Catherine's Stories
by Catherine C. Brooks
(Mathews, VA, USA)
We Were Poor
When I was writing stories of yesterday for a regional magazine, a retired business promoter requested I write the history of Mathews County's 44 post offices. It appeared an impossible task other than my aunt's published research that covered one page in a local newspaper. However, I researched national post office history and then, dug deep into the older folks minds for old locations and stories.
I also knew it'd be hard to find a publisher or agent to publish the work. Before I began writing the book, I contacted all self-publishing companies who did publish-on-demand work for what information they offered. I studied each before I made a decision on the one I felt best met my needs. Meanwhile, I met an author at Open-Mike, a monthly gathering sponsored by my writer's group, who had used the publisher that I chose. She was estactic as to their service and had sold books across the United States.
The publisher's instruction book, "Become a Published Author," gave step by step instructions as to how to size, layout, apply pictures and more. They'd also give phone and/or e-mail advice and help.
Considering that I was in my 70s, I had paid for a computer that my daughter kept my company's books on; I know now it was expensive product for what it could accomplish. However, my daughter wouldn't show me how to use it for fear I'd mess up her work. So I'd begun typing my work on an electric typewriter the business owned. No one wanted it without a computer disk. Hearing my cry for help, a friend whom I'd met in the 1990s when I made window treatments for her home, offered to teach me on her computer. She did just that and within months, gave me her old desktop model when she purchased a laptop.
Once I had my book proof read for the last time, I learned to drag and drop it onto a zip disk. Thirty pictures wouldn't allow me to use a floppy disk. On that first book, I didn't realize the changes a computer could make in the process of moving it from hard drive to a disk or from one disk to the other so failed to proof read the book again. Never do that before sending it to the publisher. I did the second book correctly. What a difference!
I mailed the book disk and included a picture of myself and pictures for the front cover with other necessary items before my 79th birthday in 2005. Within less time than I had anticipated, copies of the book came for me to have copyrighted and do a final proof read. That's when I found the book had changed in transit from the computer to the disk--I had a duplicate copy of the disk so double checked. The publisher advised this very thing could happen taking it from my disk to their large computer. I corrected 30 mistakes. At that time, I'd have to pay more to have more corrected--I couldn't since I'd spent my limit.
Once I had copies of the completed book that I titled "Walk With Me" in hand, I took books everywhere I went, talked about the contents and made sales. One might see me selling one or more books in the aisle of the local grocery store or WalMart. I had sent a copy of my book to the local newspaper managing editor and she gave me several new releases about the book, why I wrote the book and where I'd have book signings. I had a gift shop that is located in the building where I operated my decorating and fabric business for 35 years, book signings. The book was a seller as one person told another.
Since the book was about post offices, I visited postmasters to make sales. Most purchased a book. When our annual Market Days drew near, I asked permission to have a book signing in their lobby on Saturday of the two-day fair. They welcomed me. I'd donated one book to the Library but gave them a second copy. Later, I visited clubs with my books speaking briefly.
Before "Walk With Me" reached nearby book stores, I started the book I'd planned to write. "Didn't Know We Were Poor," which covered my parents' lives in the flourishing 1920s and our family's during the Depression days of the 1930s, had been started. Pictures, other than the family photos I had, were hard to get. "We didn't have money for a camera or film," was the usual answer. I gathered 60 pictures for the book. I ran into several problems when I was learning to store my pictures on CDs so dragged a few from the scanner into the book because my computer was full. That is a no-no. Don't ever try it. You aren't allowed to delete the picture or edit it.
Many folks added a story from other states.
Other than my battle with pictures, I knew what to do though I still had to follow instructions. 150 published copies arrived the last week in August. I gave copies to worthy assistants, sold copies and placed copies in the Mathews Information and Visitor's Center, where I was doing well with "Walk With Me." Then, I donated a copy to the Mathews Library and got permission to have a book signing in the lobby on Market Days, September 7 and 8. I sold 75 copies those two days. The two local museums carry my books.
I regretted I hadn't ordered 250 copies on my first order.
Visit Catherine's page at Chesapeake Bay Writers.
