The Angels Weekly

Since DIY 1,  I’ve decided to go for it. As it turns out, it’s a lot tougher than I thought it would be. A LOT tougher.

I have a lot of short stories on my laptop and a few of them were on the web as well. An idea came to me to put them together in a little book. Together, I call these stories “Tales of Erotasy.” Catchy, I think!

Unfortunately, coming up with the title is the only easy part of the process.

1.The Layout

I always thought I knew what I was doing with MS Word, but it turns out I have no clue. It was definitely humbling, I admit.

The problem was the headers and footers. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get them to do what I want. Numbers appeared on blank pages and chapter titles were with the wrong chapters. I had never heard of section breaks before I began, but they became an uneasy friend during the process.

After hours of searching on the internet, I finally found a decent how-to online. The link has since escaped me, of course, but I swear everyone else out there tried to make the task ultra difficult. It was the only decent tutorial. And even with the comprehensive tutorial, I still had serious set backs with it.

2. The Cover

I’m in no way a designer. I have friends that are, but I really wanted to keep the whole book a surprise. Of course, I could have spent a large sum of money through Lulu.com’s people, but I’m poor (so, so poor). So, I had to stretch my abilities to the breaking point in inventing a cover for Tales. I think it turned out well. Of course, it may have turned out better if there had been more information on how things needed to be done.

3. The Price

Well, originally I wanted to sell the book for around $14.00, which is still pretty steep, but the only way I could make a little extra cash off my efforts, not that I really expected to. So, imagine my surprise at the markup caused by putting it in the marketplace. In order to get the ISBN number via Lulu and the chance to have the book in places such as Amazon, Lulu marked the book up by $10.00 more. Ah well….Luckily, downloading it is only $7.00 and that ain’t bad!

4. The Marketing

You know, I thought it wouldn’t be too hard to market a book, but you know, it really is! I’ve put it on a few websites and on my own blog. I pimped it a little bit on Facebook.com. I even tried to put it on my local Craigslist, but as it turns out, it hates me (couldn’t get it to post!!). I’m still trying to get it out there, so there is hope.

So far, there is nothing that has me really jumping up and down for joy about self-publishing, except for the fact that I have a very real book with my name on it. And it’s mine. It’s quite a feeling to hold it and see it. Definitely a huge inspiration.

If you’re in the mood for a little erotica with a generous helping of the great beyond, check out Tales of Erotasy, available at Lulu.

Tales of Erotasy (http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback_book/tales_of_erotasy/6188318)
ISBN 978-0-557-05530-2
$24.30 print, $7.00 download

by: E. D. Beale

Tags: a book of erotica, publishing a book, self publishing, Tales of Erotasy, writing a book

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