Becoming An Author

I recently began sharing my testimony with people and have since decided to go ahead and publish a book. I have been writing the book for about 3 years now and could not get the events or all the details together until I condensed them and made them a testimony. I haven't had a writing class since 2000 and I know that my writing skills are not near where they need to be, but I feel God taking me in that direction is I am moving forward in spite of the oppositions!

Through writing my story and a little souls searching I began to feel a pull for becoming a Motivational Speaker. Through out the years I was called to speak at school and to several groups of people while I was in the WRAP program. (Women's Rape and Resource Program)This is one of the few things in my life that I loved to do and felt accomplished and proud to do them. My story is kind of unique and I feel like most people don't hear my point of view on it so I believe that I will do pretty good at getting my message out.. One thing is for sure, I like to talk and I like to talk about me so speaking and having a book seem like a good combination for a career.

I also did some research on Motivational Speaking on the Internet and came across an AMAZING man who is an accomplished Author and Speaker himself. His name is Rene Godefroy. In his free online course speaking For A Living he tells his story and trains people on how to get started getting paid to speak. One of his "Secrets To Success" is to write a book. Now for me this was conformation that this is the direction God is leading me in. Mr. Godefroy also talks a lot about God and being lead and how anyone with a story can become a speaker.

As I began to look at who and where I could get a book published the prices became crazy real to me. This is not a cheap process! I have a cousin who has had 2 books published and she got me in contact with a family member who is a Publisher.Now I'm not sure how she did it or whom she went through but her book is on Amazon and Barnes and Nobel. She also has ebooks that are available on Kindle.Her name is Therza Cox and she writes Poetry Her book.Life Is A Story is a great read and her writing skills make mine look worse than a kindergartner's.  The other thing I was overwhelmed by was the publishing companies online who are trying to scam people! They are requiring BIG BUCKS and claiming to insure Top Selling Books to those willing to pay. Last year I was a victim of an Internet Scam which cost me $8000 that I didn't have to begin with, that I now owe to the bank. After this incident I have become vary weary of most things online, so now before I give up any money I do a search query of any company and afterwards type in the words "scam" and "reviews". Upon doing this small action most of the sites I had decided to go with were eliminated. I did find one site that could proofread and edit my manuscript and also allow a plan to market it. The site also allows you to design your book cover and if you want a more simple service(like having an individual copy of your book) they provide that as well. At Createspace.com they offer a variety of options to create your book the way you want, at a reasonable cost. I did the research and found very good reviews on their services. Even though I will ultimately have to save up (or wait for income taxes) to publish my book. I am looking forward to using their services and getting my story out for the world to see!

And that's LaJaunda's Word!