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Yes, You Can Publish a Book as a Teenager (Here’s How)
Not to be too cliché, but for as long as I can remember, I have absolutely loved reading and writing. There is nothing I enjoy more than snuggling up in my bed with a good book, inhaling the chapters like nobody’s business. And as horrible as this time has been, it has given me so much more time to catch up on some books that I’ve been meaning to read. That, and this time has also allowed me (and so many others) to become aware of what is going on in the world. I’ve been able to reflect on my own identity, values, and beliefs, and after spending some time thinking about how to share some of my newfound knowledge with others, I embarked on a quest to write a book for my fellow teens spending quarantine at home, which is how the name of my book, ‘Quaranteen’ was born.
After developing the idea of my book last September, I started writing it in November during National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) which is an annual challenge that pushes authors to write 50,000 words of a novel during the thirty days of November. Although I did end up taking part in the challenge, my book was a bit different because it ended up being much shorter than 50,000 words and I didn’t end up starting to write my book until November 20th because of the format of my book.
Nanowrimo is a really good way to turn a simple idea into a whole book in a short amount of time. Along the way, I found that my fellow authors and all the resources that Nanowrimo provides (available on their website) kept me motivated throughout my writing process. Although I highly recommend participating in Nanowrimo, especially if you’re a first time or teen author, it’s important to remember that it is definitely possible to write a book without participating in Nanowrimo — just make sure that you take the appropriate amount of time to formulate your first draft (I spent about a hour or two everyday to make progress while writing Quaranteen).
When I finally finished writing my book in December, I then started adding graphics+images to spice it up. For all the images you want in your book you can either design them yourself digitally, illustrate/paint it (as long as…
