Teachers Now Is The Time To Write Your Masterpiece!

No, I can’t promise that fame and fortune await you if you read this post, but as they say, “ Anything could happen.” In a previous post, we looked at how your class or school could write a book and use it to raise money. In this post we look at how you the teacher, can turn all of your great experiences, both in and out the classroom, into a book of your own and hopefully make lots of money while you’re at it.

Who knows, your writing career might take off and you will choose to write full-time. Before we get into suggestions on how to write your book and ways to get it published, let’s look at some famous writers (and one who is striving for excellence ) who were teachers just like you.

Inspiration: 10 Famous Writers Who Were Once Teachers

1. Lewis Carroll (1832-1898): Whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodson, wrote the beloved Alice’sAdventures in Wonderland, also lectured in mathematics throughout his entire life.
2. Robert Frost (1874-1963): Pulitzer Prize winning Poet taught for six years at the Pinkerton Academy in New Hampshire.
3.  J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973): Author of many works, most notably The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings, was a professor at both the University of Leeds and Oxford University.
4. Aldous Huxley (1894-1963): Famous for his dystopian masterpiece, Brave New World taught French at Eton in England.
5. Stephen King (1947-): Just the mention of his name might send chills down your spine. If not, reading The Shining, or any one of his many works of horror and suspense will. But did you know he taught high school english in Maine?
6.  Eoin Colfer (1965-): Author of the famous Artemis Fowl’s series taught school in Africa, Asia and Italy.
7.  Dan Brown (1964-): Author of Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code and other works, taught high school english in New Hampshire.
8.  J. K. Rowling (1965-):  Author of the Harry Potter series taught english in Portugal and in England.
9.  Philip Pullman (1946-): Author of the famous Dark Materials Trilogy taught middle school in North Oxford.
10.  Samantha Harvey (1975-):  Author of Wilderness, taught in Japan and currently teaches creative writing in England.

The next writer I am going to mention is our very own Mindful Teacher, Nicholas Philliou. Nicholas has been a teacher for well over ten years and a writer since childhood. He self-published his first novel Naked Among the Tombs and his second novel, The Monkey King, will be released in a few weeks. Visit his website to learn more.

The writers I mentioned above primarily work in fiction, but there are many teacher writers who have authored nonfiction resource guides, textbooks, and children’s books as well. You can find their work on TeachersPayTeachers  (which incidentally, is a great way to make extra income, as noted in this previous post).

Are you inspired yet?  I hope so!  You probably have lots of questions and concerns about getting started and what it will take to turn your dreams into reality.  We got you covered!

Advice and Resources From The Web To Aid You On Your Writing Journey

1. Larry Ferlazzo’s 3 part series from Edweek.org is full of great advice from successful teacher authors on how to write your book. You might have to become a member of the website to read all of them, but it’s worth it.
2. Author and teacher Kate Messner and friends created Teachers Write as professional development exercise that turned into a community of writers sharing tips and best practices. Click this link to learn more.
3. For those really busy teachers who want to write but can’t find the time, check out William Ferriter’s blog.
4. For more ideas on how to write a book and teach at the same time visit teachers.net and read Marjan Glavac’s post.
5. For teachers with a desire to write fiction, visit middleweb.com and read this post.

If you kept reading till this point in the post you are committed to making your book a reality!  You may decide to go the traditional path, submitting your manuscript to publishers hoping it will get picked up and that’s great.  However, you might want to forge ahead on your own like many authors do today.  If you read this Forbes article about a self published author on Amazon, you might get really inspired.  Spoiler Alert..the author showcased makes $450,000 pear year!

Self-Publishing Companies to Check Out

Check out the following sites when you are ready to get down to business and turn your manuscript into a print or digital book:

1. Create Space from Amazon.com
2. For those who want to go straight to digital, check out Kindle Direct Publishing from Amazon.com
3. For a $1,000,000 incentive on going straight to digital, check out this post form Tim Ferriss
4. Author House Book Publishing Company
5. Xlibris Book Publishing
6. Outskirts Press
7. 48hrs Books, Easy Book Printing for Self Publishers
8. For more guidance on how to self publish your book, check out this awesome Slide Share Presentation; Self Publishing 101 

I hope the above information will prove both to be both inspiring and useful. If you are a teacher author and found success using another channel please let us know. If you have any questions or ideas on the topic please comment below.

Thank you for reading and for sharing and Happy Writing!

Image Credit: Masson / Shutterstock.com