. . . you don’t have to see it, to know it’s there.

I had a very successful Book Tour last month, well, it was successful to me, as it was my first one and I have nothing to compare it to, I mean, I have never had an unsuccessful Book Tour so I tend to stick to the positive. I feel it worked because I am now getting emails from all over, people interested in my book, asking all sorts of questions; Where did the title come from? How do you know how big to make the book? How did you find your editor?

and in answer to those questions:

The Title came from my life adventures, my journey with my Raven Spirit Guide and his offerings of wisdom, his feathers of inspiration, and BawB is my name, BoB spelled as it sounds by an amazing Hungarian woman who influenced my young life, my Grandmother on my Dad’s side. (yes, thats where my gypsy genes come from)

How big do you make your book, how many pages? Well, the size of my book was one of the first things that was discussed before the book came to be, the size was decided by the content, and Rachel Small (my amazing Editor) thought six chapters and a hundred pages was “Just enough” to make my little books fun to read and easy to carry.

It is my opinion that you don’t find an editor, you “feel” one, if you believe in you and your work, when it comes time to hire an editor you start looking for one that feels right for your project. Editors surprisingly are NOT one size fits all, they are very special, talented individuals that can not only read what you have written but can also feel the effort it took and understand what you are saying and how you would like it said. They should work with you, not for you.

I read these emails and see the questions and I think right away about this commercial on TV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc2t6s0XeNk I have published 5 little inspirational books, but I am by no means a professional, I only have the answers that worked for me and I did stay in a Holiday Inn once  🙂

I have learned a great deal more over the past little while, working with some amazing people at New Shelves, and working very closely with my designer Fiona Raven, I have discovered that just downloading files to Create Space and Ingram Spark is not the last step to getting your books “out there”. You need to stay on them, review the digital files, then order the proofs, review them very carefully BEFORE you approve them. Make sure the trim size is right and the paper color is what you specified, make sure the images are clear and positioned properly, I know, you think all this is done by the people who work with the files for POD, no, they are there to fill the orders for Print On Demand ONLY, YOU are the one that looks after your files. You are a self published Author and YOU are the one that needs to look after your project, right down to the very last step, which is receiving your absolutely wonderful printed copy of your very first book and holding it in your hands wearing the biggest smile your face has ever seen.

THAT is the very last step of the beginning of your next amazing adventure… keep writing, keep reading and keep on believing.

WI:)ND

BawB