- Caleb Teal
Avala Spirits of the Mindscapes - Publishing Almost Done
So, the Legacy of the Firstborne Empire game is currently on hold right now, so there will be no Development diary for it for a while. However today I would like to share some great news, my first book: Avala Spirits of the Mindscapes – Book 1: Hope is in the final part of the publishing que. Very soon the book will be out in the world.
As for celebration I’d like to reveal a slight teaser of what I plan on doing after Book 1 is released. My first goal is to get enough money to publish book 2 through Friesen Press. Then once that is out, I plan on publishing the first collection of Short stories for the series, in Avala Shorts 1. After that, I plan of doing Book 3, then Shorts 2, then Book 4
If at any time throughout the process of publishing these books I have enough money to publish more than one at once, I will. Since I can technically write one of these books in a week, I have a huge backlog of books that are going to need to be published. You can see my full plan of releasing books here.
Now also in celebration I’m going to share about my journey and how I came to write this book. I’ve been wanting to be an author since I was very little. My first attempt at a story was in Grade 3, and (in my opinion) was crap. However ever since I have been trying to write stories that never saw the light of day due to never being finished, or copywrite concerns.
When I was in grade 8, I had the idea for my masterpiece. This masterpiece is the story that I have been working on for a very long time. However due to advice I received that authors should not publish their masterpiece first, I realized I needed to write something else. That sent me spiraling into depression, and eventually led me to decide to be something other than an author.
However in late December of 2017, when I was in my early twenties, I was feeling rather good about myself, and decided to do a test. The test was to write a book without much forward planning and see how good it was. I sat down at my computer and started typing away. By the middle of January 2018, I had a well written manuscript for this book. It was amazing, everyone I showed it to thought so as well, even if it needed serious editing work due to spelling and grammar errors. Thus, I decided I was going to publish it under the name, Avala: Spirits of the Mindscapes. I also decided it would be part of a long ongoing series, thus I decided to also call it, Book 1: Hope.
At first I tried looking into self publishing due to fears of deadlines, and publishers messing with my work. I’ve heard so many horror stories of authors who couldn’t keep up with a publisher’s demands, and got left behind in the dirt. That’s what led me to find FreisenPress.
Immediately I was shocked by their helpfulness and their dedication to make me succeed. I decided to work with them in order to make my book shine. However it would cost me a few thousands dollars just to do that. I decided to do a Kickstarter to build up the money. But… it flopped.
During the process of setting up the Kickstarter and attempting to get the money. I had bee working on writing book 2 for my series. However I was making the mistake of planning the whole thing before hand, and it just would not work. If felt forced, and tacky. It felt like I was grating my fingers against stone. With the failure of the Kickstarter I gave up hope both to write book 2, and to publish book 1.
For the entire rest of the first half of the year, I drew into seclusion, hiding from myself and the world. The Twitter community I had become a part of slowly stopped following me in my absence, leaving me with very few followers. My depression strengthened my anxiety and I found myself leaving the rest of the world behind, hiding at home both day and night. Then came August.
In August 2018 I received my income tax return. This money was nearly enough to publish book 1, I would only have to save up enough for the rest. That restored my hope. September of 2018 I tried my hand at book 2 again. This time, not planning ahead too far, and letting it flow naturally. It worked, in a single month I had created a new book in the series, and it was brilliant.
Immediately I took the lessons from that and applied them to Book 3, Shorts 1, and Book 4. Each one was written faster, leading me to finish 3 books worth in 2 months. This was it. I was doing it. But I still could not publish book one until mid 2019 since I didn’t have enough money yet.
I decided to take a break from writing and try my hand at another passion, game design and programming. I began working on my project of Legacy of the Firstborne Empire. This game had great potential and could possibly allow me to fulfill both my dreams of being an Author and an indie video game producer.
Then came the time to publish my book. It was a glorious day when I signed the agreement (I clicked ‘I Agree’) and was able to finally start the publishing process. In celebration I began writing again, yet this time I decided to write the one thing that I had still been putting off: my masterpiece. I sat down and began working on it, writing the depth and darkness of this place that is been my life for over a decade. It is what I now publicly call the Project: Legends series. Though that is not its actual title, I’m saving the actual title for when I begin the Publishing Process.
However, I did not finish that book, since it is nearly twelve times the size of my Avala books, and at my rate of writing would have taken me an entire year working non stop to write (and I have poor attention span). Instead I found myself once again drawn to the Avala series. I tried my hand at it again, and managed to write an entire book in 1 week. It was quite an achievement, though with no actual day job to speak of it is possible.
I kept writing book after book, taking no weekends off. I once again got into the world of Twitter and began promoting my book. Soon however I wore myself out, and that brings us to today. Yesterday I found out my book is in the final stages of publishing and will soon be out in the world. It has been a long journey starting since I was very little. But now… now I will get out into the world and achieve my dream of being a published Author. I am proof that people can achieve their dreams and goals even with all the challenges life throws at us. And I will keep writing books until the end of my days.
Thank you for reading this today. My book: Avala Spirits of the Mindscapes – Book 1: Hope will be available at the FriesenPress Book Store, on Amazon, Barnes & Noble. It will also be available in eBook format at the FriesenPress Book Store, Amazon Kindle, Nook Bookstore, iTunes Bookstore, Google Books, and Kobo Bookstore. It will be available within 3 months time, and I’ll get the links to buy the books on my site then.