TheBanyanTree: Being a Publisher

[Pam Lawley]

If it's all the same with you, I'm just going to keep on baking and only
write vicariously through you as I read your book.

Again.  :)

And go ahead and puke if you must... I'll just stand quietly by jumping up
and down and cheering.

I am awesome moral support!!

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 7:26 PM, Monique Colver <monique.colver at gmail.com>wrote:

> Lessons I've learned in the past week:
>
> 1. Publishing is even more fun than writing.
> 2. Writing is the easy part.
> 3. As soon as you publish, you'll want to change something, if you look at
> the final product. So I'm not looking at it, except for the cover. I don't
> open it. Besides, the cover is the pretty part.
> 4. There's always one more thing to do.
> 5. You can't hesitate to tell people, "Buy this book!"
> 6. There will always be people who, having read on FB numerous times that
> one is writing a book, will then ask, "Oh, you wrote a book? What's it
> about?"
> 7. 95% of people know someone who's mentally ill, or knows someone who
> knows someone who is.
> 8. If you worry about what people will think, get over yourself.
> 9. I should write more.
> 10. Publishing a book is like a full-time job.
>
> When I first realized my book was out there on Amazon, for anyone at all to
> read, I was overcome with a feeling that I can only describe as . . .
> nauseated. I felt sick to my stomach. People would be able to judge me,
> based on what I wrote in this book. I was supposed to be excited, people
> said, but I didn't feel excited. I felt . . . nauseated.
>
> I have determined that this is the proper response.
>
> After all, an easier, faster, and cheaper way to accomplish the same thing
> would be to walk outside without any clothes on. But there are no royalties
> in that, so publishing a book turns out to be better of the two options.
> Still, I've exposed myself to the world, with a bundle of faults, and all I
> can do now is pretend that I mean to do that. (That, and I'm told I could
> go to jail for annoying the public, and since I've spent my entire life
> avoiding jail . . . )
>
> It doesn't look so bad if you meant to do it.
>
> Honey isn't very steady on her feet these days. She topples easily, and on
> the wood floors she's prone to sliding off her feet so she's laying instead
> of walking, belly on the floor. Instead of being embarrassed, she just
> looks at us as if to say, "I totally meant to do that." And that's the
> trick. Pretend that what's you meant to do all along, and no one will
> notice what's really going on.
>
> Still, there's nothing like having a book up on Amazon.
>
> You should write one too.
>
> Monique
> www.anuncommonfriendship.com
>