| Sharing Your Experiences, Memories, and Stories | |||||
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Let’s assume that you have been writing and experiencing some of the joys and benefits of the process: discovering, healing, reinventing, or just having fun. Perhaps you’re writing poems, stories, a novel, or your life story. Eventually, you’ll begin to wonder, “What should I do with my writing? How can I preserve and share it?” In this column, I’ll present an overview of some of the possibilities for sharing your work. There are many, many options: on-line publishing sites, printers, copy shops, publishers of several kinds, even the possibility of audio recording. Your choices will depend upon your budget and your intentions. In future columns, I’ll go into some of the possibilities in greater depth, but for now, my purpose is to start you thinking and planning. I’ll provide links to interesting publishing sites I’ve discovered, and I invite you to let me know about others you find yourselves. If you’ve had any publishing experiences, good or bad, I’d like to know about those as well. If you are an old-school traditionalist or academic, as I once was, you may be dreaming about sending off queries or manuscripts to publishers or agents, getting at least an occasional enthusiastic response, and receiving lucrative There’s no right or wrong here. There’s nothing wrong with having big publishing dreams of fame and fortune, but unless you’re a known author, a celebrity, and/or a person with a very unusual story to tell, it probably won’t happen. On the other hand, writing just for yourself can be a valuable and enjoyable activity, and sometimes our darkest thoughts and wildest rants and complaints are best kept private. But let’s assume that you are considering sharing your writing with your family–or the whole world–in a fairly easy and timely way. You have many options, from free to costly. 1. Share here on eGenerations. Post your writing in your memoir or journal or whatever feature may eventually replace them. Tell your friends and family where to look for it. Ask other eGenerations members to comment. It may be a bit disconcerting to scroll ‘way back to get to early chapters, but free posting on line is a great opportunity. You can make other plans for your work later if you choose.
3. Check out your local copy shop. FedEx/ Kinkos and Office Max and others will print and bind your work from either an uploaded computer file or a printed manuscript copy. They offer many choices, from paper quality to covers to binding methods, so always get a price quote for the kind of booklet or pamphlet you want and the number of copies you want. A small local print shop may be interested in the job if you want a fairly large number of copies; check it out. 4. If you want a “real book” rather than a booklet or pamphlet, several on-line publishing sites allow you to format your book, upload it to their sites, and order copies. They provide templates and specific instructions. Lulu.com at http://www.lulu.com offers a “Take a tour of Lulu” video that explains its offerings very clearly. Their standard book size is 6" x 9", but they offer other sizes as well. Prices vary according to the services you want. Do you need an ISBN number and a bar code? Will you include color photographs? How many copies will you need? Another interesting site is Instant Publisher (http://www.instantpublisher.com). Their standard size is 51/2" x 8 ½", but they, too, offer other sizes. The minimum order is twenty-five copies. The site provides easy-to-find information. For picture books filled with color photographs, BookSmart Software at http://www.blurb.com may be a good choice. Their book sizes (7" x 7", 8" x 10", and 13" x 11") don’t seem ideal for books containing mainly text, but the books look beautiful on line. Check them out. Any book containing color photos is likely to be somewhat more expensive. As you probably realize, working with these on-line publishers requires a certain amount of computer word processing skill. They seem easy to use, but you may need to take a word processing class or ask a friend or relative to help you out. A volunteer or professional copy editor and/or proofreader might be useful, too. 5. Another somewhat more expensive choice for “real books” would be a regular POD or print-on-demand publisher. Some examples are the one I’ve used, Infinity Publishing (http://www.infinitypublishing.com) as well as xLibris, AuthorHouse, iUniverse, BookLocker, Trafford, Outskirts Press, Bookstand Publishing  Finally, despite my love for the printed word, I’ll mention an interesting site that offers help for the disabled or those who feel more comfortable speaking than writing. For about $39.95, you can order an Audio biography kit with instructions for recording your life story, or encouraging an older relative to record his or hers, on a CD or a cassette tape. The site is at http://www.americanstorykeepers.com. Did you know that John Grisham began by self-publishing and selling his first book out of the trunk of his car? To read more about self-publishing, read Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual, 16th edition. It’s available for $13.57 at http://www.amazon.com. Whatever method you choose for sharing your writing, be sure to read all the fine print. If you know any authors, self-published or otherwise, ask them about their experiences. Publishing can be very expensive; perhaps you have heard a few of those old Vanity Publishing stories about basements full of expensive, unattractive, unsold books. Things have changed, but always be sure that you understand what you’re ordering, what’s included, and what the final cost will be. If you use your skills and common sense, you can share your creations, your fascinating experiences, and the lessons you’ve learned easily and at a cost within your budget.
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