Wildacres Day 3

I had a major breakthrough this morning. I talked to an author who used Amazon Create Space to publish her book. She had an excellent experience and convinced me it is the way to go.

Last night at the readings, the one reading that made the greatest impression was one by a woman from Georgia named Janna Zonder. She read the first chapter of her new novel, Magenta Rave. This morning after breakfast I asked Janna if I could buy a copy of her book. She invited me to her room and we talked about publishing. I learned more in the 20-minute conversation with Janna than I have in the last six months of attending workshops and reading articles. She said the customer service at Create Space was excellent, and the cost of the process is very low. Her basic cost for each book is about $5, and she is selling the book for $12.99. She said the hardest part for her was the formatting, but I believe my experience designing newspaper pages should make that easier for me. I can’t wait to do it myself. Talking to an author about Create Space—while holding her beautiful book in my hands—was a transformative experience.

Until this morning I was harboring a prejudice against “self-published” books. Having talked to Janna, I feel different. Now I feel confident that it is the way to go for me. After workshopping my book here at Wildacres and at the Cape Cod Writers Conference, I think I will move to setting up my book through Create Space. Glenda will also be editing it, so I feel confident I will have a high-quality book.

After the talk with Janna, I returned to the Guest House for a morning of writing. The hard part is going back to The Elements of Academic Writing after getting so excited about publication options for I Just Want to Be Happy. Life is good.

In that morning of writing, I finished chapter 10 and started on Chapter 11. I also went back and re-read the first 10 chapters for consistency in tone, voice and point of view. I found out there is no escaping using second-person in this book. After lunch I walked the Mountaintop Trail, which circles the property. It was a short trail with some steep hills. It only took me about 20 minutes to walk it.

After the walk, I rested in bed and read the first four chapters of Janna’s book. It is very good. Then back to writing. I got a little writing done, but ended up mostly chatting with my housemates about foreign travel. After last year's trip to France, I felt comfortable in the conversation. I walked up to the lodge to upload this blog where these is an Internet connection. After dinner, there will be more readings. Perhaps I'll offer my new poem.