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Have you written and published an ebook?

  • vinaya Level 1
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    Have you written and published an ebook?

    If you are a writer, perhaps you have written and published an ebook. What was your experience like? What kind of book did you write? How did you research? How long did you take to write the ebook? Where did you publish? How many ebooks did you sell?
    I have written and published two ebooks. My first ebook was a collection of flash fiction and narrative poems. I did not write poems and stories for this book. I complied already written poems and stories to publish my first ebook. My second book, a children story book was primarily written with an intention to publish on createspace. After it was published on createspace, I also published on Kindle.

    #Writing #Publishing #Ebooks Writing
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    JoeMilford

    JoeMilford

    Yes I have! I have also, in the past, published a few poetry collections as ebooks. I used lulu.com, and they were a pretty good press and had some pretty good distribution options. My sales were moderate, I guess. I sold a few hundred of the first book, and to me, at the time, not knowing what I know now about self-promotion, marketing, and advertising, I thought those sales were pretty awesome. I am about to try to put out another book soon and am hoping for the best.
    7 years ago

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    PedroP

    PedroP

    I have always secretly dreamt of being a poet haha. I just find poetry so amazing. Still, I have no talent for that. Would you say that there is a way to stimulate your creativity so you can be a better poet?
    7 years ago

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    augusta

    augusta

    I recently published one with Amazon Kindle titled"Wake to the world" an inspirational book and I'm yet to publish another which I'm hopeful that it would in the next coming month.
    7 years ago

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    JoeMilford

    JoeMilford

    That's awesome! Congratulations! This is really great news. How are you promoting it? Are you seeing some interest yet?
    7 years ago

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    JoeMilford

    JoeMilford

    PedroP--
    Wow! Now THAT'S a question. I studied poetry formally on the graduate level, but what keeps me going is reading other poets. There is so much good stuff out there (and even more bad stuff probably) that you can find your own particular niche or genre to read and write in. What helps me is reading people who I feel I am in a tradition with. William Blake led to Walt Whitman who led to the Beat poets, Charles Bukowski, William Carlos Williams, etc. I identify with this school of poetry and read a lot of it to find inspiration. Other than that, keep a notebook in your pocket. Be on the hunt for poems all day. Make notes--write down phrases, ideas, images, things you overhear in peoples' conversations. You never know when one simple line can later turn into a beautiful full-grown poem.
    7 years ago

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    PedroP

    PedroP

    Sounds like a tip bro! I guess that practice is the best way to get better at anything and when it comes to writing you gotta read.
    Thanks for the insight!
    7 years ago

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    AmieBotella

    AmieBotella

    I was trying to post a reply to your comment. i think it didn't posted. But anyways, congratulations on this writing venture. i am also trying to learn this and hopefully will gain from this in the future. Where are you planning to publish your next book? would you share some tips on doing this? Thanks and good luck on your new ebook!
    7 years ago

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    vinaya

    vinaya

    Wow, that's great. I have heard good reviews about lulu, however, I am yet to try this platform. Amazon Kindle gives 70 percent royalty on your book (if you price $2.99 and more), what is the royalty rate on lulu? Formatting requirements on Kindle are not very tough, what about lulu? Is it easy to promote a lul book?
    7 years ago

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    DarthHazard

    DarthHazard

    I have never actually written or published an ebook. I have never really started to be honest because, for me, there are just a lot better alternative methods to earn money. I did think about writing an ebook quite a long while ago but I never got into it. I just don't want to have to go through that long process of marketing the book. I just feel that affiliate marketing or creating a blog is a lot more interesting in terms of making money.
    7 years ago

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    JoeMilford

    JoeMilford

    You got that right! There are a THOUSAND better ways to make money, and to make money faster, than trying to market an ebook, that is so true. It is a labor of love for me, or I would not even be doing it myself. The writing of the thing is tough enough, and then having to aggressively pursue an audience for it and try to get it the attention you want it to have is yet another added struggle. I hear you on this, believe me!
    7 years ago

