Immediately when I hear these words, I often think of a baby’s first step. This is always such a milestone event for parents, and is a true example of a small step being a big one, an important one. A small event that will be forever imprinted on your heart.
An author’s progress can be likened to that of a baby. When you first decide to put pen to paper, whether literally or figuratively, you are like a crawling baby, looking up at that big world and wondering if you can rise up and make your way, without falling over!
Then, one day your first novel is finished. A very big step. It may have taken months, or even years to get to the point of.... The End.
However, it is not the end. Writing the book is the easy part, it’s the look I am on my feet, walking upright, achieving things, writing a book! It is in fact a very small step compared to what comes next.
Editing. There are two aspects of editing, one which is basically checking the grammar and spelling, but the other might knock you of your feet, make you stumble and fall, and could hurt. This editor looks at the content, the book you have written, and it could feel like they are tearing at your heart, let’s face it, this is your baby that you gave birth to, out of your own imagination, and someone dares to say, they could write it in a better way? Of course, a professional editor thinks of it as knocking a crude work into a polished, finished and, most importantly, a saleable item. You also may,1) think you don’t need or 2) cannot afford an editor.
If all you want to do is write your book and see it in print, the easiest way is to self-publish on Amazon Kindle. They have very comprehensive tools to enable you to publish, and it is free, but the returns are small, and you still face what every other author faces, getting your book known, getting it out there! This is the next big step, marketing!
These days everything is about social media and to advertise the existence of your book you have to keep posting on all the sites, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You may also write a blog, as I am doing here today, to reach out to your audience and let them know your thoughts.
I had a hip replacement operation four weeks ago, and that is certainly all about little steps being big ones. I had the operation on a Tuesday and on the Thursday, I was helped out of bed, into a chair. Tiny little steps to turn around and sit down, but the first big step in my recovery. On the Friday I was allowed home and since then I have been improving daily, now walking with only one stick, washing up and beginning to get back to normal.
However, after seeing the surgeon for my first revision last week, I have been doing the exercises he gave me and now, my newly confident large strides have turned into small steps! What? Am I going in reverse? No, everything is absolutely perfect it’s just that the exercises are working those muscles that have been unused for weeks and oh my! Do they ache! But it is all for the good, another small step that will lead to the large step of my full recovery!
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