Brian Cormack Carr – How I Became A Published Author

How I Became A Published Author

by Brian Cormack Carr

I self-published my first book How To Find Your Vital Vocation: A Practical Guide To Discovering Your Career Purpose And Getting A Job You Love last month, after promising myself that I’d have a book written and published by the time I hit 40 in June 2013.

It took me around ten months from start to finish.  The journey has been a lot of hard work – but great fun. If you have a book in you, then I hope my story will help you to get started on your own writing/publishing path.

I’ve Always Been A Writer

Creative writing was my favourite subject at school, and I even won a couple of creative writing competitions when I was a student.  In fact, I ‘wrote’ stories before I could write words.  When I was very little, I created a marvellous super hero called BAM! and I used to tell myself stories by drawing pictures of him in action on my toy blackboard.  I’d draw one picture, then rub it out and draw the next to advance the story – almost like a comic strip.

Unfortunately, because I only had a small blackboard and had to keep rubbing out the pictures, absolutely no evidence of BAM! now exists.  But I’m telling you – he was amazing.  He’d definitely give Superman a run for his money.

Writing (I did eventually graduate from the blackboard to pen and paper) soon took a back seat to more practical considerations like earning a living. But I still wrote sporadically through the years, and was briefly a member of a couple of writing groups.  I always knew that one day I’d come back to it…

Writing To Promote My Work

In 2009, I set up a life and career coaching practice, and started blogging to promote my coaching service.  Pretty soon, I remembered how much I loved writing, and started putting it to work in my coaching work.  I wrote an online coaching programme for my clients, and soon started guest posting on other career coaching blogs.  I even landed a paid gig writing for a blog about healthy eating!  Writing was beginning to take a more prominent role in my life and work.

Writing For Writing’s Sake

The coaching clients on my online coaching program – which I had named Vital Vocation – gave me lots of positive feedback on the material in the program, and several asked if I would consider turning it into a book.  I didn’t need prompting twice.  It was ten months until my 40^th birthday, and I had long harboured the ambition to be a published writer by the time I hit 40.

I got to work and repurposed the modules in the coaching programme into chapters for a book.  Some of the material was audiovisual, so that had to be converted into new written material.  It was a madcap, hard-working ten months.  But it was fun, and so worth it.  Four days before my birthday, I self-published How To Find Your Vital Vocation onto Kindle.  In the week after its publication, it charted in the Amazon UK Kindle careers bestsellers list.  Not bad going for a first-timer!

Self-Publishing Or Bust

I chose the self-publishing route not because I don’t want a traditional publishing deal – that’s certainly something I’d be interested in one day – but because I wanted to get my work out into the world, and I was impressed by the many self-publishing options available to authors today.  EBooks, print-on-demand paperbacks, social media platforms – the scope nowadays for authors to write, publish and market their work is just amazing.

I’m making the most of it – what about you?

BIOGRAPHY:

Brian Cormack Carr is a writer, certified career coach and chief executive of BVSC The Centre for Voluntary Action, one of the UK’s leading local charities.  He trained in personnel management with Marks & Spencer plc and gained an MA (Hons) in English Literature and Language from the University of Aberdeen.  Brian has nearly 20 years of experience in the fields of personal development and leadership, and has helped hundreds of clients, readers and workshop participants to find fulfilling work and a renewed sense of purpose.

Website: www.cormackcarr.com

Twitter: @cormackcarr

Ready to choose or change your job? Stuck in work you hate? Think the career of your dreams is beyond your reach?

IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO FIND YOUR VITAL VOCATION

If you don’t love your work, you deserve better – and with this book at your side, you can get it. A lively and potentially life-changing guide,How To Find Your Vital Vocation sets out a simple-to-follow yet profoundly effective process that will take you step-by-step from wherever you are now to a working life based on your most cherished dreams.

LEARN HOW TO:

• Hear the inner call that’s telling you what will make you truly happy
• Rediscover your gifts and use them to build a perfectly-tailored career
• Identify and overcome the obstacles that stand between you and your ideal work
• Create powerful networks to help you find great jobs that are never advertised
• Find out what it takes to become an entrepreneur of the future
• Maximise the impact of your job applications
• Ace every interview
• Attain reward levels that will help you thrive – even in this tough economy!

Put yourself in charge of your career – once and for all. Packed with valuable insights, powerful exercises and illuminating self-coaching questions, How To Find Your Vital Vocation will help you chart a practical path to a fun and fulfilling livelihood. In this comprehensive resource, expert career coach Brian Cormack Carr shows you how to find your passion and purpose and finally start doing the work you were born to do.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:

“Too many of us have gone about finding our livelihood in a haphazard way. Before long, we become a statistic in a job dissatisfaction survey. Happily, it doesn’t have to be that way and Brian Cormack Carr proves it. If you think that work should be about more – much more – than just a way to pay your bills, this book is the roadmap you’ve been looking for. Work with How To Find Your Vital Vocation for a short time and you’ll be working at your real work for a long time.”

~ BARBARA J. WINTER  Bestselling author of Making a Living Without a Job

“Warm, witty and wise. I highly recommend this book. Brian knows his stuff and How To Find Your Vital Vocation is a breath of fresh air.”

~ GRACE OWEN  Executive coach and author of The Career Itch

“I appreciated the step-by-step nature of Vital Vocation. It made finding a new career that much easier, and I’m still amazed at how well it helped me clarify what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.”

~ DAVID  Member of the Vital Vocation Online Coaching Programme

“Vital Vocation helped me focus after I had spent too long panicking and going nowhere. Now my part-time hobby has grown to a full-time occupation and I’ve finally given up the day job that was making me sad!”

~ STEVEN  Member of the Vital Vocation Online Coaching Programme

Buy Now @ Amazon & Smashwords

Genre –  NonFiction / Careers

Rating – G

More details about the author

Connect with Brian Cormack Carr on Facebook  & Twitter

Website http://vitalvocation.com/