Welcome to My World

I wanted to share with you a little bit of the story behind the story of getting my newest book published, Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Beginning Readers and Chapter Books.

Each book has its own journey, so I thought you’d be interested to hear a little bit more about the journey this book has taken.

I originally started writing this book per request of a publisher.

However, somewhere along that journey, through circumstances nobody could have foreseen at first, I decided I wanted to self-publish this book.

Here are some of the reasons I made this decision:

#1 The Economy

The economy played a large role in this decision. It’s harder and harder to keep a book in print in today’s economy, and I decided I didn’t want this book to just be in print for 2 or 3 years and then die. I wanted to keep this book in print as long as I want it to be in print, not get “killed off” because of a publisher’s decision. That was one reason I decided to self-publish this book.

And when I researched several writing books by big famous authors published by big famous publishing houses, I found these books had all gone out of print!

#2 My Own Personal Writing Journey

I’ve had over 85 books published by publishers both big and small. And every time you get a book published with a publisher, there are a zillion tiny little decisions that you simply have no say in whatsoever. That’s okay. It’s just a normal part of this industry.

For this particular book, however, I wanted complete control over every decision. That’s another reason I decided to self-publish this book.

For example, I know my cover idea may not be the best in the industry, but I just wanted a picture of my homemade quilt on the front along with a photo of my cute cat, Pitterpat. And I know some of my tips or techniques might not be the strongest, but these are real strategies that I use and real stuff I do that have worked to bring me success as a children’s author. I wanted to share all this with you and not have some editor cut it because they didn’t think it was important enough to keep in the book. I feel strongly that everything I’ve included in this books IS important. That’s why I put it in.

#3 My Current Publishing Commitments

Another reason I decided to publish this myself is because I’m already under contract with publishers big and small to write more and more books and magazine articles for more and more deadlines.

I didn’t need another book project with a tight deadline and stress-filled contract commitments. I wanted a project I could write for my own personal fulfillment. (See my sections about the Triple Crown of Success and writing for personal fulfillment in my first how-to-write book, Yes! You Can Learn How to Write Children’s Books, Get Them Published, and Build a Successful Writing Career.)

At some point in this book’s journey, I decided this was the project I wanted to do right now for personal fulfillment.



#4 I wanted to try a new experiment in publishing

I’m always trying out new things in publishing! As leader of writers groups for nearly 20 years, I like to experiment and test the waters and report back to the writers I mentor. Plus I like to share with you and other readers who follow my blog. We’re here for each other and I want to share as many helpful tips and strategies with you as I can. I want you to experience success and fulfillment as a writer, too!

So somebody told me last summer about CreateSpace, a place owned by Amazon that lets you self-publish your book for FREE!

So I decided I wanted to check this opportunity out and see what I thought about it. And the book I decided to use as one of my first guinea pigs was this book.

And wow! I’m so glad I used CreateSpace. It is simply the best self-publisher I’ve ever used. (I’ve self-published half a dozen other books in years past.)

If you’d like to hear about WHY I love it and plan to use it to publish a bunch of other manuscripts, let me know and I’ll share some insight!

So there you have it…some of the main reasons I decided to self-publish my new book.

This book has been out now for a month, and I’m excited for the journey to continue! Thanks for joining in the adventure, too!