Publishing and the Author’s Journey
For years, the publishing world was a complete mystery to me. But as I wrote my first two books, I sometimes blogged about the experience and things that surprised me along the way.
Scroll down for some of my favorite posts about becoming an author. If you’d like to learn more:
- My first book, Torn, was written to Christian audiences about how to stop “the gay debate” from tearing apart families and churches. It was based on my own years of experience in that field and ended up one of the most widely read books on the subject, much to my surprise. You can download a free study guide here.
- My second book, Talking Across the Divide, was written for a general (secular) audience, applying the dialogue principles I learned in my LGBTQ/faith work to a wide variety of topics, such as politics and interpersonal disputes. It also has a free study guide.
- Some of my book-related blog posts were routine updates on the status of my books, so below I’ve only included some of the more interesting posts. If you prefer, though, you can view all the book-related blog posts instead.
My favorite posts on publishing
5 secrets I didn’t know about the publishing world.
To publishers and authors these aren’t secrets, but before I wrote my first book, I didn’t know any of this.
5 super-awesome author moments.
As a first-time author, there are a few special moments that you never forget. Here are five that happened to me that I will cherish forever.
Adventures in titling.
Coming up with the right title is hard. Here’s how we did it for my first book.
An American gay Christian in the Netherlands.
A fun video I made about my travels to the Netherlands for the first time to promote the Dutch release of my book Torn.
Fun with “radio tours”
Author book tours are way less common than you’d think these days. Here’s a video about a common alternative, the radio book tour.
Justin makes a BIG announcement!
At the time of this 2011 blog post, I was known for my nonprofit work, not my writing. This was the post where I first announced I had a book on the way.
Publicity: The part of getting published that makes you crazy.
I hate self-promotion. But if you want to be an author, you have to learn to live with it.
Two roads diverged in a wood. Of… publishers. Or something. Okay, this title isn’t really working out.
Traditional publishing or self-publishing? This is the question that faces many first-time authors. There are pros and cons to each.
What it’s really like to be on TV.
A silly humor piece based on my real-life experiences on various TV shows to promote my books and nonprofit work.
