A year of 'Now What?'

Then:
I keep one eye on my word count and another on the text that appears in front of me. I type without stopping to think, drink, eat, or even pee. The goal is 50.000 words and the month is coming to an end faster than expected. With only a few more hours left, I race to the finish line and cross that 50.000 word mark. I let out a sigh of relief and do a little happy dance.

I did it!

Another year conquered!

I can officially call myself a NaNoWriMo 2015 winner!

Now:

I keep both eyes on the text in front of me and go over every word with a scrutinizing look. I sigh exasperated as at the end my precious words all have turned a different colour.

Yellow: Sentence structure

Green: Typos that need correcting

Purple: Add more story here

Blue: Something here needs changing

Red: What were you thinking?

My precious novel has turned into a rainbow and even though it needed some very thorough editing, it felt like rejecting my first born child. Some serious revising and editing later I have a document that's black and white again and I find myself thinking 'Now What?'

* * *

Currently:

But now, let's grab that hand mirror and take a long objective look at the current situation.

Here I am. A novel written and more opportunity than ever before.

I want to publish a book! My book!

That's all I can think of and have been thinking of the moment I finished my NaNo2015 novel.

This time, I want to go for it. This time, I want to make it happen and with technology and the internet only making publishing easier and easier there is no better time to start than now.

When 2015 started and it was time to make those New Year's resolutions, I decided that mine was going to involve publishing a book. I told myself that I would try everything in my power to publish a book by the end of the year.

It's February now. Two months later and the desire to succeed is still as strong but my courage is wavering. As an author you can choose out of several ways of publishing now. There's everything from traditional publishing to self-publishing. There's printed books, e-books and even audio-books.

All of these, yet quite important decisions, are not yet to order.
There's so many more things that need to happen for my book to grow from the stage it is in now to the part where it is ready for the rest of the world to be read.

That's exactly where I am stuck!
The point I find myself at now is also the moment where I stare blankly at my computer screen and go: 'Now What?'
What are all the steps I have to undertake?
Who do I hire and where do I hire them from?
What should I do first and in which order?

Ideally I would love to have a list I could just tick-off (and trust me, I have looked and googled like mad) and publish within a month but in reality I find myself looking around and wondering how on earth I am going to do this in less than a year.

I look for any excuse good enough to procrastinate. I even started blogging about it!

Maybe just maybe, if I'm really honest, I think I might be scared.
As well as overwhelmed.

But hey, we're only in the second month of the year! Meaning, I have 10 more months to figure this all out. I owe it to myself and to the story I want to tell that I continue to work hard and figure it all out.

The time for self doubt is over. It is now the time for self-publishing.

I'll high five to that!