Publishing My First Paperback

Around two years ago, I quit my English teaching job in South Korea, vowed never to go back, and started hitchhiking across Europe. How I got there was a convoluted path, but ultimately, I was searching for freedom, an escape from the daily routine of going to a job that slowly ground down my soul.

Yet I was very scared of doing such a thing. I was always afraid as a child and this fear of the world dictated many of my decisions in life. It seemed only appropriate that I call my blog Great Big Scary World and that I wrote my first ever blog post about fear defining us as individuals. I only really started writing things online for my family to read – mostly my mother, but then a few other people started reading (the internet is curious like that). Over a year later, I redesigned the site and started writing articles for people other than my immediately family – these explorations ultimately led to new journey and now I have published a paperback book (it is also available as a digital download).

Screen Shot 2014-09-07 at 23.13.52Appropriately, the book is titled, The Boy Who Was Afraid of the World, and it is a true story about my hitchhiking trip around Europe in which I had to deal with my personal fears and learn to trust strangers. I released it digitally a few months ago and several people have been kind enough to read it and some even left nice reviews on Amazon, persuading me to make it a physical product. Someone once described blog writing as racing down a hill on a bicycle with no breaks – it is true – I post ideas and stories on a whim, reading once for grammar, then hitting the share button. This story however, this book, is different. I thought long and hard about what I was writing and made changes time and time again. But now it is done and I will change it no more – eventually you have to stop and say, ‘hey, I had a go, I tried, this is what I did this time around.’

So that’s it, I have a real book that I have written, a book that you can hold in your hands. That is a scary thought.

The Boy Who Was Afraid of the World on Good ReadsEven when I sat atop Trolltunga over a deathfall (see the image at the end of the post), holding a copy of my own book in my hands, the book was the most intimidating thing that I could think of. Now comes the hard part – sharing it around. If you would be kind enough to share around the book, I would be ever so grateful. Every share, purchase, and review, makes a huge difference to the visibility of the book on Amazon – please, please leave a review on Amazon and Good Reads if you have read it and enjoyed it.

Here are a few of the links to check it out for yourself, whether just to read about it or to purchase it. If you are going to share it around (which would make me very happy), please share one of the following links (or find the Amazon link local to your country):

The Boy Who Was Afraid of the World on Amazon UK
The Boy Who Was Afraid of the World on Amazon US

If you want advice on how to self-publish your own book as both a digital download and a paperback, please read this.

Holding The Boy Who Was Afraid of the World paperback while dangling feet over the edge of Trolltunga, Norway

By | 2014-12-29T18:39:06+00:00 September 7th, 2014|Thoughts and Inspiration|0 Comments

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