What I wrote to Tim about self publishing - via FB

A coworker noticed that I self-published books of my work; and asked me about how to make them. So I gave him this blowhard-length answer. I can't recall when we had this exchange now, must have been late 2012? This is what I told him:
"Tim, I apologize for not being more illuminating earlier about books and publishing. I'd be happy to talk about it if you were interested.

I go into it in greater detail in the foreword of my first book. But the gist of the "Why?" is the having of a legacy of some kind.

I'm not much of a builder, or a physical media artist. So beyond my kids, I wanted to leave something with my name on it behind when I go. For me, that meant writing, and subsequently publishing what I wrote into some books that could survive beyond me.

It's been a lot of fun so far. I initially looked into www.lulu.com for self publishing, as they make it insanely easy to put together just about any kind of book you'd like to have. Photo books, poetry books, novels, etc. And you can have just one made for yourself, or a thousand. Prices not bad either.

I gravitated to Amazon's Kindle publishing site, as well as their Createspace physical book site; for the simple fact of having a larger audience via Amazon able to see and get my books. It fit my goal a little better.

Amazon give me exposure, but not necessarily lots of sales. I get more traffic as far as downloads using Smashwords.com where my books are available for free as ebooks.

It's not as physical as I'd like, but it lets people read them if they wish.

I don't plan on getting rich, or famous, off my books. The best thing I could envision happening, would be someone becoming inspired by something I came up with, to write, or make, something really great. So I just imagine what I write to be "Seeds" for human creativity.

Keeps me realistic, and humble.

But yeah, if you wanted to put something together, I'd be happy to give any advice I might have gained so far.

My first book, was a real monster to put together: Over 700 pages, 75,000 words, 366 chapters. It was a real learning experience. And basically chronicled what I did as far as writing, every day, in 2011.

Sorry this got so long. Hour long lunch, plus idle hands, equals this. Sometimes.

Cheers!"



1/24/2015 update: he never got back with me. So either my advice was so good that he didn't need to; or ..... other.

I'm betting hard on 'other'.

Cheers
To not knowing as much as I think.