So You Want To Be A Writer
But where do you start?
How do you write a book?
How do you get published?
How do you find readers?
How much does it cost?
SPECIAL NOTE FROM ALEX: Whether you buy a book or not,
take a sec to follow WRITE START 101 on Facebook.
As soon as we can hit 100 followers,
I can start doing weekly lives - answering questions
and discussing all things writer. Thanks!!!
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Those answers and more, are all right here:
Write Start 101:
A Beginner’s Guide To Becoming A Writer
Not the last book you’ll read about writing,
but it should be the first.
So you want to write a book.
But bloody hell, where do you start?
Wishing you had a favourite uncle in the publishing world won’t get you far.
But having the answers to the most common questions new writers have, right at your fingertips, all in one book, will be the leg-up you’re looking for.
So who is the author and why should I listen to her?
Canadian Author Alexandra Stacey Brown spent ten years publishing romantic short stories in her online indie publication, Romantic Shorts™. Virtually all of the authors she published were new to the craft and previously unpublished.
Two things happened.
Alex found herself spending more time on the publication’s sister site – the HQ – answering questions, mentoring new writers, and enjoying the process, than she did publishing stories.
That site grew to include many new writers who had interest neither in being published on her site nor in writing romance at all.
Years of blog posts for writers were building into a pile of pretty terrific advice.
Then her husband passed away.
And so did any interest in reading or writing romance.
After attempting to rebuild and move on, she finally shut the site down for good in 2018 and regretfully called it quits.
But while Alex worked on healing, finally pouring her grief and the life lessons she learned along the way into her own novel, the HQ site lived on!
And the forums Alex followed as a writer were constantly inundated with questions from new writers asking everything from how to handle rejection to how to find a publisher to how to navigate social media to how to handle family who refuse to support their ‘hobby.’
So many questions.
So many repeats.
And so many snarky, unhelpful, insulting responses.
She couldn’t keep up with her replies.
Even though she was cutting and pasting most of them off the HQ website!
Until it finally dawned on her that a book – one simple collection – filled with every question she’d ever answered, might be something a lot of new writers could use.
And so she gathered all the notes and the posts and the comments and compiled them all into WRITE START 101.
This is all the advice she wishes she’d had when she started.
This is all the advice a new writer needs at the beginning of the journey.
And probably halfway through.
And maybe even later on.
This book won’t teach you how to write.
If you’re reading this, you already have a knack for that.
But it will teach you how to be a writer.
And that is the goal!
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So, what are we actually talking about here?
The book is written in 4 PARTS. And available individually or all in one.
PART 1: YOUR UNIQUE WRITING PROCESS
What you write is important, yes.
But what about how you write?
Or where? Or when?
Or even, why?
These things matter as much, if not more.
And the thing is, every single writer on the planet has their own style. Their own quirks, patterns, and habits.
They have their own voice.
They have to – or risk blending in with the gazillion other writers trying their hand at some prose.
So what about you? How do you stand out? How do you figure out what works for you? How do you find your own unique voice?
This PART 1 is the place to start to figure all that out. Some things you’ve already decided on. Some you’ve never even thought about.
But all are things that matter, and that new writers want to know to save themselves a lot of time and frustration later on.
PART 2: CREATING SOMETHING FROM NOTHING
Not a how-to-write book. You won’t find sentence structure and grammar and vocabulary help here. The book assumes that you can already string some sentences together.
Reasonably well.
Mostly.
So, more of a how-to-write-a-book book.
How do you plan a novel? Where do you start it? How do you end it? How many chapters? How many pages?
What if you accidentally break a rule???
Worry not my wordsmithy friend. WRITE START 101 has you covered here, too.
PART 3: MARKETING WHAT YOU CREATE
Nooooo!! Don’t run away now – WAIT!!
Nobody’s going to blow smoke up your arse and tell you it’s a piece of cake.
Because it’s not.
And anyone who says they love the marketing side of writing, well, may or may not be a few stars short of a constellation.
But it also doesn’t have to be that hard.
Knowing the ins and outs from the outset can set you apart from the pack before you even get started.
Do you need a website? What about social media? How much will it cost? Do you have to put your face online?
These are all valid questions. But the first one you should be asking is what if you don’t know anything about marketing yourself and your book at all?
Now that would be a problem.
PART 4: TAKING THE MYSTERY OUT OF PUBLISHING
Ho ho!! The good stuff!
The secret sauce.
The icing on the cake.
The bloopers after the credits!
Do you go the traditional route? Or do you self-publish? What about all the options in between? Do you need an editor? What if everybody hates your book?