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    ballyhara

    ballyhara

    Any suggestions about those thousand better ways to make money and faster? I think I'm needing some help around here. And yes, writing is for the braves, you need to be an excellent reader, know literature, and have a great mind to translate what you are thinking into written words. No wonder how sometimes writers can get stuck in an idea for days or months, until they find the proper way to write it down on paper.
    7 years ago

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    JoeMilford

    JoeMilford

    Let me clarify here--I did not necessarily mean 1,000 ways to make money ONLINE, lol. I meant that you could make more money, most likely, doing other ventures in general than sinking your time and efforts into ebooks. I tend to get stuck in ideas for months--I finished a book recently whose idea started ten years ago, and it took me five years to write the darn thing. Writing is not for the timid, depending on how high you push the bar. I like your point about being an excellent reader. That, in my opinion, is key to any good writing.
    7 years ago

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    vinaya

    vinaya

    yes, there are thousands of ways to make money, and making money from ebook is not the best way to make money online. First of all, you need to spend a long time to research your book, then spend a lot of time writing it. When you publish the book, your book will never sell like a hot cake. Writing is one of the poorly paid jobs. However, what would you say to people who are passionate about writing, or people who do not have any skills other than writing? For these people writing is the only way they can generate money.
    7 years ago

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    Barida

    Barida

    I think this is the part where I've made some mistakes since I started writing. I mean that my friends who always read my writings on social media always ask why I have not made the move to write books since I began working as a writer both online and for clients online. I think the answer to the question of why I have not written any ebook lie on the fact that I've lacked guidance on doing so.
    7 years ago

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    JoeMilford

    JoeMilford

    Barida,
    I would say that if people are encouraging you to write an ebook, then you ALREADY have an audience waiting on it, and maybe you should seriously consider doing it. Obviously, there is merit and value in your writing, and people want to see more of it if they are reacting to and noticing that! If you have the time, you ought to give it a shot. Why not? We only live once!
    7 years ago

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    Keibah2

    Keibah2

    I have never written or published an ebook before. I write pretty much poetry but I haven't had the zeal to publish. Perhaps I will add this to my to do list in future or perhaps not. I'm more inclined to other methods of making money online like blogging.
    7 years ago

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    chelfox18

    chelfox18

    I'm good only in reading EBook, but I never tried writing my own. English is not my native language, and I felt that it is one of my disadvantage. I am not that good in writing also. But, I'm trying to learn it.
    7 years ago

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    pandooh

    pandooh

    Same here. I can only criticize a lot of readings that I do but then when it comes to making my own, it's totally hard to even start a thought and organize the events. We have a long way to go, my friend.
    7 years ago

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    McLay18

    McLay18

    I have never written or published an e book but I am honestly thinking of publishing my auto biography someday. My closest friends tells me that I have a very interesting life story that could be made either into a movie or a novel. I am just hesitant of doing it because I am afraid that some important people in my life my get offended if they see how I depicted them in my life story. I want my first ever true to life inspired novel to be 100% accurate, however I don't want to offend anyone as much as possible. Maybe years from now I would consider publishing my first eBook or maybe I could get someone else to publish it. Who knows.
    7 years ago

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    JoeMilford

    JoeMilford

    This is the danger in writing a memoir or autobiography...people may not appreciate how they are presented permanently in your words or in how you choose to describe, represent, or present them. I guess you could even write a fictional novel, and change the names, but even then people can figure out, or assume, which characters are based upon them. That's a tough one, actually, but people still publish autobiographies all of the time, and for celebrities, this is a best-selling lucrative business of course.
    7 years ago

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    Judas2018

    Judas2018

    Nope, I haven't. I might one day in the future though. Thinking about developing my own horror comic and selling it at a few online retailers. Haven't decided if I will just offer it as a digital download or both physical version and kindle/digital version.
    7 years ago

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    Nikko25

    Nikko25

    I have yet to but I really want to learn how. I have seen a couple of of e-book writing gigs online and I think the pay is alright so I figured it would be a good addition to my resume as an online freelance writer/layout artist. Although I say I'm a freelance writer, I am not really that good of a writer as you can tell but I think I'm not that bad. At the very least, my writing skill is at a level where it can help me earn a bit of extra income.

