Author Allen M Werner

9 years ago today, I took a plunge of faith into the mysterious world of self-publishing.
I remember being extremely nervous and excited about putting my words, my writing, my story out there for the whole world to see.
In your mind, you imagine everyone is going to see it. Everyone is going to read it. Everyone is going to judge and be critical of every word and paragraph. They are going to pick apart all the little details you missed and crucify you for misspellings, punctuation faux pas and syntax sins.
And then you discover that getting the world to pay attention is extremely difficult. And marketing a book is excruciatingly painful and burdensome on the pocketbook.
And it’s even more deflating when you discover that many people in this world simply don’t read books.
Word of mouth has been a saving grace.
I have had some very valuable fans of the series who have praised the books and motivated others to pick them up and read them.
And because of this, my books have been bought on every continent but Antartica.
Have I made a lot of money doing this?
Oh no. I probably lost money if you look at the hours and resources I have used to write my books over the past 9 years. My sales have been mainly through Amazon (where they take a healthy chunk), and in person (where I make a better profit).
As things stand right now, I’m a starving artist and can’t live off these royalties, meager as they are. I still have to work a full time job to take care of my family.
But that doesn’t take away from this accomplishment.
I always wanted to write. I had a thousand stories in my head growing up, but I was not a good student of the English language. But the funny thing I learned along the way is, many authors are not very good at writing. I have been surprised how many authors break tradition and etiquette, even those signed and promoted by big publishing houses. And although they have dozens of eyes on their projects editing their work, misspellings and syntax sins get through. It’s not as perfect a business as many would like others to believe. And there are dozens of entrepreneurs out there waiting to take advantage of new writers, to help them write, edit and publish their works, and supposedly market them, all for a fee. Most of these agencies are swindling people and they are hurting writers by crushing their will to keep writing.
By self-publishing, my work may be more raw than others, and the artwork may be a little less professional, but I always believed the story is what matters. Even if everything is not perfect, a great story shines through the imperfections.
There are a lot of glossy books with tons of polish that are devoid of artistic merit. Publishing houses out to make a fortune snatch onto what is popular, or who is popular, and try to cash in. Others use the self-publishing route to flood the market with garbage that sounds like bad A.I. writing. And it wouldn’t surprise me if many authors are turning to A.I. to tell stories, stories that mean nothing to them. They just want to make enough money writing to live comfortably, so they write everything and anything to make a dime.
Perhaps the way I was raised prevents me from doing this. I don’t want to write something that is meaningless to me, and I don’t want some A.I. bot forming sentences for me or hashing out ideas.
I want to take the time to research what I am writing about. I want to take what I have learned and inject it into my characters that I create.
And unlike some authors, I am not writing to the audience. I am writing for me.
I am writing what I want to read.
“If there is a book you want to read, and it is not yet written, then you must write it yourself.” – Toni Morrison
I cannot crank out book after book like some authors. It takes a lot of time I don’t have to sit down, research, write, edit, tear up, cry, laugh, pound my feet, beat my chest, and eventually publish my books.
When you read my books, know one thing for certain. I wrote it. Every word. It’s all mine. I’ll take the credit and I’ll take the blame. I do the best I can. And I don’t put it out there for the world until it is something I want to sit down and enjoy myself.
So thank you to everyone who has purchased one of my books over the past 9 years, even those people who have purchased it out of pity knowing you’d never read it. I thank you all. It’s been a wonderful ride.
And hopefully, the new book I have been working on will be released sometime in 2025.
More on that later!
Until next time – Stay inspired and keep reading!