Book of Ideas

One of my goals for this year is to publish a full-length book of poems, essays, and photography from circa 1990 to 2010. It's one of the proverbial "bucket list" items I want to accomplish. Steve, my adorable husband, indicated that he wanted to edit the book. So happily I handed over the book of ideas from my folder. I started emailing him a plethora of writings from the years at Holy Cross College to my master's degree. I also posted to my Facebook community that the anticipated publishing date was April 1, 2011. A friend indicated that April 2 might be better, given the nature of April's Fools Day. This would be meaningful because April 2 was my grandfather's birthday. Why April? you ask. Well, April is National Poetry Month. Also, from what I remember from my librarian days, April-June is a good time for publishers. Plus, bookstores and libraries may have funds at that time to purchase books. Plus, having a posted release date will force us to have the book finished and ready by mid-March. Then the book can be released in April. Soon I will be contacting places to have book readings and signings. Although I have published articles in academic and small press journals, I am pursuing the self-publishing route this time around. Why? You ask. I wish to have total artistic control over the first edition. If someone likes it and wishes to pick it up, I would be pleased. There are authors who are self-published: FAMOUS SELF-PUBLISHED BOOKS (Courtesy of http://www.simonteakettle.com/famousauthors.htm) Remembrance of things Past, by Marcel Proust Ulysses, by James Joyce The Adventures of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter A Time to Kill, by John Grisham The Wealthy Barber, by David Chilton The Bridges of Madison County What Color is Your Parachute In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. (and his student E. B. White) The Joy of Cooking When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple Life’s Little Instruction Book Robert’s Rules of Order OTHER FAMOUS AUTHORS WHO SELF-PUBLISHED Deepak Chopra Gertrude Stein Zane Grey Upton Sinclair Carl Sandburg Ezra Pound Mark Twain Edgar Rice Burroughs Stephen Crane Bernard Shaw Anais Nin Thomas Paine Virginia Wolff e.e. Cummings Edgar Allen Poe Rudyard Kipling Henry David Thoreau Benjamin Franklin Walt Whitman Alexandre Dumas William E.B. DuBois Beatrix Potter There is also another list of authors who have been rejected many times before publishing, but that is another blog post. :)