Today is The First Day of my New Found Freedom

Today’s guest blogger wrote the story of her abuse, and the ongoing judicial abuse from her now ex-husband. After learning from publishers where she submitted the book that she needed to do her own marketing to establish a platform prior to acceptance, Lori Newman took matters into her own hands. She self-published.

This is her life and her publishing story laid out before us in general outline, but Ms. Newman will happily answer all questions. And Lori is generously offering her book free to a random commenter, in your choice of ten electronic formats to fit almost any e-reader. Contest rules below.

Today is The First Day of my New Found Freedom

by author Lori Newman

I said those words out loud ten years ago, thinking because I had been able to leave the abusive marriage, my life would now be better, different, and free from abuse.

Little did I know it was the beginning of a very long, difficult, uphill battle.

A relationship does not just end with a divorce.  The abuse does not just disappear because you now live in a new home.

The pain is not just gone.  New pains came to the surface, new fears were discovered.  How to stay strong and reclaim my freedom became an everyday battle.

I hope to empower others with my story.  My true love is for my children.  I fought for them, I fought for me…I fought for us!

Here All Along: Finding my Own Inner Strength, the story of my fight, was released on November 17^th 2009!

I have been journal writing since I was eight years old it was where I first learned to express my feelings in writing.

It took me seven months to write Here All Along: Finding my OwnIinner Strength and it was a very difficult and sometimes exhausting road to travel.

The most difficult part of writing my memoir was re-living the emotions that went with the memories. I wanted the reader to know the emotions that went with how I was being treated by my husband, not just my reactions. After an intense chapter I would take week-long breaks, and would spend more time writing poetry and stories of my children.

Once the book was complete and I began sending my queries out to publishers back in October of 2009, they were asking me how I would market my book and if I had established a platform for it yet. That is when I decided to publish the book, giving me full control of the process, the marketing, the cover and the logistics.

I started the blog, Here All Along, in August to start building a platform for my book. Prior to that I started When We Listen in May of 2009, and it was a great way for me to begin connecting with the blogging community and helped make connections with other writers and mommy’s who blog as well.

I have a facebook page for When We Listen and am on twitter with both When We Listen and Here All Along. After I made the decision to publish my book I was very grateful for the platform I had already put in place.

I believe having a platform in place (ie: Facebook, twitter, blog) did help me in getting my writings noticed by several different on line communities. I needed to find my readers, and in building a platform I believe I have found some of those reader, but I have only skimmed the surface of what is currently available to market to on line.

One of the harder things for me when I started back in May of 09 was finding the right niche & then connecting with those readers, putting my writings out there to be judged was a very scary obstacle for me to get past, but now I am excited I made that first leap. I have received a lot of good feedback and it has helped to increase my confidence.

I am very thankful to the writing community I have found on line, they too have been very supportive and together we are helping to market each others work. Marketing is like running a marathon, and no matter what, you need keep marketing everyday. Stay positive, somedays will be harder then others. Never give up, breaks here and there are OK, but remember to dream big and believe in yourself and you can finish that book you have always wanted to write. There are readers out there who will read your story, you just need to get it in front of them, and that takes determination and a lot of effort.

Self-publishing is not for everyone but remember even the big publishing houses will want to know what your efforts will be to get the word out about you and your writings.

Stay Safe and always believe in yourself.

More About Lori

When We Listen

Here All Along

Lori’s site

Review by Jerry Travis, author of The Safety Factor

Amazon.com

Also available on Kindle

Smashword.com

Contest Rules

1. Simply subscribe to VAJ, and make your comments below. You must subscribe to be eligible.

2. Leave your email address with your comment so we can contact you.

3. On December 26, 2009 Lori will email your link and the coupon code to download Here All Along in the format of your choice.

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