Tag Archives: self publishing a book

How I wrote poetry- Part 2

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If you missed my first part of how I wrote my poetry books check out the blog here before continuing, or check it out after it doesn’t really matter. Everything is written. Now you may think, wow the bulk is over. No. It’s not even close! Remember I wrote them in a notebook by hand so I still have very much left to do! Just the typing them up in 3 separate documents for each book and organizing them as I go through took a bit of time. I also have 2 kids so time was limited and I would spend a few weekends in the afternoons or mornings to type them up.

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I now have to start the long process of editing and typing up every poem in the proper files, since I wrote 3 collections at once I need to take then time to get all of the poems out at first. Editing is something I did myself. I felt with it being poetry I could do it myself. If it were the short stories or novels I eventually would like to write that would more than likely require an editor. One that knows the details and rules. Now, is there spelling mistakes? Yup. And I am okay with that. I need to go through and re-edit now that I know more about what to do. Which is incredibly challenging but still. I knew editing was something I would want to try to save money on because I was spending money on other things. The fact is, I am a brand new author and poet. Not everything is going to be perfect in the very first book. There is, like much of life, going to be things that I will change or tweek as time goes on. This is no exception. But what I have put out I am proud of though.

Formatting was a very very unexpected expense. I thought I too could do this on my own and I was very wrong. I felt like formatting the books to look a certain way I was taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back. I ended up finding a great person with great reviews and they formatted the books from Fiverr and used them to format all 3 books. While it was an expense it saved so much time for me. I felt like in the end there was no way I could have done the tips and tricks for formatting. Not to mention if I were to figure it out I would more than likely need to have gotten another program which there was a good chance it was subscription based also. Which would have still been more money.

Covers were something I also paid to have done. The reasoning for this was due to the fact that I had a very specific idea for them. I wanted them to be custom made. And all 3 to have similar covers due to the fact that it was supposed to be a trilogy. I had found an artist that I liked their art style a pretty retro take. They did all 3 covers so they look together. The main thing when getting covers done is ensuring that you get the source file. That way in the future if you wanted to tweak things in the back etc, you are able to do so. Getting the source file is normally the reason why getting covers designed are fat more expensive than they normally would be but our family friend who has been giving tips along the way said this was a big thing to remember to get when having covers created.

Publishing seems to be the easiest step. Because once you have the formatting and covers, publishing to Kindle direct publishing like I did is just some answering questions and uploading. Though you do have to think of certain criteria like keywords and also a price point. Before uploading to KDP it would also do a lot of good if you have time (and if not should make some!) To browse the category you are using. See what other books are selling for that are similar. This also is HUGE when designing a cover and creating the ideas. You want to have a catch cover for the genre so people know what your trying to show. If you have a romance and a cover that isn’t hot and steamy people may be totally lost and have no interest to even read the little paragraph describing it. Much like crime books also have their own look as well with the cover designs. A bad cover can literally make your incredible book not sell. It has to grab the attention of readers.

Marketing is one of the hardest things I struggle with and on top of it I am just not being consistent. At the end of the day you have to market your books endlessly but if you don’t do anything no one else will. I try to do Instagram and also tiktok. Though I can admit I have been majorly slacking in all areas and need to keep hammering down and putting out info on different platforms. With 2 kids and a 3rd on the way though it really is challenging even if it doesn’t sound to be that hard to upload or record a quick little video. But that’s okay. Eventually I will keep plugging away. Same with these blogs, that is why I try to link the books via the posts in hopes someone reading may be interested in my other works too!

Overall, writing and publishing was not easy. I would be lying to you if I said that it was. I also had a lot of help from a friend of the family who had published things before. This was a great way for me to bounce ideas or even ask how things go. It can be overwhelming to google things like how to publish a book especially because everywhere around the world does things differently. Hopefully you have an interest peeked though and check out the first ones I published too!

The Darkness, Poetry Collection, Explained!

