Meet Steve Gipson, author of “I Became the Father I Needed”
Tell us what your book, “I Became the Father I Needed,” is about!
Sure! Here’s the summary:
I Became the Father I Needed is a deeply personal memoir about fatherhood, foster care, family trauma, loss, child welfare, and breaking generational cycles. It follows my journey from being a child who needed greater guidance, protection, and stability to becoming the kind of father and advocate I once needed myself. The book explores the difficult moments that shaped me, the children I fought for, the mistakes I learned from, and the realization that sometimes the person you needed most growing up is the person you eventually become for someone else.
What did you love most about writing this book?
What I loved most was being able to take painful moments from my life and give them meaning. Writing the book allowed me to look back at my childhood, my experiences as a father, my work with children, and the people who changed my life. Some parts were difficult to revisit, but I loved knowing that my story might help another parent, another child, or someone who is trying to break a cycle in their own family.
How did you start writing?
I started writing because I realized I had been carrying a story for years. I had experienced so much as a child, as a father, and while working with children and families that I knew those experiences needed to be documented. At first, I was simply trying to tell the truth about my life. As I continued writing, I realized all of those experiences were connected by one theme: I had spent much of my life becoming the father and protector that I needed when I was younger.
Tell us a little bit about your self-publishing experience.
Self-publishing has been a learning experience from beginning to end. I have been very involved in every part of the process, including writing, editing, choosing photographs, designing the book, creating promotional materials, building a website, and learning how distribution works. I did not begin this journey as an expert in publishing, so I have had to learn each step along the way. That has made the process challenging, but it has also made the finished book feel even more personal because I have been involved in shaping every part of it.
What was your biggest challenge in bringing the book to market, and how did you solve it?
My biggest challenge has been learning how to bring a deeply personal story to readers without having the resources of a large publishing company behind me. I have had to learn how to promote the book, reach out to newspapers, libraries, bookstores, podcasts, and other media outlets, and build an audience independently. I have approached that challenge by being persistent, using social media, creating my own website, contacting organizations directly, and looking for free opportunities that allow independent authors to tell their stories.
What's one piece of advice you have for other writers?
Do not wait until everything feels perfect before you begin. Tell the truth of your story first. Editing, formatting, covers, marketing, and everything else can be worked on later. Your voice is the part nobody else can create for you. If your story keeps coming back to you, there is probably a reason you are supposed to write it.
Anything else you want folks to know?
I want readers to understand that this book is about more than fatherhood. It is about what happens when someone decides that pain does not have to become a pattern. It is about children who need adults to fight for them, parents trying to do better than what they experienced themselves, and the possibility of breaking cycles that may have existed for generations. I hope readers finish the book thinking about who they needed growing up—and who they may have the opportunity to become for someone else.
Where can people find your book?
https://stevegipson2020-beep.github.io/I_Became_The_Father_I_Needed.com
