When my readers commented about how much they enjoyed my blogs, I decided to combine the best of my nonfiction—including all the posts I wrote about my journey to become a full-time novelist—into a book. I thought my readers would like to know more about me, and authors would find the writing, editing, and promotion advice helpful and inspiring.

The title was easy. I named the book after my blog and personal motto, Write First, Clean Later. I adopted the slogan in early 2008 when I was laid off my editing job with an educational publisher. Since then, I’ve penned five novels and published eight, in addition to writing hundreds of blogs and newspaper articles.

In August—when the weather was too nice to stay inside and write—I decided to take the nonfiction project off the backburner and make it happen. I sorted my best blogs and articles into chapters, pulled them into a Word document with photos, then updated and edited the 52,000 words. As with my novels, I sent the file to a formatter to create an ebook, and I contracted with a graphic designer to create a cover. I also uploaded a file to CreateSpace to make the book available in print.

I may not be Amanda Hocking, but I have sold enough ebooks in the last year to support my household, and I accumulated a mountain of information along the way. I share all of it in Write First, Clean Later, which sells for only $2.99 as an ebook, or $12.99 in print. The book is available from most retailers, and you can also buy it from my website in digital or print format.

The hardest thing about publishing this book was deciding which category to list it under. Self-help? Humor? Memoir? I considered all of those and settled on Literary Collections as the most accurate, but there’s plenty of humor and advice in the pages as well, including the best advice of all: Write First, Clean Later.