I found a site called Bookemon (where I had my My Little ABC Book published) that is user-friendly and where you can get copies of your book on a print-by-demand basis. They aren't cheap, but the quality is very good--as good as any publishing house has to offer, if you ask me. You can also set up your Bookemon account to have your titles listed for sale on Amazon...but I've been-there-done-that already, and both books that used to sell on Amazon are out of print now. I'm not in the "author" business anymore. I don't think I really have the heart for that. This book is mostly for my grandchildren, and for my personal use--to have copies made as gifts or whatever. I'm trying to get all the joy out of the writing, without the stress of wondering whether anyone will read or like what I've written. I know the audience for whom I'm writing this book will be pleased no matter what.
Anyway, out of the blue lately there have been little surprises that have made me feel very encouraged and excited to keep on writing.
While we were away for a couple of weeks recently, visiting our two boys who don't live near us in VA, I got a sweet text from my daughter-in-law Braveheart (wife of son #4). She is the mother of triplets who are in kindergarten, and son #3's daughter is in kindergarten at the same Catholic school. One of the triplet boys is with his sister in one homeroom, but the other is classmates with his cousin. Braveheart had gone in to school that day as a volunteer, to read to the class that has the two cousins in it. Afterward, she sent me this:
When I asked her if they liked it, she said they loved it--and so did their teacher. In fact, the teacher wanted a copy! So I'm ordering a copy to donate to the kindergarten library. (Braveheart is ordering one as well.)
What an incredibly nice, unexpected blessing, hearing that my humble little picture book had been a hit at our grandkids' school. Blessings like those are not a dime a dozen.
But then the very same night, amazingly, I got a text from one of our twenty-something nieces on the Pearl side, saying she wanted to let me know that she had ordered my first novel Finding Grace on Amazon (where copies are sometimes available through other sellers, often used). She was too young to read it when it came out, she said, but she was trying to get into reading and thought it was time to do so. I was so touched by this!
(I'm not crying; you're crying!)
 |
| I can't believe my darling niece paid this for a copy of Finding Grace! I sure hope she likes it.* |
Wow...just wow. Two messages like that in one day was almost more than I could handle. I have been a full-time homemaker (a wife, mother, and Grammy, without a career outside the home; a woman who has not made enough money in her lifetime to qualify for a monthly Social Security check like most folks my age), and writing was just something I got to do for a few years, between the time my boys were growing up and moving away and when the grandchildren started coming along at a furious pace. I didn't have a writing "career," per se. I don't think of myself as a "writer," really. But on October 17, my loved ones were sure making me feel like one.
As if my cup hadn't already runneth over, the very next day, a nice reader named Ellen left me this comment on a recent post at String o' Pearls: "Hi Laura, somehow I missed that your books are actually available for purchase. I thought they were for family only. I bought them both from Thriftbooks and have been enjoying Erin's Ring. Your writing is lovely!"
Somebody pinch me!
Okay then, now I should get back to writing that sequel, shouldn't I? With my confidence bolstered by all this love and encouragement, I can and I must.
*BTW, I sent a reply telling my niece to cancel the order if it wasn't too late, because the price on the used copy was so high and I still have a number of copies that I bought years ago (for book signings, few of which ever happened!), and I could send her one of those. But she didn't take me up on it; then when her copy came in the mail yesterday, she texted to say that it was okay, and that she loved getting to support me and my book. (Okay, maybe this time I AM crying.)
