: I thought I would throw my two cents into the mix. I wrote my first book(non-fiction) when I was about 16-17 (I am 20 now.) and decided to self-publish it with the help of a few friends

@Candy753

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I thought I would throw my two cents into the mix. I wrote my first book(non-fiction) when I was about 16-17 (I am 20 now.) and decided to self-publish it with the help of a few friends and family members.

Short answer: Yes. You can publish your book.

Long answer: Take your first book as the biggest experience of your writing career. It's unlikely that you have written anything of novel length (say 55k words?) before so you don't have experience structuring and planning; understanding how to actually write a novel, at this stage, is more important than actually writing one. Take keen notes on your process or adopt the process of a famous writer like I did with Walter Mosley. He wrote 1000 words everyday and at the end of the day he would revise the previous days 1000 words and so on and then he would read the book multiple times over. Plan everything out literally everything.

So, that's the process aspect.

If you are going to self-publish your book (something I recommend at this stage) then you need to understand distribution, cover design, marketing, editing etc. This may sound a little daunting but understanding how all these things work together is important to understanding how you can get people to read your stuff; consider having a small book launch with family and friends. Ask your school if you can talk about your book by going into classrooms etc.

Find a solid editor. Sometimes, we downplay the importance of a good reader but don't. The editor will tell you where your story is losing interest in the reader, they will also talk to you about your grammar etc. Avoid family members unless they are honest. At the end of the day, you want your book to be the best and if you family or friends can't tell you that something is wrong with the book or you don't want your writing to affect your relationships then hire someone - they will most likely to do a better job.

Once you have all of this figured out and you have your novel published and it's a hit (fingers crossed) - don't wait, start writing the next one.

I hope that helps! Good luck!

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