Using Amazon's Create Space: becoming a published author in 2016

Post date: Nov 11, 2016 5:43:52 PM

Since retiring in August, I have been busy writing, volunteering, and babysitting Mason, my three year old grandson. In the past two weeks, I saw one of those writing projects produce results and experienced the thrill of holding a book in my hands (We Are Our Mothers Daughters, volume 1) that I helped to create with my chapter; it makes for a good story.

About a year and a half ago, my husband and I moved to a new development called Windcrest, which is part of the Western Homes and considered an active retirement community filled with large Villas, with each villa containing two units. Our villa has three bedrooms and a spacious four season room, so my husband has an office and I took over the four season room for my office. It’s a wonderful place to write: I have lots of natural light, a green space to my left, a view of the trees lining Prairie Parkway, and the recreation trail that cuts through our housing development and then passes in front of our house and driveway.

I had a productive summer and fall: I got the essay about Ruth Suckow revised for a book that comes out next Spring, submitted half a dozen short articles to various online journals and the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, and entered a couple of writing contests. Then, I found out about the We are our Mothers’ Daughters book project through attending a meeting on campus. I struck up a conversation with a woman named Rowena, who told me about an essay she was writing about her mother, so I gave her my new “Geeky Grandma” business card. Later she sent me an email and encouraged me to contact the project leader, Twyla Dell, who lived down in Kansas City.

Twyla was inspired by Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Democratic Convention and intrigued by the phrase “I am my mother’s daughter and my daughter’s mother.” She thought it would be a great opportunity to collect stories about mothers, and soon I was part of the project too. The original plan called for ten stories, but one dropped out, so we ended up with nine essays. I sorted through pictures, drafted my essay, sent a copy to my sister and made some revisions. I had gotten in at the tail end of the project, and only had about a week before the deadline: checking email, I see that I sent off my essay on September 23^rd. We got a look at the cover on October 6 and got a message the next day from Twyla that she was sending it all off to Create Space, an Amazon company, and it would be up for sale the next week!

When the box arrived with books, the last week of October, I was like a little kid on Christmas morning. Opening the box, and seeing the stack of books, I was still amazed by the speed with which the project moved. This is a dramatic departure from traditional publishing where it can take six months to a year or more to see a published book. As I understand it, the book may soon be available on Kindle.

Technology has already transformed the way we consume news, music, and books, with many of us relying on our mobile devices. While I am enthusiastic about the process, it has been a learning experience for us all! When you self-publish, you are responsible for promoting and selling your book. You are responsible for proofreading and checking the format. You are responsible for thinking about the mechanics of how to collect money for sales as well as many other details; Twyla set up a PayPal account, which is a practical solution.

As noted, this is only Volume 1. Are you interested in writing a chapter for a future edition? Here are some ideas from Twyla for possible books: if you are interested, contact her at the Gmail address below.

She also included an invitation in the back of the book for these volumes:

1) World War I stories We have 3 so far.

2) World War II stories—Rosie the Riveter, etc

3) Women in men’s occupations—engineers, soldiers, doctors, etc.

4) Ancestral stories of women in pioneer or earlier times

5) Other mother stories like those we have generated

Deadline for manuscripts will be March 1, 2017.

To order a copy of We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters: 9 Women who Made a Difference, published by Twyla Dell, PLEASE ORDER FROM THIS WEBSITE:

https://www.createspace.com/6623651

The book on the Createspace site (An Amazon company) (Cost is $10)

Thank you for supporting strong women everywhere!

Last Lap Press, weareourmothersdaughters@gmail.com

Twyla Dell weareourmothersdaughters@gmail.com

Cherie Dargan’s essay is the second one in the book: “To Really Know Yourself, You Must Know Where You Came From and Who Your Forefathers and Mothers Were.” The chapter titles reflect something we learned from our mothers, and my mom, Charlotte, was the family historian/genealogist; she was also very politically active and a proud member of the UAW in Marshalltown, Iowa. The title of my chapter came from a letter mom wrote to her great nephew Daniel where she explained some of the things she had learned from her research into our family history.