    As such, for our dear community members who are experienced in the trade, I would really appreciate it if you can share your experiences and know hows. That woul be very helpful and I as well as the other interested people would really appreciate it. Thanks a lot.
    7 years ago

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    JoeMilford

    JoeMilford

    Nikko25,
    Are you talking about ghost writing ebooks or writing your own personal content? I have seen some of these freelance sites as well, but I have not yet tried my hand at these jobs. I think I am definitely interested in looking into this freelancing gig, but right now I am also writing my own book, and it is taking up a huge amount of my time and effort. I have heard you can make some pretty good revenue doing ghost writing for ebooks, but I have not yet had any personal experience with this.
    7 years ago

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    Nikko25

    Nikko25

    The ones I saw were mostly ghost writing gigs. I might have come across one where they were selling their own original works but I'm not really sure. I was just randomly browsing at that time so I can't really remember. Anyway, I tried one of the ghost writing sites in our country and I found it rather difficult to find an assignment which suited me. Most of the e-book assignments were instructional and self help books which were really technical and required a lot of research if you are not really familiar in that specific subject.
    7 years ago

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    JoeMilford

    JoeMilford

    I totally know what you are saying here. I have run into this same issue with freelancing in general. When it comes to writing articles for others or for publications, for instance, I have also found it hard to match my areas of expertise with the specific possible writing assignments offered. If you have to do a ton of research, you may also find that what you are getting paid for the writing assignment does not properly compensate you for all of the effort it requires you to put in.
    7 years ago

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    tenthztar

    tenthztar

    Not yet, But i am curious about it. Maybe in the near future i'll try making one and let's see where it takes me. I don't know how to write a good ebook though, since i'm having trouble thinking of a topic to write.
    7 years ago

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    zheh

    zheh

    No.. i just love reading. Though i'm a frustrated writer in the past i think it's not really for me. I really admire those with great minds in writing. I have this one favorite writer online but she suddenly disappear. I love her works cause it's different and i think she has this great talent and she's unique. But i don't know what happen, if she suffered depression, cause after a few mysterious quote, she just vanished and delete her account. I hope the writers here won't give up their talent if they know they have it.
    7 years ago

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    gelotologist

    gelotologist

    Me too, I love reading ebooks but I don't have plans of writing ebooks. For me it's to hard to write something like a novel or story, mainly the reason is I don't have much enough inspiration or I just don't believe that there is an ending to a story. I have red many books but I just don't have the right feeling to write one.
    7 years ago

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    trebor2017

    trebor2017

    I have not tried writing since I am not a great writer but I am willing to learn and experience to publish an e book. I am willing to read any advice you can give so that I can be able to create my own. I would like to ask if what are the things you do in order for you to start writing one? some advice will be very helpful. Thank you very much in advance Have you written and published an ebook?.
    7 years ago

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    overcast

    overcast

    I have written 4 non fiction books. 1 on WordPress, 1 on testing and 2 on the other coding languages. So I posted them on Kindle. And the sales are not that good. So I may plan to get the story on the fiction. I may have to write the horror stories. Hopefully that may bring some of the sales. And it'd be reasonable to make some passive income from it. I have to work on the stories in this case. If the stories turn out to be a good success, I may end up getting more small cents here and there.

    So I think ebook is something that needs to be managed for the page reads. So more you write the more you can get earning from the page reads. And another thing is that publishing such ebooks is something I'd plan this year. Hope this year can turn out to be good enough.
    7 years ago

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    vinaya

    vinaya

    At the beginning of this year, I also had planned another children ebook, however, I have bot written the book yet. Perhaps, I will not have my ebook published this year. Yes, I have also noticed that sales are not that great. However, if you can sell just 100 copies of your kindle book and price your ebook $2.99, you will earn at least $100, which is not very bad considering the fact that you do not have to spend any money for your book.
    7 years ago

