When I was toying around with the idea of getting my first book published about my crazy experiences waiting tables, I knew it was going to be a daunting task, but I didn’t realize how daunting it would be until I found myself deep in the process. I decided to write a book about my hilarious times in waiting tables, because I thought it would be something that millions of people could relate to. It most definitely wasn’t easy, but once it was completed, it was so worth everything I had gone through, and I had accomplished something that I could be really proud of.
First, I gathered all of my stories together and tried to figure out the order of importance for each story, because i wanted the book to flow. Then, I had to write my forward since it was my first book, along with my dedication. Once I had all of that done, I had to find an editor since I knew I was going to self-publish it. There was a woman who I was friends with on Facebook who happened to live over 800 miles away. She had some experience in editing, so I decided to email her what I had written. She charged $700 for her services. We went through this grueling process of editing three separate times, and each time I thought I was going to pull every hair out of my head. I fought tooth and nail with her over my book title, and in the end, I won the battle. We also couldn’t communicate except by email and phone, so there had to be that level of trust established on my end that she was doing what I wanted her to do. Also, her husband designed my book cover. That part was actually a much easier process for me.
A few days before I got the book published, I went to Legal Zoom to apply for copyright protection. That was a very easy process. It cost me only $150 to do it, but once I got it done, it gave me peace of mind along with the protection that I get with the copyright.
Then, the day finally came for me to publish my book. I opted to do it on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, because uploading the book on there was free. As nervous as I was about doing this last step, it was actually the easiest part. They guided me right through the process, and I had to upload the book cover and the book on separate files. They gave me the option of doing the Kindle ‘Select’ or the regular way. I chose the regular way because I knew I would have more promoting freedom that way. It only took me about 10 minutes to get through the process of uploading, then I had to wait about 24 hours before the book went live.
When I got the email from Amazon that my book “Laughter, Life Lessons and Logic from the Culinary Catwalk Diva Queen of the Waitress World” had been published on the Kindle, it was the greatest feeling in the world. Even though the sales haven’t come anywhere close to meeting my expectations, I’ve managed to do something that only a small percentage of people have done. I self-published a book.
