Getting Published: Notice a Trend

Well, after a few hurdles I got the blogging essay collection uploaded to Kindle Direct (I wanted to try IngramSpark as a comparison but wasn't in the mood at the moment)...

Notice a Trend: 17 Years of Prime Blogging is now for sale!

All because I had award-winning blog articles from the Florida Writers Association's Royal Palm Awards - see the gold sticker! - and needed a print book to put the award stickers.

The hurdles involved as always: 

1) hiring someone to make the book cover. I went to Fiverr again and found cover designer Olinart who suggested a different approach that looked cleaner and fit the theme of the book better.

2) hiring someone to format the book for publication, because in spite of my years of writing and my background in journalism I still can't get the damn margins and book gutters (that space between printed pages where the bindery keeps it all together) figured out to a 6" x 9" alignment. PLUS getting the footnotes squeezed into the PDF was a headache, and this book on blogging - where the links to articles backing up your arguments normally go - won't go anywhere without proper citing.

Formatting to publication for fiction works seems pretty straightforward as a lot of designers offer to do that. Formatting non-fiction was a harder get, so I ended up going to a site called Reedsy where I sent out requests and got one back from Michael Vito T. who got the margins done, spaced pages to make it fit, and tweaked the fonts.

It still costs out of pocket to get these things done, but it's a far better - and more budget-friendly - method than dealing with Print-On-Demand services.

The eBook on Kindle is ready to go. The print paperback will take another three days for market. I'll amend this article when I'm sure the ISBN numbers are set.

Maybe with a fiction book I will attempt to publish via IngramSpark that way and test how that goes.

P.S. Funny Locations is doing well and I hope to find more short story fans! 

Being an Author at Lake Wales Public Library 2024

With it being National Library Week, Lake Wales Public Library asked me to present as a local author, to talk about the writing process and getting self-published.

It was a small turnout, maybe because it was still early - 10:00 AM - and early in the week. Hopefully the other local authors will see bigger attendance.

Got to talk about what I feel are key elements to writing - Time, and Inspiration - and discussed my more popular stories like "...All Others Pay Cash" and "War of the Murder Hornets".

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY, Y'ALL.

Local Author Event at Lake Wales Public Library April 9 2024

Every second week of April is National Library Week, and each public library - city or county system - will have special events to encourage our communities to show up and read out.

Lake Wales Public Library plans on hosting a week-long Local Authors appearances, and I've been invited to present my recent work Funny Locations this coming Tuesday April 9th at 10:00 am.

If you can't see the link to the library calendar, let me post the info:

Date:

April 9, 2024

Time:

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Location:

Library Lobby

Address:

290 Cypress Garden Lane
Lake Wales, FL 33853

Link:

Sign Up Here!

They would like for you to sign up so they can track the turnout, thank you.

Lake Wales should be getting a decent showing of local authors - several of my fellow members of the Writers 4 All Seasons group were invited, along with some from the Lakeland Writers chapter of FWA - all week long, so please if you're in the area do show up and support your public library and your local authors!

If you're not in the Polk County / Central Florida area, still check out your local library during the week of April 8th through the 13th for your library's activities!

(mutters to self) Now I gotta find that Florida tie I wear for library events...