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    overcast

    overcast

    Yes sales can be up and down if there are not much promotion. One has to do a lot of promotion and reach more people. So slowly it adds up for 1 book sales at a time. And earning takes years to establish. I think if I can sell 99cnets books for like say 100 volumes I'd say it is success. I have one testing book that made such money. But so far not much than that. I hope to write fiction in future and start with 99 cents and increase for 2.99.
    7 years ago

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    pandooh

    pandooh

    I have not published anything but I before I tried making a story in my native language. Man, as I reread it, it was so awful. I'm better at reading and criticizing than making a story. Who'd have thought that this, too, is hard when in the eyes of the readers it is so easy to read in just minutes. Making it takes a lot of time. Reading it takes me just minutes. But maybe I'll try sooner.
    7 years ago

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    chelfox18

    chelfox18

    I feel you my friend, it is very easy to read and understand what we are reading. But when I'm trying to wrote my own article, I get stuck in making a good header only. Many ideas running in my mind, but the problem is how to start writing it.
    7 years ago

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    pandooh

    pandooh

    Totally true.Well there are oneshots that we can definitely try. We can start at that point first then plot something when you'll have all the ideas. Easier said than done.LOL
    7 years ago

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    anor0428

    anor0428

    I've never tried writing and publishing books on ebook. I read a lot of books on ebook, but to publish my own is a different thing. Honestly,I am amazed with those people who can write and publish their own book. It was one of my dreams before, but sadly, I don't have enough knowledge to do so.
    7 years ago

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    Blank629

    Blank629

    No, I haven't wrote one but I want to try it. I read many kinds of ebook and I'm inspires what the writers thinks in their masterpiece. I will start to make one and I planned to write a story about myself. And I will continue to be motivated to make more.
    7 years ago

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    tophew

    tophew

    For me i already tried writing an eBook but never been publish because i have a doubt on myself that maybe my eBook story book is not that good to sell. by the way my eBook is all about on the story of the poor child with a big heart and how he succeed in life. i hope one day i can also publish my eBook.
    7 years ago

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    wiseagent

    wiseagent

    I think this kind of doubt always permeates the mind of any writer, but you have to remember that you are writing to people and not to yourself. So, they are the ones who will make the judgment of your work (and you know, no matter how good your book is... it will never please everyone).
    7 years ago

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    vinaya

    vinaya

    For most of the writers, getting published through traditional means (traditional publishers and print format) is quite impossible. However, publishing ebook is not very hard. There are numerous free publishing platforms where you can publish your ebooks. Writing an ebook does not cost money. If you do not know how to design your cover, you might have to hire a designer, however, you can get a book designed for just about $10. Or use cover creation tool if you are publishing on Amazon. A new author may not earn much, however, you will have something to show. A book will make your portfolio better. There is nothing to be afraid.
    7 years ago

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    jemuelterrado

    jemuelterrado

    I had never tried writing ebooks but i have an interest related to that stuff. I planned already to create my own blog where in i will publish or post all my ebook works or any contents which could help me to earn from it. I know it is not easy to create things like this because it needs time and focus. I hope someday i could create ebooks.
    7 years ago

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    Tronia

    Tronia

    Nope, I have never written or created any sort of book, not even an ebook. I know that it is quite popular now and that majority of writers have released at least one but I just see no point. I can't see myself making a big amount of sales with it because that's not easy to do. The market is overly saturated with ebooks as it is, so unless you have a big followers fanbase or create something very unique and problem solving you won't be selling much of anything. I rather invest my time into other things.
    7 years ago

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    Heatman6190

    Heatman6190

    This is really the same predicament that I find myself in. The nature of market isn't favorable to any especially to new writers, as a result of this, I haven't really been that serious with writing, as most of my work are still shabby.
    7 years ago

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    wiseagent

    wiseagent

    Book written yes... Book published no. The decision not to publish it until today (because I already finished it a few months ago) is that I always think that the ending may be different and so I always keep rewriting that specific part. Sometimes I get very confused and this causes me a certain insecurity.
    7 years ago

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    Destiny00

    Destiny00

    I know the feeling of never really wanting to "finish" a project. When painting, I find that I continue to work on a piece even after I completed what I thought I set out for. The more I happen to look at it, though, the more I notice something that hasn't been highlighted enough, or a detail that should be softened. It's very hard to let go of our creations, but the time will come to set it free on its audience.
    7 years ago

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    wiseagent

    wiseagent

    The feeling of insecurity is really boring but it's always something that is present.

