A Blind Man’s Journey to Publishing a Print Book

Today The Blind Blogger shares how he overcame the struggles he had with making his book available in print to the world.

Please welcome Maxwell Ivey to center stage as he shares his story of how he became an independently published author in 2015.

It’s quite inspirational, and leads me to wonder why more people aren’t becoming authors nowadays!

The Writing Journey Ends – or Begins?

Imagine this scenario:

You have written your first book. You have fought through writer’s block, endured many sleepless nights, overlooked the criticism of friends and family, and overcome questions about whether or not you are good enough or have a story worth telling. Now you are asking yourself, “What do I do next?”

I was at that place a few months ago. I had responded to a challenge from a friend to create an online product, and started a book, Leading You Out of the Darkness Into the Light: A Blind Man’s Inspirational Guide to Success.

We’ve all heard how selling our own e-books, and audio or video courses on our websites can be great for our businesses, right? So, in addition to this challenge providing a chance to share my story, I saw it as an opportunity to bring in some much-needed income. Oh, and maybe become famous! (“wink wink”)

After I finished the e-book, the question remained: What do I do next? I knew I had to edit it, but I wanted to publish it, too. Read More

Deadly Switch, A Suspense Novel by Karen Dodd (#BookReview)

Deadly Switch book cover

I met suspense novelist Karen Dodd via Indies Unlimited (IU).

For those of you not “in the know,” IU is a helpful website for authors and aspiring self-publishers. They have posts on everything over there!

I’ve connected with a bunch of people during their Twitter-fests, Google+-fests, and other LIKE-fests, and I read almost every useful post they publish.

Yep, I’m a big supporter of this site, and I have to give thanks to indie author Melissa Bowersock for suggesting I follow that blog. You might remember Melissa as the woman whom I interviewed for  a bunch of self-publishing info in early 2013.  (Thanks again, Melissa!)

Okay, I’m getting sidetracked.

This post isn’t about Melissa Bowersock, even though she has self-published three more books since our interview! (Yep. Three.)

This post is about Karen Dodd. It’s also about her suspense novel, Deadly Switch, and my book review of said novel.

Karen Dodd

I connected with Karen Dodd on both Facebook and on IU. When I realized that she is a suspense novelist who wrote a mystery, I got giddy, as I usually do when I come across a mystery. 😉

Naturally, I extended my standard offer to her: a copy of her book in exchange for a Goodreads review and blog post. As most indies are wont to do, she agreed. (Yes, wont is a word.)

Karen Dodd’s novel, Deadly Switch, was a good read. Because I received a digital version (my preference), I read it on my Kobo. It was the second book I read on this device, too. (I usually read print books, but this is changing as I adapt to the digital age, which is a whole different discussion – one already had by this freelancer!)

Because I enjoyed Karen’s story, it proves to me that my reading experiences have nothing to do with how I read a book, the quality of the writing, or my overall experience. (Some people were not thrilled with my less-than-stellar review of the first book that I read on my Kobo.)

In fact, I gave Deadly Switch the following review on Goodreads: Read More