As I paged through a few files today I came across these photos… and asked the question, why do they grow so quick?
This is my youngest Grand Daughter, who just continues to grow and grow…
From this….
To this, in no time what so ever…
I hope she slows before she competes with this…
My problem is … as fast as she grows … I grow older…
Apologies to William Shakespeare… hell if he can read this then good luck to him… Once more I have reached a cross road in my book scenario…
When I began with the book it was to share stories from my growing up, something my family felt I should do for future generations of our family… this was never done to be published, but my writing took on a life of its own and the more Linda read the more she encouraged me to write with the intention to publish….
I wrote and re wrote and then did so all over again. My English was terrible and this I felt would be the deciding factor “To publish or not to publish”.
The Good Lord put Anneli’s blog on my email list and after quite the while I had found an Editor… I think she regretted taking on this book in the beginning.. her question to me “do I understand the passive word or passive verb”, brought tears to my eyes and my answer being “what are you talking about?” I think brought tears to hers. But it gave her a better understanding of my terrible knowledge of the English language… However with perseverance she turned my book into something I love..
Then came the questions from others “Are you going to include photos?” My answer in the positive was made without even thinking it through…
A book with photos is going to cost between $ 69 and $ 89… this puts it out of the market before we begin.. yet without photos, or maybe just pencil sketches we come to a publishing cost between $5 and $8… far more reasonable… but would people be interested in my story, my escapades and experiences? I’m not sure of the answer to that….
So do I publish this as a book and eBook and follow with a coffee table photo book later, is now what I have to decide… a coffee table book of my photos is a lot cheaper when not including 300 pages of my stories… What to do, what to do, is where I find myself… could this giraffe give me the answer?
Maybe I should hop on a plane and go somewhere … maybe I’ll find an answer…
Until I come to a decision … I will continue to bang my head against the wall….
Now I wrote that title because I have no idea of what I intend to blog today… news from New Zealand that a blogger I follow has taken the first step in her book writing gets me smiling…
A post from my favourite Editor/ Author and friend has me pondering the cover of my book and what it means to me…
Do you judge a book by its cover? Does the cover give you an idea of its content? Does the cover attract your attention to investigate further? All these type questions have me pondering the selection I’d made… who knew there was so much that goes into publishing a book… I didn’t…
Then there’s Ingrid… Who, with hubby Al seem to be touring the whole of America… Al is an ex pilot… and Ingrid air hostess/ developer/ business owner can’t actually remember what all she does, pens a post about blogging… and again it has me pondering all that she shares… such wonderful points to remember when we share our thoughts on this medium…
But for a good smile, a touch of jealousy, and a thoroughly enjoyable blog there is Col (proud to say he is a fellow South African) his poetry puts a smile on my face every single time he posts…
But what about that Canadian Diana… hell I hope she’s Canadian, otherwise I’m in trouble… her post from yesterday that had me think about the answers all day….
What of Keira McKenzie and mtlawleyshire… hell I’ve never known anyone that can take a photo of a tree and make it come alive on my computer screen like she does… An Australian Girl… Australian men say their women are chrome plated… I wonder why they say that??
Then there was a email today… an offer to help fund the printing of my book. This from America. How special does that make one feel..?? I won’t name the person, but you know who you are and my heartfelt thanks for the offer… very tempted, but I need to face the possible loss alone…
This is just but a few of the blogs that have crossed my screen today that have this head working overtime…
Hell I love blogging for this very reason… and then a photo of my SiL s camera and the birds that came to inspect it…
While looking for answers to my publishing problems it was surprising the amount of emails I received from those that read my blog, yet never click like or comment. Yet they saw fit to come to my aid with all kinds of suggestions, for which I am grateful…
So when we blog we must remember there are a lot of people out there that are quietly watching and reading what we share… I find that wonderful… so I went in search of photos that would fit the bill of watching and here they are…
and then there’s the one that watches me the most…
The more I research the more despondent I get. Publishing on Amazon or CreateSpace for us (not difficult) but is not the best way to go. The biggest problem is payment. Neither can make and EFT payment to an account in our country. So how do they pay? Per cheque and then only after one reaches a royalty level of $100, then it is posted… POSTED… Oh boy our postage is not of the best.
So where do we now stand? Self printing or publishing… yes the set up of a paypal account is simple, people can pay you and you can send them the eBook version via the internet…. great, that will work well… now what about the hard copy? Printing in China is by far the cheapest. How many copies must I print? A minimum of 500 copies.. Can I sell that many? Don’t think so…. How would I pay for it? Another good question…. and what price would I have to make the book? That I still have to calculate…
So one gets an order, how do I send it to them? Well buyer pays the postage, but I have to use the same incompetent Post Office…. and there is the “catch 22”… so maybe my book is only going to be available on eBook for the time to come…
I took the camera and went for a walk… I do my best thinking camera in hand… I found this guy and asked his opinion… he first scratched his head on the one side….
Then tried the other side….
and then gave me a long look and said “Can’t help you Bud, you’re on your own with this one…”
Now that was helpful…
The Photographic Journey of bulldog. 