Ashley Beach-Author and Storyteller

I can’t believe it’s been THREE years since my first book released!! Take a look at the journey to my first book

2015-2016

• Ideas started forming for a series based on the seasonal solstices/equinoxes
• The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson had always been a favorite
• First book: Winter Solstice/Winter Realm=Perfect correlation to The Snow Queen!
• Lots of research on “How to be an author”(I didn’t exactly train for this 😄)

2016-2017

• Started writing hard core(How do you write a chapter? What’s a storyline? I have no idea how to get from this chapter to the next one, but I’ll just keep writing and hope something happens!)
• Putting it all together. Re-reading. Editing. Editing one chapter 50 times. Complete re-write on some
• Add a new something I wasn’t expecting but love how it works!

2018

• Start looking for a publisher (yikes! I mean Yay!)
• Find a Christian self-publishing company that looks good
• Consultation with chosen publisher (“It’s how much? Thank you. I’ll reach out again in 10 years when I have that….”)
• Keep editing and polishing while in an apartment by myself with nothing else to do(thatwas a “fun” chapter of my life….)

2019

• Still saving money to self- publish
• Move back to Colorado after a short stint in Bend, OR (remember that “fun” chapter of my life. This)
• Still dabbling and refining
• Thinking of some ideas for the other books

2020

• FINALLY start the publishing process in May (thank you stimulus check for making publishing my book possible!)
• Suddenly faced with a dozen decisions I never thought of: What size do you want your book? What kind of paper? Cover design?
• Look through thousands(ok, maybe hundreds) of stock photos searching for the Right one to use for my cover
• All decisions made. All materials submitted
• Wait 2 months and don’t hear anything from chosen publisher……………….(insert radio silence)
• Finally get a voice-mail from chosen publisher, but it was broken up and hard to understand… “Trying to reach you…REFUND…”
• Wait….. what?! Did I just get rejected from a self-publishing company? Also, I’ve received nothing from you, so I don’t know who you’ve been trying to reach
• All decisions made. All materials submitted
• Wait 2 months and don’t hear anything from chosen publisher……………….(insert radio silence)
• Finally get a voice-mail from chosen publisher, but it was broken up and hard to understand… “Trying to reach you…REFUND…”
• Wait….. what?! Did I just get rejected from a self-publishing company? Also, I’ve received nothing from you, so I don’t know who you’ve been trying to reach
• Call publisher, find out it wasn’t rejected (Phew!), just didn’t meet their standards as a Christian publisher because of the fantasy elements. It is being transferred to their sister company, LifeRich, under Readers Digest.
• Ok, Everything transferred.
• First proofs of cover and interior (tears! More beautiful than I expected!!)
• Approved!

August of 2020, my book went to print after final approval of everything. I got a call from them to confirm my address to send my free copies to(Eek! This is real!) and I asked when it would be out. The rep on the other end, ” Oh, it’s live now on Amazon. ” What?? Really?! Like it’s actually out there. (Omg. It’s actually out there. People can buy it and actually read it– slight moment of freaking out and panic attack at the thought of people buying and reading my book and no way of taking it back….,). End call.

After Call: Tell my immediate family my book is live

Moments after texting my family: Tell rest of family, friends, and Facebook that “Uh, by the way, I wrote a book and it’s on Amazon as of right now. “

I had hardly told anyone up to that point that I was writing a book and getting it published, so “Surprise!” What a journey the author life has been since then!

Happy Birthday to my first book baby! Go change the world!❤️🎂🎉🎊