Until now, writing has been just a hobby for me. I wrote stories for fun, often discarding them as soon as they were finished. However, I did self-publish two books—mostly to understand how the process works. The first was a Western, 4 Bullets, and the second, a dystopian sci-fi novel, World War 4 (apparently, I have a thing for the number 4 in my titles).
I don’t have many readers – or buyers. In total, I’ve sold fewer than 100 copies of both books combined.
Without a platform, a friend with influence, a big marketing budget, or a major publisher backing you, being an author also means being the CEO of your own marketing efforts. Unfortunately, marketing is not my cup of tea.
Another thing that’s not mine: Editing.
Writing itself comes easily to me. I sit down and write 1,000 words a day, which adds up to over 365,000 words a year. Since a typical novel is around 60,000 words, I could easily write six books a year. Every year. But editing? That’s a different story.
The last book I published took me years to edit. Another completed novel—intended to launch a lifelong series—was finished in late 2023, yet here I am in 2025, still stuck in the editing phase.
Editing is exhausting. I comb through my text endlessly, always feeling like I need to go over it again. And no matter how often I went over it, I still find new typos in the next round of going over it again.
But here’s the good news: AI is changing the game.
This month, I experimented with feeding my novel—page by page—into ChatGPT for editing advice. The results were surprisingly good. While AI isn’t perfect and makes its own mistakes, it corrects many of mine. And fixing AI’s errors somehow feels easier than fixing my own.
This experience made me realize that not only can I improve the quality of my work, but I can also increase my publishing speed. Releasing six books a year no longer seems impossible. If AI continues to evolve, who knows? Maybe I’ll even manage to publish a book a month for the entire year.
Most importantly, this process has rekindled my passion for writing. It has also reignited my ambition to turn this from a hobby into something more.
Up until now, I wrote for fun and published out of curiosity. I never seriously considered making writing a business. Now, I do.
There’s a lot to learn, a lot of work ahead—but also a lot of excitement. Here’s what I’m focusing on:
- Crafting better storylines
- Creating more memorable characters
- Improving writing flow and style
- Editing more efficiently
- Translating my German stories into English faster
- Designing better book covers
- Writing compelling blurbs
- Learning about marketing and self-promotion
- Building a readership and online presence
- Growing my social media reach
- Exploring AI-generated audiobooks
- … and much more.
I plan to document my progress—successes and setbacks alike—right here on this website.
My next book is set to release this summer, marking the beginning of my journey toward becoming a real author. Let’s see if I can reach the finish line.