Travis Sackett's Blog
September 17, 2021
Path to Publication as a Disabled Author
I began writing my first manuscript in a composition notebook on January 1st, 2020. At that time, I knew very little about the publication process, but felt that I had a unique story that was worth sharing with the world. Like many other prospective authors, I started by writing pieces of my narrative whenever I felt inspired. I say pieces, because I can typically write two to three sentences at a time prior to forgetting what I am writing about.
After jotting down a few lines, I have to reread what I just wrote. On a good day, I can recall enough of what was previously written to add another line of two. Eventually, I’ll work towards producing a complete paragraph.
With one paragraph written, I can focus on the main concept and continue building the storyline. Again, this process is slow and occurs a line or two at a time. Overall, writing in this manner is painstaking and I consider myself fortunate if I compile a thousand words over the course of a month. Now, one may be asking why I decided to write in such a peculiar manner.
In 2013, I experienced a traumatic brain injury or TBI. The result was permanent short term memory loss and multifactorial cognitive dysfunction. Since the TBI, I have struggled severely with encoding new memories. My brain no longer functions as it once did, and I frequently lose my train of thought. Despite these limitations, I wanted to demonstrate that someone designated as fully disabled can still pursue a seemingly unachievable ambition. So, I continued writing.
By fall of 2020, nearly nine months after beginning, I’d written approximately 7000 words. Although the overall word count was far from staggering, I had the makings of what could become a solid memoir. I shared what I had written with my wife, and she encouraged me to continue pursuing my dream of becoming published. To do that, however, I needed more guidance and help developing my writing.
One day, while researching the various paths to publication, I discovered Creator Institute. Professor Eric Koester developed the program at Georgetown University and designed it specifically to coach and support people in their efforts to create a book. The 10-month program, also known as bSchool, is equivalent to taking back-to-back three credit college courses. The bSchool experience begins with a short application, followed by a phone call with Professor Koester.
During the phone call, Professor Koester explained the framework of the program while learning more about me, my book idea and what drove me to create. At some point in our conversation, I explained that I was a disabled author and unsure if I would be able to meet the demands of the program. Professor Koester assured me to, “trust in the process,” which was easier said than done.
Shortly after our conversation, I was accepted into the 2020 bSchool fall cohort. I began participating in weekly workshops coached by Professor Koester, which broke creating a manuscript down into manageable parts. I also engaged in writing workshops, which designated time each week to write compelling stories that would eventually be used in my book. Throughout the journey, I felt supported by a community of aspiring authors all striving toward the same goal. Despite the measurable progress I was making, I was still concerned that my disability would impair my overall ability to produce content in a timely fashion.
To ease my concerns, I began to write on a schedule. Everyday, Monday through Friday, I wrote 300 to 400 words per day. Early on, writing days were a masterclass in patience. I slowly built each sentence word by word, sometimes only writing two or three sentences in an hour. Despite the labored progress, I continued to produce content each day until I reached my writing goal. After writing this way for the first couple months of the program, I doubled my overall word count to over 15,000 words.
At that point, I was paired with a developmental editor to help enrich my stories. The feedback provided by the developmental editor was vital to improving scenes and the overall readability of my writing. With the developmental editor in my corner, I was also able to produce content at a slightly faster pace. I relied on the notes from our weekly meetings to enhance what I’d written while becoming the architect of the remainder of my story. By December of 2020, I was writing in chapters and the early stories I written during workshops began to link together in chronological order.
As the manuscript started to resemble a book, I hit a potential roadblock. We were asked to begin development of a marketing strategy and commence audience building for our book. I had no idea where to begin and the introvert in me wanted to immediately quit. Fortunately, Creator Institute was one step ahead and offered additional workshops geared specifically toward marketing at no extra cost. Just as Professor Koester had promised, I simply needed to trust the process.
After a couple of months working weekly with the developmental editor, I had over 30,000 words written. My work was shared with publisher New Degree Press, a partner of the Creator Institute. After my manuscript was reviewed by an acquiring editor, I was offered an opportunity to publish with New Degree Press. Because I had such a positive experience on the Creator Institute side of things, I decided to give New Degree Press shot.
New Degree Press immediately paired me with a marketing revisions editor. This individual and I developed a tight working relationship where we discussed both my book and the publication process daily. The marketing revisions editor served as my “go to individual” with any questions or concerns I had related to my manuscript. Together, we worked through my entire book as a two-person team, making revisions and adding to the storyline along the way. With the assistance of a strong market revisions editor, I was able to add another 12,000 words to my story, bringing it to over 42,000 words written in approximately 8 months.
