How I Published My First Book

How a database nerd built a platform, wrote a book, and got published

I have published several books now. I’ve authored two technical books, co-authored another, edited a cookbook and wrote a short fantasy novelette with my 9-year-old son. I have been traditionally published and self-published.

I wrote when I was young but stopped when I was about twenty. I don’t know why. In my late 30s, I decided to come back to the world of writing and finally get published. This was in 2003.

This is my path to that first published work.

I started writing when I was very young. I don’t remember the first story I wrote but when I was 12, I started my own magazine. I hand wrote poems and short stories and even drew pictures.

My mom made copies at work and I handed them out to people. I used tape to bind the master copy. I stapled the copies.

While I knew way back then that I wanted to be a writer, as I got older, I forgot that. I did a lot of different jobs and forgot about writing. I got so busy with life and adulthood I didn’t have time for writing.

I finally got settled, felt successful and remembered the writing I was missing.

I went 20 years without writing anything that I didn’t have to. But, once it came back, I decided I was going to get published. I was successful in my technical career (I do databases and programming). I figured it would be a no brainer to do a tech book.

Writing a tech book is not the same as writing fiction. I write fiction too but at the time, I wanted to publish a book that my peers would read. That was important to me. I’m a self-taught techie and I got great benefits from both books and mentors so this was a way to give back.

I made the decision to do it, whatever it took. The fact is, I had no idea what I would need to do beyond writing it. My first step was making the decision to do it and that led to the second step, research writing a tech book.

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