Back to the joys of self-publishing.

May 6, 2013 by cmsgardnerblog 34 Comments

I have digressed . . . and will again, but I’m going to discuss self-publishing and I’d love to hear of your experiences. It has taken me quite some time to get the formatting right–a nightmare, but so satisfying to finally have something up. The book covers were another experience, but kind of fun. CreateSpace allows you to use your own photos as part or all of the cover but also gives you options to just use theirs.

I now have seven books on Amazon, most also on CreateSpace, which is their paperback department. Two that are not are only small ebooks, one a short story, ‘Brown Dog’, which I am putting up free for four days, from tomorrow.

amazon.com/author/christinemgardner

‘Brown Dog’ was based in part on my own experiences living on the beach in Queensland in the early seventies, with my husband. We were very young and not long married, which probably explains why living in a tent, or, after we lost that to a cyclone, sleeping in the car, seemed more of an adventure than a hardship. I may be looking back through rose-coloured glasses but it seems we had a lot of fun in those days, walking along the beach collecting cuttlefish, living day to day on whatever we could find. 

The excitement of finding a glass ball, which fishing boats used on their nets, was rare and very real. They were worth considerably more than cuttlefish and didn’t smell anywhere near as bad! Our car, which we were sleeping in, stank constantly and we sprinkled curry powder, among other things, throughout to try to get rid of the stench. The car then stank of curried cuttlefish, which was only a very slight improvement!

We tried our hand one day cutting sugar cane, which was disastrous. I think it’s all done by machine these days but it was a horrible job to do by hand. We didn’t last long at all and I think, from memory, my husband did the cutting and I may have helped pile the canes up or something. Or possibly just stood around looking helpless. I do remember we were covered in black because they burnt the fields of cane before cutting. 

I also spent some time working at The Big Pineapple, a working farm developed as a tourist spot. That was a great place to work, mainly because we were allowed pretty much free access to all the goodies! Tropical sundaes for morning and afternoon tea every day! Probably just as well I didn’t stay there for long.

Here I am digressing again, but that’s what blogs are for isn’t it? Meandering along, taking detours? Have a look at ‘Brown Dog’. It’s only a few pages and I’d love some feedback. If you like it please post a review on Amazon.

Happy reading.