I never expected that a 15-year-old scribbling in a spiral notebook would someday turn into a 33-year-old preparing to publish her first book, but here I am. Since then I’ve written twelve books, each one teaching me something new, each one pushing me a little closer to the writer I wanted to become. I earned my degree in creative writing, spent a summer at the Denver Publishing Institute, and thought I understood the world of books… but nothing prepared me for the wild and overwhelming process of actually putting one of my own into the world!
This February, I’m publishing The Gemstone Collector. It’s the first book I’ve ever released, but the tenth book I’ve written. In so many ways it feels like the culmination of every morning writing session and every stubborn revision I’ve endured on this marathon of a writing journey. I’ve torn this book apart and rebuilt it more times than I can count, and with every draft I learned something about craft, storytelling, and honestly, about myself.
And then there’s everything beyond the writing. There is marketing, formatting, purchasing ISBNs, launch planning, newsletters (which I haven’t figured out yet), metadata—an avalanche of details I never knew about and I’m still learning. I’ve learned so much about what it actually takes to publish a book, and even though the process is chaotic, it’s also thrilling. This feels real in a way it never has before.
The wildest part? The book has a cover. A real, beautiful, finished cover that I somehow haven’t even shared on the blog yet… mostly because this poor blog is the first thing to be abandoned whenever life gets busy. But I’m here now, and I’m ready to show up for this book in a way I never have before.
If you want to follow along as I navigate the adventure of publishing my first book, stick around! I’m mostly active on Instagram @Alexwithherlibrary and on Threads.
