I decided to publish a new book consisting of all my little poems written over the years. If you follow my Instagram account then you're likely to have read and seen many of my short verse poems.
In 2017, I published the novel Lost Oceans using a local self-publishing company, instead of going the traditional route. This time, I chose to do the process completely on my own.
It was a long process. And, at times, confusing, however it was not impossible.
I wanted a simple look and layout, nothing excessive, but something that flowed well with the words I was trying to showcase.
I was unsure whether I wanted images or not, concerned if it would detract from the point of the book, but after selecting all original photographs taken by myself or close family and friends I realized how much life it brought to the book.
Next came the formatting... as a reader I had plenty of knowledge on how it should look but being the editor and designer made achieving that goal a little more difficult.
So, I researched.
I used what little I knew and what lot I learned and put them together to create a brand new paperback.
I now know about page sizes, alignment, tabs, alternating headers and footers (this took a weekend to understand and do), page breaks, and odd and even page numbers, as well as image size and positioning and copyrighting.
I edited the book without a third party which really isn't so hard when it's a poetry book (I remember the editing process for my novel and it was the worst thing about publishing).
I started the print manuscript in April 2018 and months later - December 2018, I published the paperback on Amazon.
It was then after I decided on working on the ebook... Kindle was the first option. And around that time I received a lovely email from kindle direct publishing that there was this new thing called kindle create a programme that helps you publish your Kindle book.
Best. Thing. Ever.
I had it done in two days.
Should I choose to go through this lone process of self-publishing again, I now know I have the necessary information and the basic in's and out's to a new door of publishing.
I know I still have a few more things to take care of with this new book, I'd like to get it out and available on other platforms which means a new format. For now, though, I'm happy to say infinite pauses is available on Amazon and Kindle
I hope it brings a pause in your infinite world...