Grief is the catalyst of becoming self published

by Kathleen Gage
(Pleasant Hill, OR)

My journey into self-publishing began over a decade ago. Little did I know the twists and turns I would experience as a result of publishing my first book.

For many years prior to writing and publishing my first book, I had the dream of being a published author. As with many aspiring authors, I thought all that was needed was for me to come up with an idea for a book, query publishers and wait for my advance check so I could begin writing my book.

The book I planned on writing was going to be spiritual in nature and contain the experiences of my journey in 1983 that took me 10,000 miles from my home of Berkeley, California to the West Bank of Israel.

I was sure any publisher in their right mind would be interested in my manuscript. After receiving one rejection notice after another, I put my vision of being a published author on the dream shelf.

Over the next few years I pursued a professional speaking career. In my early years as a speaker, I would listen to more seasoned speakers. They all said, “Write a book.”

Since I still had a bruised ego over the fact no publisher was interested in the idea for my first book, I ignored the seasoned speakers’ sage advice. That is until life opened up an experience that was to be the seed of my first book.

In 1998, my dear friend, Van, unexpectedly passed on at the age of 36. Van and I were the best of friends. With Van’s passing I found myself experiencing a level of pain in my heart and spirit I had never before experienced.

As I grieved this great loss, every day I would write my feelings and thoughts about life in general. In my heart I dedicated these writings to Van’s memory. Upon completing hundreds of pages of thoughts, I compiled them into a booklet that I gave to Van’s family. Several people asked me to turn the writings into an actual book.

Knowing that I didn’t want to wait on the approval of an unknown publisher, I decided to find out how to publish the book on my own. It was during this time I saw a small posting in my local paper about a presentation being hosted by a local printer featuring Dan Poynter, an authority on self-publishing.

(See Poynter's books.)

With pen and paper in hand, I attended the presentation. I was amazed to see the number of people who were also interested in self-publishing.

I can’t tell you exactly what it was that Dan said, but something he said sparked the self-publishing fire in me.

I quickly went about setting up a small publishing company. Since I was already established in my speaking business, it wasn’t a far stretch to begin a publishing division.

I took my collection of writings that helped me get through the grief of Van’s passing and created my first book, Message of Hope; Inspiring Thoughts for Uncertain Times.

And the rest is, as they say, is history. Since that time I have self-published three other books - one of which became an Amazon.com bestseller in May 2006 - dozens of eBooks and information products. My venture into self-publishing has allowed me to create a life I once only dared dream of.

What I love most about self-publishing is the control I have over the creative aspect of my writings. I decide what goes in the book, on the cover, the title and how I market it.

Since publishing my first book, I have learned a great deal about the industry. I attend conferences, network with other self-published (and traditionally published) authors, attend teleseminars, read books, visit blogs and do all I can to immerse myself in the industry that has changed my life.

I am involved in the Independent Book Publishers Association as well as acting in the capacity of mentor to aspiring self-published authors.

Without a doubt, becoming a self-published author has changed my life...for the best. And there is no end in sight.

Visit Kathleen's site.

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Oct 03, 2008 Rating Best qualified to be your own publisher by: Steve B. (webmaster) Kathleen, something occurred to me as I was reading your post and visiting your site: You ARE the best person to be your own publisher. Now I want to make clear that I don't say that about everybody. Here's why I say it about you... You have your own audience already. You were a successful speaker before you were a self published author. Of COURSE you can write and publish better than anybody for this audience. It's a unique audience. It's YOUR audience. And you know what else??? You built your audience before you even wrote your book. Some of the most savvy folks who have posted to this site have suggested much the same thing (but in a slightly different way). You see, we can't ALL be public speakers. (People like me shouldn't even be out in public!) If we were all public speakers, who would be the audience??? But anyone can build an audience by building a website. And that's what these savvy folks suggest. Find your audience. Write about your subject and post it to the web. THEN write your book. I look at your impressive site and there's so much there! A blog. Lots of FREE resources. All of it on the subject of marketing. For visitors to this site, I need to elaborate on that word FREE. People search and surf for FREE information. If your site doesn't have free information on an oft-searched subject, good luck getting traffic! So Kathleen has a tightly focused site on an oft-searched subject with lots of free resources. This provides the traffic - the visitors to whom she can market her books and her professional services. No one simply posts a product (say, a book) to the web then has people suddenly discover it and start buying it. That is, unless they're getting a lot of publicity in some other arena or advertising. It doesn't happen because the search engines don't send surfers to your site unless there's something of value ON THE SITE. (Rather than something of value you can BUY FROM the site.) So how do you build a site on an oft-searched subject? (As for instance, I have with SELF PUBLISHING.) Well, you don't do it by guessing how it's done. The outfit I use SHOWS you how it's done then gives you the tools to do it. Popular subject + Free information = Unique audience Unique audience + Tailored product = Sales I would ask other self publishers to consider whether their sites "add up." Thanks, Kathleen, for sharing all you've learned!

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