Orinthia's Bookshelf

HELLO EVERYBODY!!

So, like what I've said in my last book review, I will now hosting a guest post! The guest will be Ali Novak, author of My Life With the Walter Boys! Sourcebooks was offering me before and I'm really excited because I really like the book. And I got more interested when I found out that Ali Novak actually published her story on Wattpad first before she got officially offered her book deal! So, here Ali will share what was her journey like going from writing online to getting her book out in print.

The publishing journey for my book My Life with the Walter Boys can be described in one word—long. Seven years long! I wrote the first version of the story when I was only fifteen. Piles of crammed notebooks and God only knows how many drafts later, the book is finally being published.

It’s been a long time, but I can still remember the opening line of the original draft. It went like this: “Hey! My name is Jackie Howard and I’m a New York City girl.” Wow, just reading that makes me cringe. Of course, my fifteen-year-old self thought the story was better than sliced bread.

Since uploading the story to Wattpad in 2010, My Life with the Walter Boys has been read more than 29,000,000 times! Sometimes I just look at that number and I can’t even believe it, but I didn’t get my break until 2013 when Wattpad formed a partnership with the publishing company Sourcebooks.

I will never forget the moment I was officially offered my book deal. It happened when I was at work, and after reading the email I started bawling. Like snot dripping down my face and everything. All my coworkers thought something terrible had happened, when really I was on cloud nine.

Besides being a dream come true, publishing was a huge change for me. The transition from writing online to writing under a contract was challenging, mainly because of the deadlines. In the past, I always updated my stories whenever I had free time, which wasn’t often. Having a consistent writing schedule was a foreign concept to me, and suddenly I had to rewrite an entire novel in less than three months! Let’s just say I spent many long nights at my desk chugging coffee and cranking out new chapters.

There were plenty of perks too! The best part of my transition was the wonderful staff at Sourcebooks, mainly my editor Aubrey. I’ll be the first to admit I’m horrible at editing, so to have a pair of professional eyes look over the book really helped whip it into shape.

Now that My Life with the Walter Boys is being published, it’s weird to think that I’ll never edit the story again—especially considering I’ve been fiddling with it for seven years. But I can look back on my journey and know that writing this book made me the writer I am today. If there are any amateur writers reading this and wondering what they can do to accomplish their dreams, I suggest taking a chance and posting online. You never know what might happen!

SO, JUST LIKE ALI HAD SAID, 

TAKE YOUR CHANCE AND POSTING ONLINE, FELLOW  AMATEUR WRITERS! 

YOU WON'T KNOW WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN TO YOU!

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