Peter Stankovic is a Sydney-based writer who has self-published several contemporary thrillers. He shares with us his writing journey, and his experience with self-publishing.

Peter Stankovic – My Writing Journey

It started a while ago – my desire to write, that is. But I didn’t have a clue about the process. I had an idea in my mind, even as a kid, but nothing came of it. Then during my professional career, in London, I went to film school at night. Day time was for earning money.

Telling stories was what interested me. I started writing scripts for short films. This led me to consider writing a book. A few haphazard starts finally resulted in a complete manuscript. Some rejections later, trying to get a traditional publisher to take an interest, made me realise that getting published was going to be tough.

After a career in finance, I concocted a story about financial crime. I had this financial thriller published using a self-publishing and on-demand printing service company. I discovered that the cost of using this service was high, but it was a start. Since then, I have self-published six other crime/thriller novels.

Only when I developed a regular routine of writing on a daily basis did the work flow. Writing bits of a novel, whenever time permitted, whilst attending to my career and raising a family, did not work for me. I was easily distracted, and the writing suffered. For me, treating writing as a job was the solution to getting my stories finished.

Now I’ve even created a website www.peterastankovic.com.au to provide a marketing point of reference.