TV Reporter Tom Abrahams Shares His Self-Publishing Journey

HOUSTON — Tom Abrahams has always been an avid reader. As a child, the stories of the Hardy Boys and Encyclopedia Brown were among his favorites, but he took other imaginary journeys through the pages of westerns, mysteries and science fiction novels.

He always had a book close by, it seems. Abrahams, who works as a TV journalist in Houston, is also the author of more than 20 books available through Kindle Direct Publishing.

“I was always amazed by how somebody could tell a story that I could see in my head, and that could take me somewhere else,” he said. “As a result of that, wondered what it would be like to be someone who could do that.”

But it was nothing but a dream for a while. But something in him clicked when Abrahams was a high school freshman. He’d turned in an essay to his English teacher.

A few days later, his essay was returned with a comment from his teacher that he never forgot. “You must read a lot,” Abrahams recalled the comment from long ago.

“That’s when I kind of put the connection together, that to be a writer, you have to be a reader first,” he said.

Abrahams dabbled a bit with writing short stories for many years and went on to become a journalist.

He continued writing stories himself until his wife suggested he write a book. So he did, but it was not what he had hoped it’d be at first. His first attempt was a police procedural novel chock full of reporters, of course.

“It was pretty lousy, but I learned a lot from it...and got some good good feedback,” he said.

From the feedback he received, he learned that he could write but the storytelling could be better.
He would try again and start on other stories, only to get bogged down or lose interest in the story altogether. In essence, none of the stories he was forcing himself to try and create were working.

“I needed the story to find me,” Abrahams said.

In 2012, after stumbling upon the Cato Street Conspiracy after watching an episode of The Tudors, Tom was inspired to write and release his first book, Sedition a book he self-published with Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon.com.

Amazon launched Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) in 2007 to make it easier for authors to fulfill their dreams. KDP offers a free, easy, and fast way to self-publish eBooks and paperbacks. With KDP, the power of publishing is accessible to authors worldwide, allowing a more robust and diverse set of voices to share stories with a wider audience than ever before.
Benefits

• Keep Control: Authors maintain creative control, retain their rights and set their own prices.
• Get to Market Fast: Authors can set up their books in minutes, and it will appear on Kindle stores worldwide.
• Make More Money: Authors can earn industry-leading royalty on sales, up to 70%.
• Reach More Readers: Authors can publish eBooks and paperbacks, distribute them in multiple languages, and access free tools and services to find their readers.

Impact and Reach

• Hundreds of thousands of authors have self-published on KDP.
• In 2017, independent publishers and authors earned more than $220 million in royalties from their participation in Kindle Unlimited alone.
• In fact, in 2017 thousands of independent authors earned more than $50k, with more than a thousand surpassing $100k in royalties.

The success of KDP for Abrahams was almost instantaneous.

Since his first book in 2014, Abrahams has written political thrillers as well as post-Apocalyptic thrillers and he has several more he hopes to have published soon.

Abrahams says the eBooks are helping him and his wife save enough money to put their children through college debt-free.

To see some of Abrahams work or to order a book or two, click here.

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