When I finish writing all 18 books of my mythology, there will be a 19th. This book will be titled “Creating and Protecting Allivar.” It will be a quest to chronologically record all the knowledge I attained to become not only an author, but also a publisher, and how to protect your intellectual property rights. Since I am a CPA and financial advisor I will also provide information on accounting, tax and other financial issues related to writing and publishing so that authors and all associated with the world of supporting the publishing effort can learn.
One thing many people do not know about me is that I was, at one time, a sought out technology consultant here in the US. This was prior to 9/11, after which all technology spending ceased. I was in the midst of drafting the premise to my trilogy and was spun around to spend more time determining what would pay the bills with the loss of the technology revenues. From that day I focused on working in many areas to strengthen and diversify the number of revenue streams I could produce. After research of the revenues derived from novels in 2000, I began the quest of writing a story that had the potential for a large array of revenue rights.
Later in 2009, the emergence of e-books caught my attention and in 2010 I made my decision to self-publish. Did I make mistakes? You bet; it’s the part of the learning process. In 2011, I made the investment of money and time to learn Adobe’s Creative Master Suite to control my content in the digital realm. Today, I am still learning as quickly as I can. I offer a resource center to numerous clients and in 2012 that resource center will begin to build content on this journey of writing and publishing, including the technologies that support it. Stay tuned to an announcement so that you can get a limited time free subscription to view the content. But enough about technology, there is so much more to writing than this alone.
I knew and have always known my grammar was horrible. I’m an accountant, I deal in numbers and laws and regulations. This is why an editing team is so very important. The more eyes viewing a manuscript the easier it is to provide a clean story. Know your weaknesses and swallow your pride.
Finally, there are those that insist self publishing is a farce of vanity. As a business man I believe in the potential of reward for risk taking. Many will suggest this compromises art. Funny, I don’t see publishers doing what they do at a discount for the sake of art. In the end, the consumer should always be the one who decides the art of anyone willing to present their story. You now have choices. Play by the rules established by others or to create rules of your own, leverage all to your benefit. I created the world of Allivar and I alone will protect it. One of my favorite lines of wisdom comes from the movie The Shawshank Redemption: “Get busy living or get busy dying!”
I choose to live, to create, to tell a story, to control my destiny until the last breath.