    I think that as time goes by, it's going down, but it never completely disappears. Feeling that cold in the belly is an eternal sensation, haha.
    7 years ago

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    anor0428

    anor0428

    Why dont you publish it? You will never know the result until you try. I hope you continue writing books. Forget the insecurity, we all have that. The fact that you have finished a book is already an achievement. You should be proud of yourself, because not all are gifted and talented to finish a book.
    7 years ago

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    wiseagent

    wiseagent

    I know I have / need to do this, my readers are the ones who have to judge my work... But the insecurity for that perfect end is still greater at the moment, haha!

    But thanks for your words. Have you written and published an ebook?
    7 years ago

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    anor0428

    anor0428

    You are welcome ! I know you can do it, maybe not now but soon you will. Just believe in your self. Hope you can finally have that perfect end for your book. Buzz me when you publish your book okay? I would love to read it. Have you written and published an ebook?
    7 years ago

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    Heatman6190

    Heatman6190

    I have written quite a few poems, say at least 14 poems, do I consider them as being a book or do I have to write and make a poem anthology before it's to be called a book?
    7 years ago

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    KhalilaRose

    KhalilaRose

    I'm in the process of completing my first book with the intention to publish. I've been doing some research on the best place to publish. So far, I'm leaning towards an electronic release only since I don't want to risk spending money on printing physical copies if they're not going to sell. If it does well on Kobo or Amazon, then I may consider printing. There seems to be an increase in self-publishing, so I'm wondering if anyone has experience in publishing through a publisher?
    7 years ago

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    vinaya

    vinaya

    My first book (print book) was self-published (I paid the publishing cost and marketing cost). My second and third books were published on Amazon. I chose Amazon because if you price your book $2.99 and above, you get 70 percent royalty. This is the highest commission you can get anywhere. My third book was an ebook as well as print on demand book. When the book was published on Amazon, I approached a traditional publisher, he agreed to publish. However, I did not agree with his publishing terms.
    7 years ago

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    onlineblogger

    onlineblogger

    I am writing a book right now. Haven't published it yet because I stopped writing in a while and it's just a few days ago when I started writing again. I still need a few chapters and I think it'll be done by November. I don't have time to write that much these days but when inspiration strikes, I will leave anything that I'm doing and start putting my pen on a paper.
    7 years ago

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    chelfox18

    chelfox18

    Nice. Keep it up. I think you should try to finish what you've started writing my friend and hopefully your effort will be rewarded, since you have talent in writing.
    7 years ago

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    wallet

    wallet

    I don't know if I should consider myself a good writer, I am usually writing as a freelancer, in blogs, or local websites but I haven't published an ebook yet. I write to earn some extra money online, I am probably not that good at grammar to have the pleasure as someone to edit my work.
    7 years ago

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    chelfox18

    chelfox18

    I think you should try writing your own ebook bro, and who knows you will be successful in being a writer someday, since you have passion and experience in writing in blogs and other websites already.
    7 years ago

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    Rock1987

    Rock1987

    I consider myself a decent writer. I have never written an ebook, but have the desire to write one. I want to improve my writing skills to an expert level. I have a full time job and if time permits I will surely write an ebook. Congrats to those who have published an ebook and good luck to those who are currently writing an ebook.
    7 years ago

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    diels1001

    diels1001

    I have written many books and already tried making them an electronic one but until today, I still haven't published anything yet. My problem is I'm not really a write, never take any subject related to writing long articles or books but the thing is I really want to be a writer. I only didn't come with a literature course because of financial constraints. Still, I'm not giving up and I still hope that someday, I will come to have a published book/ebook.
    7 years ago

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