If you are like me and quite creative and get things down on paper etc it all sounds so so simple . As such that was the easy bit. I write a daily update, for close friends and family and have done so for many years, as such a diary. Most of the time it's me ranting on and letting off steam, about one thing or another. The things that are getting me mad or down. I am very pleased to say, I have kept in touch with a great deal of friends via face book. So when it came to writing the book. It was a matter of looking back over all the years, remembering the worst incidents and putting it together. Well it's a bit more than that to be honest and I could not have done it all with out great friends. With my bad spelling and working out what the lay out was to be. Honestly I had no idea, ware to start. Its been a great learning experience. From the legal copy right to the photos you use. Getting permission from people and making sure you don't mention any names that can come back and say excuse me but......... all take time.
I have self published ( I should say good friends did this for / with me ) and so you can have so much more flexibility even down to the cost. However they give you a guide price and you then look at that and think well would I pay that. You can even choose the ISBN number.
Once I had it all together good friends read it though. It went back and forth for quite a while making changes. Adding bits and taking bits out. Now it's finished and out I am still thinking of things. I have said I will not write another book about helpers but when you get an email as I did last night, that was just plain rude you think. ohhhhhhhhhhh may be. I have also been told once you have written one, you can not stop. I have to say they are probably right when it comes to me.
So It's all put together and then uploaded to, in my case Amazon direct publishing. It even spell checks it for you.
You then have to say the price and soon realize you are not going to be a millionaire writing one book. I am no Tolkien. But I do feel I have a good story to tell and can at times make people laugh. If also I get my point across then even better, if it helps them.
So in total the author comes away with about 1 % of the book cost. Break that down to me, the tax man and Amazon and for a book under €10 I come away with just over €1 . That sounds as if I am complaining I am not.I am just trying to point out that allot of people think that if you have written a book you got a publishers advance etc etc. Have you tried to get a book published through a publisher.............its about the same thing as trying to sell it.
At the moment that's what I am trying to do, sell it, get it out there, get people to know about it.
So all the face book pages I belong to I have promoted it, as well as on twitter.
Now the interesting thing, about the way I have published is you can see how many you have sold and ware they have gone to. It's quite exciting and pushes you on. When you see that you have put it on a face book page and someone has bought it in France. You can even see how many pages they have read via Kindle.
After all the face book pages and putting it on twitter you are then at a loss as to ware to get people to bye it. So I sent out over 200 emails to people, bloggers magazines you name it and the response is slow very slow. That's a tuff one for me I like to see things happening.
So you sit and think OK now what so I took my courage in my hands and started to call people. Any one that might be interested in the book and it seems to be starting to pay off. I am getting emails back and even if they don't do a piece for me. I have talked to some very interesting people in the last few weeks. Who have been a great encouragement, even if I felt sick picking up the phone calling them.
It is said that in side every one is a good book. If you are thinking of writing one do it, give it a go, its great fun and has given me something else to think about other than a house that needs to be rebuilt.
The excitement of having your book in your hands out weighs the hard work.
Have a great month peace and love Karen