Dear Sigrid, thank you for this post. I'm sorry your best friend committed suicide. I can understand that within my own family because it is easier for relatives to ask about recovering from my breast cancer than it is to ask about recovery from depression. Why did you wait a year and a half for a hip replacement? What I understand about the Canadian health system is that services are at no charge, but the wait is too long, even for non-elective surgeries. Love and Light, Lynn

Sigrid,
I have been checking out Lulu. It looks confusing to me and I can do formatting. It looks like an awful lot of work. I'm not sure I really need the ISBN number. Writing the book is so much easier than the "after book." I can make my own bookmarks, etc., and design my own cover, but I would like to see the quality of the finished product before I use it. Of course, finishing the book would have to come first. I do get ahead of myself at times.
Louisa

Lynn, I want to answer this backwards because I forgot to answer your other question about traditional publishing. That's because I write too much! I want to sell at least 1000 copies of my book before I approach the traditional publishers. I understand that it's almost impossible to get an agent or a regular publisher to take you on if you are a newcomer without an established sales record. Also, I have no desire whatsoever to endlessly edit my first book according to someone else's concept of how it should look.

Regarding your second note -- you had breast cancer, too? OMG! That's too much for one person.

I was forced to wait the 18 months because that's how long it takes to get in line here and wait your turn. During the last four months of my wait, I was dependent on narcotics every day, was in outrageous pain, and feared falling over every time I took a step on my cane. It was a disgrace. I met many people at the local swimming pool -- when I could swim, earlier on in my wait -- who fell over and broke their hips while they were waiting. That seemed to be the only way to get the surgery. The problem there is that there's a much higher risk of fatality after a hip fracture, not to mention the fact that it hurts like crazy to break your hip!

Have you considered the traditional publishing route with your trauma book?

Sigrid

Louisa,

I know what you're saying about Lulu. It all seemed very difficult to me in the beginning, but I've been learning quickly, and in my case, I don't want to spend any more money on the POD publishers.

But you said that you already know how to format. So what is it that you find confusing about Lulu?

If you want to see what the finished product looks like, I suggest putting out $15 or $20 and ordering one of their books in the size and genre that you're thinking of. Their prices are very reasonable. What is it that you want to publish again? I've forgotten.

Best :-)
Sigrid

Hi Sigrid, narcotics contribute to depression because they are suppressants of the central nervous system. My goodness, I can't believe people can just fall over and break a hip while waiting for the necessary surgery. Yes, it did seem unfair that after I survived my childhood, then I survived myself, I had to survive breast cancer! I agree with you about the 1,000 copy sales. Yes, the agents want an author who has been published, and a publisher wants an author who has an agent! That is unfair. I also do not want to edit my book according to someone's else's opinion. I did have one publisher willing to take me on IF I'd make the beginning the end and the end the beginning. My muse would not cooperate even for the sake of a publisher. I believe that my book was written with me only as an instrument of a Higher Power to offer a message of hope. And the only way I could authentically accomplish that was to stick with the end as the beginning. However, if/when the book is noticed, I'll do some reconsidering. Love and Light, Lynn

Sigrid, I did not realize a blog spot worked like a web site. I paid $79.00 for a web design program which I worked on all last week. The design is done and I am waiting for my domain name to get from its "parked" place to a host sight. Oops, gotta go but will be back. This was meant to start out as how much I liked your blog. And, I lived in New Jersey too. Love and Light, Lynn

Sigrid,
I've been formatting my book as a word document, but I've been doing it two sheets to a page so the pages will be half the size of a regular 8 1/2 by 11 page. I'm confused because when it says to format it as a word doc, does it mean just type the pages in a regular word doc as 8 1/2 by 11? If you pick the 6x9 size book on lulu, will it just come out that way? I'm used to formatting in the smaller size and sending it to a printer exactly as it will be printed. I think I'm confusing the two.

I'm working on an anthology, but I'm also thinking of a poetry chapbook.
Louisa

Sigrid, did you read the email edition of "Voices in Print" for Authorhouse authors? Did you see they featured my book? Thank goodness they are finally paying attention to the authors they already have vs. always pushing for new publishing. Love and Light, Lynn

Lynn, I just logged in here to tell you that I read the Author House magazine yesterday and I saw that they featured your book! How ironic that you would have posted that very information to tell me. Awesome :-) Your book looks great and now it will get a lot more hits. WTG!!

To answer your other post, Yes, I have found that a blog can work perfectly well as the traditional web site. I have four web sites; three are blogs and one is not. Blogs are free! It's easy to add links to them and you can set them up in such a way that you just keep reediting your same one post and don't date it. That's what I do with my hip page. I think it was a total waste of money for me to have gotten the professional looking web site from AH because I can't edit it at all, and it was expensive.

TTYS, Sigrid

P. S. Read my new notice about me being on the nightly News tonight! Very exciting.

Gosh, Louisa, I don't know the answer to that, but there are all kinds of gurus on the Lulu site who would definitely know what to do. Just ask them. I have received so much help from the people on Lulu. It's amazing. So far, I love their community.

Good luck :-)
Sigrid