The how’s and the why’s are all right here.
Again. Not saying it’s going to be easy. If it were, well, a monkey with a note in his mouth could get published.
But if you’re going to put all the blood, sweat, and tears – and oddly, there are actually a lot of all three in the process – paper cuts are not to be trifled with!! – into your masterpiece, you owe it to yourself, your work, and the world, to share it.
It can do nothing but help tremendously to understand the process from the get-go.
So, that’s the book.
It’s available as a .pdf download that you can start reading today.
You don’t even have to read it in order – jump to the parts that matter most to you right now. (The Table of Contents is stellar!!)
You can purchase any one or more of the 4 PARTS for download – no need to grab the whole thing if you don’t think you need it.
Or you can purchase and download the WHOLE BOOK at a 33% discount.
Which actually make more sense, really.
Or, if you prefer, you can pay full price – something like $30ish for the PRINT PAPERBACK, which is available at Amazon and will take a couple days to get to you.
But for some of us, having the book in hand and ready for hi-liting is worth it!
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SO YOU’RE THE SKEPTIC, still here wondering if you should risk it or not. You’re doubting. You have questions.
Because everyone is sick and tired of everything costing money.
This is a one-off. One book. One purchase. No subscription.
At least not until it’s a bestseller and Alex is running courses and podcasts and movie deals deciding whether or not to collect her Oscar in person.
And writers shouldn’t have to pay to get published, right?
That’s true. Writers should never have to pay to get published. But there are exceptions to that, and there are always costs involved in expanding one’s skills and in putting your best work out there.
Consider though, that a doctor will start her career hundreds of thousands in debt.
$20 doesn’t seem so bad now, does it?
Fortunately, this concern is covered in the book as well.
And what’s the catch?
No catch. Honest answers from a real live person who really does want to help.
Although, because she’s basically selfish at the core and helping others makes her feel good, there’s a little bit of ulterior motive.
So, what if this is crap?
It’s not.
But guaranteed you will come across a lot of crap on your journey to getting published.
Getting really good at recognizing the crap is one of the best skills you can develop, and sadly, can only be truly honed by learning more about crap.
And what if this doesn’t work for me?
If you are asking this question, do not waste your time and money on this book.
Or any other.
Or on writing anything at all for that matter.
Because unless you believe that a process will work for you, there is no process that will work for you.
The trick is finding the process that does work for you. And PART 1 covers that quite well.
And what if it’s out of date?
The first edition came out in 2024. Some of the advice dates back to 2010 and earlier. Because some of the information is, actually, timeless.
But much changes in the writing world. Constantly.
There is a link to our (under construction) Facebook page where the option to join a mailing list to be kept in the loop for updates and changes will be ongoing.
But as of 2026, even with advances in AI, WRITE START 101 is all still very current.
And what if this is just a rip off to get my credit card?
Digital purchases are handled through Alex’s Shopify store by secure checkout using your credit card, PayPal, or Shop.
Amazon handles the sales of the print copies.
These are the most secure transaction methods we know of to date.
However, no one can predict what the bad guys will come up with next. Always be vigilant when making any purchase with your hard-earned money.
And screw the bad guys!
I have more questions.
Shoot Alex an email at WriteStart101 at FreshPennies dot com (yes, the ‘at’ is actually a @ and the ‘dot’ is a . – but for some crazy reason, the bots haven’t really figured that out yet. And nobody like spam.)
She’ll try to get back to you with a personal message.
Or check out WriteStart101 on Facebook and Instagram. With any luck, she’ll eventually figure all that out.
For now, she’s playing with ads and posts and it’s a little messy. But better half of something than all of nothing.
And if I hate the book and want my money back?
Alex has no control over refunds at Amazon.
But if you order the .pdf download, and after perusing it for up to – let’s say 48 hours – you truly believe that it’s worthless, email Alex at WriteStart101 at FreshPennies dot com. Talk to her. She’s a real person. And she’ll want to help.
So that’s the schtick.
Buy or don’t buy, as the little big-eared fellow says.
Ultimately, it’s twenty bucks. Up to you if you think your book is worth the investment.
But whatever you decide, we wish you all the reward and success you can find on this writing journey of yours. Writing is a skill and a privilege that not many get to actually enjoy. If you can find a way to write what you want, share it as you wish, and have fun doing that, consider yourself among the luckiest of us.
Write on!
Oh! And here’s one more link to the sales page.
To buy the book.
Because you should.
But that’s just our opinion.
WRITE START 101 