I told him exactly what I wanted to say about the day. He smiled, “Greer, that was poetry. You just thought of a poem.” He had a glow about him as he wrote it down and walked me to my house. Pappy proudly showed my parents the poem I created. That one instance fabricated a lifelong dream of being an author.

From poetry to songs and short stories, I have written all of my life. This isn’t something I share about myself very often. However, it is something I have always cherished.

This story has lived in my brain since I was 14 years old. After years of trying to sit down and write it, I failed. The day I turned 19, I promised my sister that I would have my book written by the time I turned 30. In the midst of motherhood, running a small business, and caring for family, I carried through with my promise. By the skin of my teeth, I had it done on my birthday!

This book was more than a dream come true, but the start of a young girl lost in life being found again. I spent so much time ashamed that I loved poetry and writing. I was embarrassed that I felt as deeply as I do. I let other talents overshadow one that was really an actual passion.

In fifth grade, our teachers tasked us with “publishing” a book. They had us write and illustrate our stories, then taught us to make a backing and hardcover. Then two stories (one from each class) were chosen and got to be “published” at the local library for a year. I was sick the first two days of that week and called my best friend to see what we did at school those days. She told me about this ‘super lame’ project we were doing about books and all of the ins and outs. She acted as if it was so boring; meanwhile, I was trying so hard to hide my excitement for the project. I remember begging my mother to go back to school that Wednesday, even though I still felt pretty sick. She reluctantly agreed. When I got to school that day, the teachers pulled me aside and allowed me to have extra time to work on it since I missed the days prior. I finished that Friday, the same as my classmates. I still remember the excitement that filled me when I discovered my book was one of the two books chosen for “publishing.” That moment really solidified the idea of becoming a celebrated author one day.

In that moment of excitement, I recall trying to internalize it, as my classmates had already begun making fun of me and the other girl who won. Nothing too bad, but enough to tell my subconscious that expressing myself in written form was ‘less than cool.’ So, I spent the next fifteen years filling notebooks, Word documents, really anything I could, all in secrecy. I remember my older sister finding my notebooks my freshman year of high school. I cringed as she opened to a page and read. I struggle to recall what it was about. A boy? My parents’ divorce? Could have even been about nature. Who knows! But what I do recall easily is watching her face fill with pride when she told.

That look and her kind words celebrating my writing fueled me to continue. Still in secrecy, I kept writing, and I never stopped. Life came; I finished school, got the big girl job. I met a man, fell in love, and had a baby. I became a wife and had another baby. As the years rolled by, I never forgot my promise to finish my book. Around my 29th birthday, I knew I had to kick it into gear. I wrote day and night, filling every free second with writing. I did it. I finished writing my book on my 30th birthday. I was six months pregnant with our third child. I was huge, hungry, and tired, but the sacrifice of sleep was worth it.

I began to Google how to self-publish. I read every Reddit and subreddit there was. I learned the importance of hiring an experienced editor, so I started there. I went through my book with a fine-tooth comb. I looked on Fiverr for editors. I got ripped off by my first editor for hire. The second hire wasn’t completely truthful about their first language and restructured my entire book incorrectly. So, after those two and wasting hundreds of dollars, I was upset. I allowed myself to wallow for eight months (embarrassing, I know) before I climbed out of my pity party and found a new editor. Reluctant to look on Fiverr again, I looked at many different publishing warehouses that offer self-publishing options. After a few weeks of research, I found that there were multiple accounts of these companies scamming indie authors. So, I chose to look on Fiverr once again. That’s when I found my editor. She was fantastic! She took my 71,000-word manuscript three days before Christmas and returned my novel four days after Christmas. A week turnaround during the holidays. I was so appreciative. She wasn’t cheap, but she was worth the money. She did a phenomenal job in polishing my work. I will certainly be using her for my next book.

With the help of a team of guys (also hired from Fiverr), I was published January 7th of this year! They formatted my book and helped upload it to KDP and Amazon. It has been such an adventure, and I am so thankful for this experience. But I think like most indie authors, I hope to eventually join a publisher.

Why join a publisher, you might ask? Great question! Marketing. The greatest enemy of my author story. Marketing is HARD but also, it’s everything. You could have the best product in the world, but without proper marketing, no one will ever know. Luckily, indie authors before me offer free YouTube videos, TikToks, Reddits, and more on how they were successful at marketing their indie novels. But almost all of them require money. Lots of money. So, for a lot of us indie authors, that portion gets put on the back burner. Other than our faithful readers screaming from the rooftops about our novels, it’s pretty darn expensive to get continuous reach. “But Greer, with social media nowadays, you should be able to reach the market quickly.” Yeah, you would certainly think so; I know I did. I 1,000% underestimated how hard the marketing can be. I don’t have a social media following by any means. I have no training in marketing, but for some reason, my delusional self thought it would be easy! HAHA! I laugh at myself now as I awkwardly make my TikToks and share them to my author page on Facebook. No fun, but I will do what it takes to get my novel out there.

You know, as I write these blog posts, I keep asking myself, “What point am I trying to get across? Am I just rambling? I need to get it together.” But then I remember I warned you guys in my first post this would be the filtered ramblings of Greer Crain. So, here we are! If you keep coming back, you must be a glutton for punishment!

Until next lime, ladies & gents~