The things that keep us going

I keep saying that what keeps me writing is the writing itself and that is wholly true.  There is not a day that I am not compelled to sit down and write something that is not a manual on how to use on of the hospital's data bases.

But beyond that, I am a human being and recognition of my writing is always something that makes me smile.  After all I feel when I hold my book in my hand, I like it better when I see it in someone else's hand.

I hear from a friend this morning that the book club of her church has chosen In Between Goodbyes as one of their books this summer.  Warms the cockles of my heart, it does.

Why I've self-published...part two

So I re-examined my motives for publishing. Was it to be on the best-seller list? Well I’d certainly love that but it wasn’t the reason I write. I write because I have to. I have a pension, and (as of next month) I have social security. I have a little job at the hospital and a nice volunteer job at Therapeutic Riding. While I’d love the money from a best-seller, I’m not sure I’d like the fame and the work.

I examined the current publishing industry. Certainly an up-front advance would be nice but, more and more the industry is giving smaller advances to first time authors and requiring more and more that they do their own publicity.

What is my goal? Well it certainly isn't being snubbed by the “in” girls while trying to get into the industry. It wasn’t doing my own publicity after I had spent a year blowing my own horn to get the book published in the first place. It wasn’t being out of control of my own book with regard to when and where it was in print.

But I don’t have the money for vanity or subsidy publishing. Then one day I stumbled upon LuLu.com. Voila! The new self-publishing. I could see my book in print and sell the book with any type publicity I chose. Now how do I do this?

To be continued.