Publishing

I have been lucky enough to have some of my poetry published in five anthologies. Two have been charity anthologies which is simple fantastic. It`s such a wonderful feeling and I feel very honoured as it was my ambition.

Now I am working on a book of my own poems. Not an easy thing to do, as poetry can be hard to publish.  However I am determined to do this and won`t give up.

First of all, I went through all my poems and worked out which ones I thought would work in a poetry book.  Then I whittled these poems down to a manageable amount, around 35 poems.

Secondly, I read through these poems, edited them and got them all written out in the same size and style font so they looked smart.  This took me longer than I thought and I also found myself amending these poems slightly.   I then started to workout what order I would like these poems to appear in the book.

Thirdly, I wrote a profile about myself and how I came to take up poetry about 10 years ago.  This was harder than I imagined, but I was determined to get this part done well.

Fourthly, I laid out my poems, one to each page. I even chose a few photos to be scattered throughout the poems to add colour.  The hardest part was finding a photo of myself, that I liked and would be acceptable for the profile.

Fifthly, the cover needed to be designed. I am struggling to find a wrap around photo, one that I can use without copyright and that will be clear and also be meaningful to me.  I have been looking through all my photos, but as yet I`m still looking for one.   

Once this is done, it`s only the title and other important information that needs to be added.  Then and only then will I be able to publish my first book of poems.   This book will be available as an Ebook and also in paper form too.

It`s all very exciting and yet frustrating too.  However I love a challenge and this one is certainly a challenge.

I will keep you all posted as t how I get on and when the book is finally completed and published.

Lissie