How I Achieved My Dream of Being a Published Author

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Pronoun, a NaNoWriMo 2015 sponsor, is offering all participants free, early access to their publishing platform, and today, author Jeremy W. Kerr shares his experience with Pronoun:

In 2011, I attempted NaNoWriMo for the first time and won. I was as surprised as anyone because up until then, my longest story had been only 8,000 words. Over the next few months, I went on to finish my YA science fiction novel. That was followed by editing and more editing. After three years, multiple drafts, and some financial investment for a professional cover, I was finally ready to self-publish! So I did what many in my place might have done:

I waited another year and did nothing.

The questions I had about self-publishing overwhelmed me. I needed to convert my document to .mobi for Amazon KDP and .epub for everything else, a process I had yet to do correctly. Then there was the matter of front matter. And ISBNs. Did I need them? Well, I certainly couldn’t afford them. Once I published, how would I know if I was pricing my book competitively? A thousand questions built a wall between me and a published novel because I am a perfectionist. I would rather not even try to publish than risk screwing it up. Call me crazy. Or scared.

Earlier this year, though, I met  Christina, a NaNoWriMo author who works at Pronoun. When she explained what the company did, I was floored. She said, “We convert your Word document to both ebook file types, and we upload them to ebook sellers for you.” She also told me Pronoun provides authors with ISBNs. And they offer feedback on competitive pricing, based on a book’s genre. 

I remember thinking to myself, “This is everything I’ve been waiting for. I hope I can afford it.”

Then she said the most beautiful words I’d ever heard. “Pronoun provides all of this for free.”

After finding out more information,  I finally uploaded my novel to Pronoun, downloaded the .mobi file, and put it on my Kindle. I hadn’t actually published the book yet, but there it was: my name alongside my favorite authors. My eyes teared up. For the first time, I realized that my dream of being a published author—a dream I’d had since second grade—was achievable. I didn’t have to be crazy or scared anymore.

In September of this year, I published my first novel. If I hadn’t found Pronoun as an option, I seriously doubt I would have done so. Now, instead of still telling people I have a book that is “almost ready to publish,” I can tell them I’m using NaNoWriMo to work on the sequel to my published novel.

Jeremy W. Kerr is a marionette puppeteer in Brooklyn, NY. He lives with his wife, Julie, and their dog, Takouhi (“queen” in Armenian). His YA science fiction novel, Runaways , is now available for sale.