This is a great family book. Even though it is considered a children's chapter book (for ages 8-14), adults have found it refreshing and an enjoyable read. I hope you enjoy it.
This was quite the experience. I wrote the book quickly and loved what I wrote. I had my daughter-in-law (who is an editor) read it. She was very kind but let me know that it was in no way ready to publish. I rewrote it and got the same review. After reading her critique, I decided I needed to study writing. I spent a whole year reading and watching videos about how to write. I learned SO much.
The next step was editing. I purchased two editing programs and went page by page (word by word) and edited everything over and over (of course that meant some rewriting also which meant more editing). When I felt it was good enough, I gave it to my daughter-in-law for a final edit. Just a few mistakes!
During all of this process, I had been trying to decide on a name for the book and what to have for a book cover. Both were difficult. I hired four different people from Fiverr (a website that has freelance artists). The first and third tried to do cartoon type covers. The first canceled on me as she was pregnant and it became difficult for her. The third, well, her art was definitely not what I wanted. The second artist is who I finally went with. He did a whole scene but I ended up liking just the part that you see above.
The final step was to format my book. I am 72 and not that great with programs. I do not know why I was having such a mental block about formatting in MS Word, but it was there. I watched videos and read how to do it but my brain just didn't jive with what was being said. I asked my grandson to help me as well as a couple of other family members but most were too busy. In the end, I figured that the HELP section of Word became my best friend and I got it formatted.
I decided to self publish and chose Amazon as my tool (KDP). It's a very easy program to use. I had very little trouble understanding how to do things.
So, after 4 years of struggling, learning, and trial and errors, I finally published the book and it is now LIVE!!! I have it available in paperback and in Kindle format. If you decide you'd like to give this book a try, please leave a review.
I can't explain how exhilarating it is to accomplish something that you've thought about and worked on for so many years. I encourage anyone that has thought about doing something but put it off because they weren't sure of themselves, follow through. It is so worth it.
Thank you for listing and I hope you will try my book and one way or another, I would love if you would write a review.
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