Christmas Poem/Sermon Now Available

My Christmas poem/sermon has just been published in Volume 3 of "Snowbird Christmas: Holiday Stories to Warm Your Heart." The book features poetry, short stories, and two novellas by local St. Johns County writers. My poem, Christmas Time at Our House," recalls the excitement of the holiday season in the small central Florida town of Wauchula. The book can be purchased for $5.00 from W. C. Publishing, 4625 Cedar Ford Blvd., Hastings, Fla. 32145 or on line from ontargetwords@gmail.com.

Self Publishing

For over thirty years I worked on a novel and in 2003 submitted three chapters for the first time. The young editor kindly wrote that 699 pages was too long for a first-time author. My dreams were crushed until my cousin suggested I turn it into three books—one for each generation of the family saga.

I submitted chapters of the first book to several publishers and received no encouragement. Again, my dreams were crushed until I heard about e-book publishing at our Ancient City Writers' group. I uploaded the first two books, Molly and Brothers to Kindle Direct Publishing and made a number of sales to friends and friends of family and friends. Then the sales fizzled out.

Self-Publishing has both advantages and disadvantages. It gives the writer much more of the price of sales, but it requires the writer to become a salesperson. So I embark on learning new skills, much harder ones for me, to sell books.