The Trick to Publishing Your Own Book

Holding your own book, that you wrote, in your hands is a real treat. It is not tricky to publish it. The hardest part is writing the book. A book does not have to be 600 pages. To self-publish a book, it is better to keep it under 200 pages. Cheaper too. Once you have written your book, then you can find a place to publish it.

The self published books look just like any other book — as you can see, next to some of the marketing swag.

Even if you have no cover artwork, you can still publish your own book. Below are some of the sites you could use. I have used Lulu, Blurb, and most recently, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing when I found that Blurb no longer publishes e-books. I wrote about self publishing twice before. I may experiment with other companies.

IngramSpark

Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing

Apple — you can publish from Pages in the Apple environment.

Barnes and Noble

Dorrance — the oldest self publishing company

Bookbaby

Smashwords

Rakuten Kobo

You can read about what books I have published on my media page.

And if you want to print more than books, read this article.

Most importantly, if you want to write your own book and publish it, just do it!

Made in Nassau – Shop Local

TZIVOxdFjEUCTiAAfGqjCpMTH-ZxG1yQUTPjjsp23Sn3YMlZWRDdnp6JGsipfOK0_9wb8hDItJHrfX33WGaVsk4w37fFjDzyDj81N0GG5G6eknlY2beUbGoLsRZ94lYCBZbzRbfdy6PwQfY0ESpPc7Sn0FBZ6A9WdOLNI91S_SoTmDDFnUcUK_soZjThe Straw Market in downtown Nassau, The Bahamas, is famous. I found it to be too mass produced. If you want to support some of the independent artists and shop owners, then you will have to get in a car and go slightly (ten minutes) away from the main street. The reason for the spread out shops is that, apparently, the rent on the main strip is quite high. The list of independent shops is super short:

iIy6FQZK9ekEiE3_2y7bCJScEVwn-rfBP9tYQ4kHYk8ZK6uerojmMRBrw-MueRU6C1HhgxTQIF02b90ygK0HnoLUHF9uW9j7emiNbwrxFZ53yRLZSp6zs2PS6_2sUo8hddU88OUmoXLQrBPR8zl7CcHw_nFgBgg_IdLErsWImMUy1DwHb6hbKFu4h2Bahama Hand Prints, Ernest Street: Super expensive fabric products from clothes to bags to curtains. The best part is watching the printing of the actual cloth in their attached workshop. The website is a little slow to load, but the shop is quite nice. (also, a secret tip is that they have a bathroom, if you need one).

C3Sea0Hap4QU5zxDlvHYWOMnt0nUR_WjBqZJgSWS7ZkLnmoa6kzMbtNkPP1oR4KMR1GW5GzBCgDQg9WN8H5Kt8Rd4LOIIEXHxX1L3sxpW_lEjVrKQtcsMP1muYjrKLFD3OD0OsIYk2Vw9uAX0IIIIS_NhsPQLcbeA9TO0vefaMn1dxyUJd95n96bNPKim Smith The Place for Art, #20 Village Road: He offers classes, has a frame shop, and sells prints and original artwork.

7DdWEPe6d3ta_gSca7TJK_5KOnlv3pjM-5w7EsEHo1EgALgJH-IYpdgMgXh0dCp3-8qIGxVv_jZMgYy8NvUm5XtQekyZIzp4rr0fs2Nmd7gZTWz8xIsMiOXt5BIhlFDtGCyJYniW9M3nMdYIT5xNYyNlOr_DG4dVKRnwDYNvYQN4XZvvWR4FnVs5ezFarmers Market, on the porch of the building in the same complex as the Kim Smith gallery. Basically, it’s two vendors. One who sells some vegetables, a baked good, and lobster tail tacos. The other person makes the tacos.

16831852_10154979598289618_7168423776825072068_nBahama Art and Handicraft, East Shirley Street: Two sisters have this shop with lots of nick knacks. They don’t allow you to take photos of the things inside but you can find them on their Facebook page if you want to see what they have.

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That’s it. But, if you stop at the parking lot where the fresh conch is being shucked , you can make a fun day outing of shopping local.