As I sit down to write this, over a year has passed since the release of my first novel, The Princess Key. It has truly been an adventure; one that couldn’t have happened without a solid team working right beside me every step of the way.

The first thing I needed was an editor. I’m confident in my ability to think up and tell a story, but translating it from the movie playing in my mind to the computer screen … well, there’s serious danger of something being lost in the translation.

The editor I selected was Sage Taylor Kingsley. She has helped me improve my stories so much that I feel it necessary to put her name on the cover of the book. Besides her meticulous overseeing of every aspect of the manuscripts, she has also taught me a lot about writing, mostly through insightful questions: What does this look like? What is this character seeing? How do they feel about this? I am a better writer going forward because of her mentorship. I’ve gotten so much more than editing in our work together. Thank you, Sage.

Once I had a final edit in hand (okay, on screen) it was time to make it look like a book. Another round of messaging with pros got me connected with David Provolo. Together, we’ve determined what the covers should look like, what should be on the back, what size it would be, what font the interior would be printed in, what the little doodads between scenes would look like, and so on. I hope you agree with me that he’s done a bang-up job!

One of the things my personal marketing professional, Heather Wallace, highly recommended was getting a good, professionally-done website and newsletter. Heather recommended Matthew Prodger, who put together the website you’re reading this on. I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I’m impressed.

I met all these pros on Reedsy.com, a clearing house for free-lance publishing professionals. Reedsy takes great pains to vet the professions they work with, so that independent authors like me can rest assured that they’re not getting suckered by scam artists. (Lord knows, there’s plenty of them out there in the publishing world.)

Along the way I also met up with a publicist. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Tracy Lamourie, the founder and CEO of Lamourie Media. You may never have heard of her, but you’ve certainly heard of some of her clients. I’m extremely fortunate to have her in my corner. (Take a bow, Tracy!)

The bottom line is, yeah, I’m confident in my ability to tell a story. But as a very wise man once said, it’s a strength to know your weaknesses, and I don’t know how to do any of the things I describe above. Thankfully, in the 21st century, there’s marketplaces where they hang out. Fortunately, some are a lot nicer than the one where Lisa met the Varnian.

If you like the work these people have done on Steps and The Princess Key, we’d all appreciate it if you could leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads.

Of course, the journey to being able to even get a rough story into a computer document involves a lot of other people as well. In my case, the best writing school I ever attended was a role-play-by-email game called Frontier Fleet. It’s based on the Star Trek universe, has been going on for over twenty years, and is still active. I even borrowed some names and a few personality traits from them—with their permission, of course—to help populate the Shattered Worlds universe.

I know I’m going to forget a few, but right off the top of my head I would like to thank: Bram P, Rob V, Ruben H, Ben D, Kelley M, Abby L, Aaron D, Adrian R, Dennis C, Finch, and all the ones I can’t think of right now. In the end, friends who encourage your creativity are worth even more than seasoned professionals.