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If you have been living under a rock, you may not be aware but I have been writing, editing and releasing a collection of poetry. In fact I am releasing three this year! This is explaining the first (And essentially “darkest” one) and what you may need to be aware of.

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Before I begin to jump into some subjects of this book here is your trigger warning. The subjects that are in this book and what I am about to talk about are hard for most to deal with. A lot of us have dealt with them and lived them and a lot of us just find they are hard to form opinions because there is a stigma around them. There is various reasons for me to have written this particular collection however the subjects here are tough for most to read or accept too.

**If you like what you are reading through out these blogs, and are looking at ways to financially support the blog, please consider checking out my Ko-Fi link here. You will NEVER be pressured to contribute to towards put any type of money towards the blog however if the thought has crossed your mind, here is a great way to help a stay at home mom provide some financial relief for her family.

One of the reasons why I wrote this collection was for myself. That is because apparently I had a lot of feelings that I needed to express. One of the subjects that has a dominant theme in the categories would be that I write about domestic violence. If you aren’t familiar with it, I was in an abusive relationship from the time that I was 18 to just after I turned 20 years old. It sucked. It was hard. I never really talked about it. And this was a way for me to release and spread how I felt. I know that people too who maybe felt like I could were unable to understand why this happened to them, They may have felt like they deserved it like I did, or they make have been in similar situations too. I feel like by writing a lot of these things I have let myself understand that these things did happen and they were real.

Another subject that I talk about is drug abuse. A lot of us know what it may be like to have family members who have been addicted to various means or maybe themselves. When I was in high school towards my final years I loved to take ecstasy. Was it a problem? Sure. Did no one know about it? Not really. I just hid things from people and made it seem fine. Doing it at parties or with friends or even working at Burger King with a few people working or the manager too. This is something that I talk about too in this particular blog in detail.

These poems also touch on subjects from a self harm, bullying, death and losing family members, illnesses like cancer and depression. I am not going to sit here and say I have a diagnosed mental health issue. I never sought help and I dont feel like I needed to. Maybe one day but for the time being I just never did. I feel like when I write it was something similar to throwing something away. I felt like I was able to write how I felt and that I was giving a weight that has been weighing me down.

I wanted to write this selfishly for myself however I have a feeling that maybe, just maybe, others will also feel like they too feel that they too will be to understand though that there is more people out there who also feel the way that they were feeling. So often when we are in situations we all bottle things up, and we blame ourselves. We feel like we are alone. Due to the stigma of these subjects people either wont take us seriously etc. Not this time. I am writing this as a way of exposing and hopefully breaking barriers that these situations are more known than we may want to lead on to be.

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I know that some people are not going to be interested in this. That is totally okay too! I know that this book is not for everyone either. I have put a lot of disclaimers in and trigger warnings including some sub-subjects in the table of contents. That way you can choose if you want to read particular chapters or skip through them. Kind of think about the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul books and how they ranged in many subjects and what not. Now a days people like to have the trigger warnings so that they can prep themselves or skip readings. That is what I am doing here. I want people to be fully aware that what they are reading may effect them mentally and be challenging for them to continue.

I also want to be blunt and harsh when I wrote them too. I didn’t want to write about situations where they seemed to sugar coats them. Domestic abuse, death, feeling lonely are all situations where they should not be sugar coated. They are supposed to be hard to deal with. I didn’t want to make a domestic violence filled relationship seem to be “That bad” because it was. It was bad. It was something that took me a very long time to get over and a very long time to come to terms with it.

I hope that when this book goes out into the online world that many too can find some sort of peace in reading it. You are not alone. Your feelings are valid and that you are fully able to feel whatever way you are feeling. I also want to show that through The Darkness comes light. There is a way to get past anything life throws at you and if writing poems like myself are a way to cope so be it, if you need to seek professional opinions and treatment, that is also alright too! There are many ways with dealing with life’s darkest and hardest subjects. This is my way of dealing with them.

If you would like to purchase the book you are more than welcome to do so here, though the link is for the Canadian site you may need to be redirected to the Amazon sited for your Country to be able to purchase a copy for yourself!