I never thought that I could publish a book, but I have always believed if there is a skill you want to learn, there is really nothing stopping you from doing it but yourself.
I like to write and take pictures, and I had always wanted to put a collection of my poems and pictures together into a book. Although I had no idea how to go about, I decided to give it a try.
I read everything I could find online about self-publishing
After doing research online, I decided to learn how to self-publish with a site called Bookemon, mostly because it seemed user friendly. I did not want to get frustrated with difficult instructions or computer technology that was beyond my grasp, so this site seemed like a good starting place to self-publish my work.
I signed up using my email and made up a password. It was as easy as that to get on board.
I put together a theme and came up with a title for my new book
I live by the Jersey shore, so I wanted to have a seashore theme. To come up with an original title, I researched different titles online, and after much research, I felt comfortable with my choice, “Reflections of a Jersey Shore Summer.”
Doing the work
I gathered the appropriate poems and pictures that I wanted to use in my new book and arranged them on my computer to make it easy for me to upload. This was more difficult than I though,t because I wanted everything to be perfect. The hardest part about self-publishing is getting everything perfect. I found out it takes a lot of time and effort to constantly edit and proof your work in order to achieve this.
Uploading the material into a book format was easy for me
I had prepared photo books for friends and family before, so I already had an idea how to upload and format, and Bookemon had a lot of tools and themes to make this easy for me. The instructions were clear and I was given a choice to use their templates or to start from scratch. I decided to use their template for my first book and I can still edit my books anytime by making a new edition to an existing book.
I was very pleased with the outcome of my work and you can view the book here.
Self publishing my first book led me to publish more books
Although I really loved Bookemon and the quality of their books, I decided to try another site to self-publish. After researching additional sites, I chose CreateSpace. Although I didn’t find it as user friendly as the Bookemon site, I liked the fact that each book was assigned a free ISBN number and that my books would now be available through Amazon.
Although I am currently taking a much needed break from self-publishing, I know I will return to creating books again, especially now that I know I can do it and who knows, maybe one day I may even find a publishing company interested in publishing my work for me.
