Writing is a full-time job. It isn't something you can do halfheartedly. I love literature more than anything. Whether I have one hundred readers or one, sharing my stories with the world is what I live for. I knew the types of stories I create would never make me wealthy, but that was never my goal. If I could, I'd gladly give away everything I've ever written for free for your enjoyment.

A lot of time and energy goes into writing, and in my case, my own finances. I don't have the backing of big publishers to cover the costs of editing, artwork, and formatting. The reality is, I simply cannot afford to do the thing I love most in the world.

I have been through all the trials and tribulations to prove myself as a good writer. I have two novels to my name, CoinciDATE and SCHLOCK Featuring Russia Cop ( SCHLOCK), a short story published in the Russian-language literary magazine Лиterraтура (Цой жив), and, most recently, my creative nonfiction piece about my experience during the Bloody January events in Almaty was published by The Brussels Review (Almaty in Winter). In September, my OP ED, The American Dream and Soft Power, was published by The Diplomatic Insight.

Beyond that, I run a Substack page on which I publish articles, essays, and short stories. The past month, I accumulated over 60,000 views. My piece about Amazon's War of the Worlds adaptation earned me over 40,000 views. My growing popularity as a writer has been purely due to word of mouth. I've had no marketing or advertisers assisting me in any way.

People enjoy the reading I put out, and all of my success has been done without any help from marketers or major publishers.

Substack

Now that you have seen my writing resume, I will explain what I am asking for.

I have two books that are finished. The Source of All Things is a 90,000-word science fiction story. It's actually the first book I ever wrote (originally written back in 2017), but it has remained unpublished. Between 2022 and 2023, I went back to it, giving it extensive rewrites. It's the most ambitious thing I've ever written.

The second book is a novella titled The American Refugee Crisis (16000 words). If Source is my most ambitious book, then this novella is my best-written. It tells the story of the near-future collapse of the United States due to the populace failing to heed a scientist's dire warnings. It's both the funniest and scariest thing I've ever written.

In addition to those two finished works, I have a third book (also a novella) I am working on, comparing and contrasting the lives of Ukraine's most famous poet (Taras Shevchenko) with one of Russia's most famous poets (Mikhail Lermontov). It is about halfway finished.

What would the money go towards?

1. Professional editing

2. Book formatting

3. Cover Art

5. Artwork for The Source of All Things

Putting together a professional book is expensive work.

This is the cost to edit a book like Source provided by Kirkus. Kirkus isn't the only professional editing service, but these price ranges are par for the course when it comes to professional editing.

Formatting the book can range anywhere from $ 400 to $ 900. Lastly, cover art for the book typically costs around 600 dollars.

In the case of Source, I plan to have additional artwork inside the book itself.

Now you have a general idea of what goes into putting together a professional book.

I want to keep writing, but without some help, my upcoming work will never see the light of day. Please consider donating to help make these books a reality. Even the smallest donation goes a long way. Thank you for reading.