and your" may not be tolerated by most readers. I learnt this the hard way.

I have finished the series of my paranormal romance story, but I've decided to take my time and work on them before releasing them to the world. I will be in Canada next year and will hire professionals to design book covers and edit the entire series. I already have a budget of C$5000. Then, I will release it to the world and make good use of the lessons I've learned. I am currently in Africa, Nigeria to be precise undergoing a year's course, and in the meantime, I've written a novelette that would be sold to Secondary Schools over here. Also, I am working on a new series, but will speak about that later. The purpose of this post is to educate new writers, that CONTENT is the most important aspect of writing.  Learn more about writing, join writing communities (autonomy, wattpad etc) give readers to critique your work and accept criticism. Once you have a solid content, it's just a matter of time before you get recognised for being a prolific author. But it takes time. Rome, they say, wasn't built in a day.

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas Edison.

 

A tribute to my mom

I'm going to start off this post with the sentence. I LOVE MY MOM. After my heavenly father, God, my mom is the main reason I'm where I am today. Being the last of four kids, one would expect a mother to spoil her child with gifts of the world, but my mom didn't. She gave me a little and showed me how to get the rest. Isn't she an angel?

When I went off the right trail, she brought me back again. She's always believed in me and till date she believes in my writing. I know the cliche stigma about how children love their mothers, but mine is quite different. I have seen so many families and how kids' mothers treat them. It's really appalling. Some mothers spend all their money in buying jewelries to beautify themselves, but my mom prefers to go naked just to make her children comfortable. To her, our happiness/success is all she needs in life.

Even when my dad didn't agree with certain decisions we made, my mom would try her best to back us up both financially and psychologically. then when my father sees our decisions are fruitful, he would join my mom to support us. He's awesome as well.

Even in death, nothing would separate me from my mom. She lives within me wherever I go and whatever I do. Tear drops trickle down my cheeks as i reminisce about all she has done for me. My only hope is that she lives to reap the fruits of her labor. (By God's grace)

Lastly, I'll end this post by adding a very special quote by me. "Unlike most celebrations: Christmas, Birthdays etc., I celebrate Mother's day everyday of my life because without my mom, I wouldn't be me"