Today, I’m on the verge of publishing with New Degree Press at the end of August 2021. Without the framework and support supplied by the Creator Institute, I would have likely abandoned the idea of completing a memoir months ago. Alternatively, I thrived within the constructs of Professor Koester’s program despite my disability. As I celebrate becoming a published author, I have an entire cohort of individuals to share in my success.
After jotting down a few lines, I have to reread what I just wrote. On a good day, I can recall enough of what was previously written to add another line of two. Eventually, I’ll work towards producing a complete paragraph.
With one paragraph written, I can focus on the main concept and continue building the storyline. Again, this process is slow and occurs a line or two at a time. Overall, writing in this manner is painstaking and I consider myself fortunate if I compile a thousand words over the course of a month. Now, one may be asking why I decided to write in such a peculiar manner.
In 2013, I experienced a traumatic brain injury or TBI. The result was permanent short term memory loss and multifactorial cognitive dysfunction. Since the TBI, I have struggled severely with encoding new memories. My brain no longer functions as it once did, and I frequently lose my train of thought. Despite these limitations, I wanted to demonstrate that someone designated as fully disabled can still pursue a seemingly unachievable ambition. So, I continued writing.
By fall of 2020, nearly nine months after beginning, I’d written approximately 7000 words. Although the overall word count was far from staggering, I had the makings of what could become a solid memoir. I shared what I had written with my wife, and she encouraged me to continue pursuing my dream of becoming published. To do that, however, I needed more guidance and help developing my writing.
One day, while researching the various paths to publication, I discovered Creator Institute. Professor Eric Koester developed the program at Georgetown University and designed it specifically to coach and support people in their efforts to create a book. The 10-month program, also known as bSchool, is equivalent to taking back-to-back three credit college courses. The bSchool experience begins with a short application, followed by a phone call with Professor Koester.
During the phone call, Professor Koester explained the framework of the program while learning more about me, my book idea and what drove me to create. At some point in our conversation, I explained that I was a disabled author and unsure if I would be able to meet the demands of the program. Professor Koester assured me to, “trust in the process,” which was easier said than done.
Shortly after our conversation, I was accepted into the 2020 bSchool fall cohort. I began participating in weekly workshops coached by Professor Koester, which broke creating a manuscript down into manageable parts. I also engaged in writing workshops, which designated time each week to write compelling stories that would eventually be used in my book. Throughout the journey, I felt supported by a community of aspiring authors all striving toward the same goal. Despite the measurable progress I was making, I was still concerned that my disability would impair my overall ability to produce content in a timely fashion.
To ease my concerns, I began to write on a schedule. Everyday, Monday through Friday, I wrote 300 to 400 words per day. Early on, writing days were a masterclass in patience. I slowly built each sentence word by word, sometimes only writing two or three sentences in an hour. Despite the labored progress, I continued to produce content each day until I reached my writing goal. After writing this way for the first couple months of the program, I doubled my overall word count to over 15,000 words.
At that point, I was paired with a developmental editor to help enrich my stories. The feedback provided by the developmental editor was vital to improving scenes and the overall readability of my writing. With the developmental editor in my corner, I was also able to produce content at a slightly faster pace. I relied on the notes from our weekly meetings to enhance what I’d written while becoming the architect of the remainder of my story. By December of 2020, I was writing in chapters and the early stories I written during workshops began to link together in chronological order.
As the manuscript started to resemble a book, I hit a potential roadblock. We were asked to begin development of a marketing strategy and commence audience building for our book. I had no idea where to begin and the introvert in me wanted to immediately quit. Fortunately, Creator Institute was one step ahead and offered additional workshops geared specifically toward marketing at no extra cost. Just as Professor Koester had promised, I simply needed to trust the process.
After a couple of months working weekly with the developmental editor, I had over 30,000 words written. My work was shared with publisher New Degree Press, a partner of the Creator Institute. After my manuscript was reviewed by an acquiring editor, I was offered an opportunity to publish with New Degree Press. Because I had such a positive experience on the Creator Institute side of things, I decided to give New Degree Press shot.
New Degree Press immediately paired me with a marketing revisions editor. This individual and I developed a tight working relationship where we discussed both my book and the publication process daily. The marketing revisions editor served as my “go to individual” with any questions or concerns I had related to my manuscript. Together, we worked through my entire book as a two-person team, making revisions and adding to the storyline along the way. With the assistance of a strong market revisions editor, I was able to add another 12,000 words to my story, bringing it to over 42,000 words written in approximately 8 months.
Today, I’m on the verge of publishing with New Degree Press at the end of August 2021. Without the framework and support supplied by the Creator Institute, I would have likely abandoned the idea of completing a memoir months ago. Alternatively, I thrived within the constructs of Professor Koester’s program despite my disability. As I celebrate becoming a published author, I have an entire cohort of individuals to share in my success.
