Saturday, March 28, 2015

After much Kindle formatting, my book is now available as a paperback and e-book!!!

I was going to save this post for next week because my books were anticipated to arrive April 3rd, but they came in today. It is such a surreal feeling to see something you have written and put together actually be in your hands. I ran around my house screaming "I have a book!" to my parents and anyone else that would listen to my mad rantings. I was overcome with joy, excitement, happiness, and oh so many more feelings that I cannot name.

The cover looked much better than I had anticipated and the inside was formatted beautifully. I am impressed with CreateSpace despite the many negative comments I have seen about them. I was very hesitant to publish with them at first because of this. However, now that I've seen my actual book I am more than happy with the quality.

It was a lot of work on my end to format the interior both for the CreateSpace edition and the Kindle edition. The Kindle edition took the most editing and reformatting of all because I was a dodo head and didn't take the time to read the directions.

For those of you struggling with formatting click on the links below for some information that will make it a whole lot easier.

1. Simplified Formatting Guide
2. Building Your Book for Kindle
3. How to Format Your E-Book

Thank you again to everyone who has supported and encouraged me. Below is the product of my work and your support!

The Front Cover!

Sample of the Interior

The Back Cover!!

Thank you to my supporters

I am feeling so blessed right now! I've promoted my book on Facebook, and after a few days my very dear friends have given me encouragement, downloaded my book, and given me great feedback. The past few days have been a whirlwind of worry, excitement, happiness, more worry, and more excitement. 

It's made me realize how important it is to have a ring of support for you as a writer. Writing can sometimes be a very solitary activity with you spending many a late night with only the musings of your mind to keep you company. As an introvert, writing is a very appealing activity for me. As I have grown older, I've realize that it is not as solitary as I originally thought.

Writers are a part of the world, and as such our inspiration comes from those around us and the world that surrounds us. It's important during the writing process to maintain connections with your family and friends because they will be the most supportive of your work once it is published. Even if they are the only ones to buy your book, it is still a win because you know you have wonderful, supportive people in your life.

I am fortunate to be surrounded by family and friends that have supported my endeavors, and that I know will continue to support me as I navigate the insanity that writing can be sometimes. On another note, it is also important to reach out to other writers that can help give you advice or ideas to move you along when that dreaded writer's block hits. 

Thank you everyone for your support and for being such wonderful people!

Please check out the links below for where to find my book and more information about it.


Thursday, March 26, 2015

Introduction

I haven't felt this nervous since the first day I stood in front of a class of middle school kids. Thoughts raced through my mind of why on Earth I had agreed to this insanity. Teaching, as life would have it, turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. I've had a blast teaching such a diverse group of students. There are days that they are the only reason I want to come in to work. I've taught social studies, language arts, math, science. No matter what I teach though, my true love will always be writing.

My intention as an undergraduate was to become a famous author. I was enthusiastic about my fiction and poetry, but it was the sharing it with the world part that got me. I loved writing, but was always so afraid of letting others read my work. It was as if I was giving people a piece of my soul to chop away slowly. I didn't like the feeling of being bare in front of all to see. For that reason, I left the majority of my stories and unfinished novels on my dusty bookshelf and inside my cluttered hard drive.

It's been seven years since I graduated with my creative writing degree, and only now have I decided to publish the works that I loved so dearly in my teens. They were very important stories to me as I grew up into a young adult. I would often go back to them and read them, wondering what on Earth I was thinking when I wrote them. I always remembered how I felt when I wrote them though, which made me think that maybe others would feel the same way when they read them.

Click Here to Purchase
With my niece's support and the support of my family, I decided to compile my collection and publish them. I would have loved to have shopped the collection to a big publishing house, but that didn't have the immediacy that I was looking for. I wanted to have my collection in my hands as soon as I finished putting it together. For that reason, I decided to self-publish this collection.

That turned out to be WAY more difficult than I anticipated. Writing short stories is one thing. Designing
, formatting, and advertising are quite another. I have immense respect for the people that handle these things on a daily basis. They're geniuses. I did the cover design, interior formatting, and Oh! did I forget copy editing. More geniuses. I never realized how truly important all of these people are when it comes to publishing a book. They're just as important as the author if not more important because without them there is no book for the rest of us to read. Just a manuscript.

So it is my hope that my little book of short stories will serve to entertain you, if only for a while. Thank you for all of those who have supported me and encouraged me to continue.

I am currently working on a novel series that I believe is a great improvement from my work as a teenager. Let's hope that I can get that out to all of you soon.

Happy reading.