So, I wanted to write a book...hmmm!

So, I love to read...I mean really love to read and then one day it hit me: I could do this, I could write one of these books that I really love to read and then the characters that I love so much would always be with me. Okay, I thought, no problem, I will just sit down and let all of the ideas that swim around in my head flow onto this paper. HA HA! Not as easy as I thought. Evently, however, the thoughts did come, the words evolved and before I knew it, I had written a 60,000 word novel about people with glowing eyes and magical powers with a nice romantic twist in the midst. I AM GOING TO BE RICH! I remember thinking. HA HA, joke is on me! What I didn't know is that once you have written your novel, you can't just walk up to the publisher (waiting with open arms) and hand them your manuscript (that they immediately love)  and BAAM out pops your book (that brings in the Cha-Ching!). No, it's rather sad actually. I learned that I had to write a QUERY letter, a synopsis and send it off in a nice little package to many different Literary agents, who in return showered me with automated, cut-and-paste rejection letters. I was no longer Heather Aplin, NO, I became Dear Author. Deciding not to give up on my dream, I joined a wonderful site called Critique Circle. I critiqued other peoples stories and in return was allowed to post pieces of my book for others to critique for me. After getting many helpful tips, I went back to the drawing board: Editing one-0-one LOL! Yeah, I had a lot of work to do. So, I applied myself everyday after work and I went through my entire manuscript, changing and adjusting. I asked a close friend to proof-read for me and after getting a thumbs up, decided to try again. The second go around, I got nothing but positive reviews and only minor mistakes found so I decided to re-send to Literary agents. How about this? We are sorry that we cannot invite you to submit your work or offer to represent you. Moreover, we apologize that we cannot respond in a more personal manner. I saved all of my rejection letters and 50% of them were identical.
Me, being the impatient person that I am, (so funny cause I'm really not) decided that I would try self publishing. THEY MAKE IT LOOK SO EASY! Yeah right, (if you want to half-tail do something). I also paint in my past time, so, I wanted to create my own book cover, which is exactly what I did. It took me a week to figure out what cover creator to use and how to get it to meet KDP's guidelines and then, when I uploaded my book, I realized, after some friends had purchased it, that my indented paragraphs did not tranfer and my formatting was so AWEFUL!! Another week passes...more work after work...and I finally (with more help from friends at Critique Circle) fixed my messed up formatting. So, after all of this hard work, I sit back and allow my book time to reach people. LOL LOL LOL LOL HA HA! All I can do now is sit back and laugh. In a weeks time, I have only sold a handful of books. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? Well, what I have discovered now (through lots and lots of research) is that I have to advertise my book because noone knows it is on Amazon Kindle along with the hundreds of thousands of other books. All I can say now is...So, I wanted to write a book...hmmm!