Do you dream about writing your own book someday, or already have a manuscript written? Retired Police Chief Russell S. Smith self-published four books during a six-year period. His fifth book How I Published 4 Books in 6 Years (mistakes included) was produced after many questions from people who wanted to write and/or publish their own book. The book begins with a few tidbits from his writing life but focuses on how he mentally and physically self-published his books; and ends with his marketing effort and mistakes he made along the way. "These are the things I did to make my dream "to write and publish books" come true. This is a guide to show you how I did it. While what works for me may not be the best for someone else, this does answer many questions about how I went from the first written word to seeing each of my books on the shelf in a bookstore," said Smith.
About the Author: Russell S. Smith was born in Uvalde, Texas. He started writing poems and short stories long before he graduated from high school in 1969. He attended Southwest Texas Junior College, Howard College and Angelo State University; the majority of his classes dealt with criminal justice. His law enforcement career began as a reserve deputy with the Tom Green County Sheriff's Department in 1977 and ended when he retired as the San Angelo's Police Chief in 1999. This experience spurred his professional writing career when he sold his first article to a police trade magazine in 1980. Russell was appointed as a Tom Green County Justice of the Peace in 2003. Unopposed in the following elections, he retired December 31, 2010. From 1998 to 2003, Russell was an outdoor columnist for the San Angelo Standard-Times and several magazines. The Gun That Wasn't There was his first non-fiction book. His second was No Reason to Kill; about the murder of Sheila Elrod, a 20-year-old San Angelo girl killed during a jewelry store robbery in 1980. His third was One Policeman's Lights and Siren which is a collection of short stories about his early police career. His outdoor memoirs "Steps into God's Country" comes after writing in the outdoor field for nearly 30 years. His fifth book, How I Published 4 Books in 6 Years came after people kept asking, "How did you do it?" Russell has received numerous awards over the years for his writing and photography from the Texas Outdoor Writers' Association. He now writes a periodic outdoor column for the San Angelo Standard-Times as he researches other projects and writes from his home in San Angelo, Texas. He and his wife Linda have been married 40 years. They have two married children and four grandchildren.