Very excited to have received my first proof copy of What I Want You To Know. The illustrations inside look great. I’m happy with the paper and everything in general. I wish the cover had a better spine to it; apparently my spine is too thin to have the title on it. So booo, but what did I expect?
Still hunting down the folks who said they’d review the book and give me a line to use on the back cover. Or media kit. One thing I’m learning, I need to be more aggressive I guess.
This evening I ran out of work at 5:00 on the nose. I had to stop at the grocery store for absolute essentials for Presley’s lunch, and something to eat for dinner. On the drive, the NPR discussion was about traditional publishing houses vs. the new surge of independent writers now publishing their own works. The gentleman representing the “major labels” of the publishing world has his work cut out for him. I see them going the way of the old-time record label execs. Maybe following cues from the music industry, they can start suing everyone for copyright violations and charging for authors autographs.
I used createspace.com to publish my first book, Get Creative!, with what I consider GREAT success. Have I sold a million copies? No. I haven’t even sold dozens of copies. But I was able to take an idea, (a creative journal that didn’t overwork the blank pages with fancy type treatments of the creative exercises,) that had some heft to it, was suitable for all ages, and was cheap, (both on the retail end, and my end as “publisher”). I took full advantage of createspace’s free ISBN # and distribution with this title. When the proof arrived for Get Creative!, I was totally thrilled with the quality.
I’d been researching/pricing/dreaming of self-publishing for ages…but the idea of handing over several thousand dollars, and then being stuck with a pile of inventory didn’t make it too appealing or feasible. Enter createspace. No money down. No piles of books in the garage. Beauty.
With my fully illustrated book I felt safe leaving it in the hands of createspace. I have not aspirations that this is going to become some runaway hit. It’s just not. My audience is too niche. AND that was not my goal with either book; especially with the What I Want title. My hope is that one person reads it, is comforted by it, and that is it. A simple goal that certainly doesn’t require a major publishing house to pick it up.
I like to say Presley is a kid who happens to have Down syndrome…so I guess I’m a mom who happens to make a couple of books. No big thing…and certainly not our defining trait to those who know and love us. We’re just enjoying life and wearing smiles today.
RA Hudson 