The Author 'career' ladder - part 2

Ready to discover the key to Kia’s writing success?

Kia is very much a fan of teaching yourself and so started reading more about marketing herself as a young author and about marketing in general. She backed this reading up with a few stints of marketing work experience and picked up a lot of new tips along the way.

After a year, she found herself as a young marketing manager of a leadership company for black and Asian minority managers and senior leaders.

Over the last year alone, she has been to London Fashion Week, the Top Model of Colour Awards and has become creative director of a fashion show to name but a few.

But, she did not forget her publishing dream. While she did this work during the day, she truly came alive at night with her new gradual plan for getting published: writing short stories.

“I remember thinking that I could never be taken seriously as an author let alone get anything published. Writing has always been a part of me. I always used it to help me through tough times but I never wanted it really before this.

I wanted to be an entrepreneur, to be a boss to be creating something larger than myself. I saw writing as too passive. I remember going through the worst period of my life and the only thing that helped me was to write away the pain, “she explains.

She continues: “I kept writing short stories and I remember my friends encouraging me to send them off but I used to shake my head and say, ‘Who me? A writer?’

I remember sending off my first story, just to put a stop to my friends’ mantras but I was shocked when it was accepted. Then I sent another and another and it just spiralled from there. In fact, I loved writing so much I did it anywhere and everywhere.

It’s my passion, my heart, my soul and I know most writers, true writers would know exactly what I am talking about. It’s a part of you that must be expressed whether you are published or not.”

So, two years later, the young Kia Storm had published over a dozen short stories and armed with this experience was ready to take on the book publishers again.

After carefully crafting her new book proposal, she finally found an agent, a stylist, a book editor as well as a publishing company together with a PR manager who are now working hard to promote her after realising her writing potential.

So, her small steps to become a young author, in the form of short story writing paid off!

Even Charles Dickens started his fiction writing career in 1833 by writing short stories and essays. His first short story ‘A Dinner at Poplar Walk’ was published in Monthly Magazine in December 1833.

After this, he went on to publish some of the greatest classics ever written such as Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.

Similarly, Steve Barnes co-author of the Tennyson Hardwick mystery series has said:

 “Work on shorter projects. Short stories or articles. Do not write books until you have published (and been paid for) shorter work. This is like running a marathon when you’ve never run around the block!”

Have you ever experienced success by starting small? We always want to know what our readers get up to.