In preparation for reading some of my poems at the Bedlam Farm Open House in June, I’ve decided to take a huge leap and self-publish a small collection of my work. I thought if people enjoyed hearing my poetry at the Open House, it might be nice to have something to offer them in case they wanted to read more. I’ve never published anything before or even tried. But it seemed like a pretty good idea.

And the more I thought about starting a project like that, the more excited I became.

After discussing it with my friend, Maria, and having her confirm it actually was a good idea –that it would be something she’d be glad to include alongside the work of so many talented people– I started researching the self-publishing process through Amazon. Maria had mentioned other writers and poets who used the platform and were pleased with its ease of use, as well as the low cost.

I signed up for a CreateSpace account and did some initial work-up. For a small poetry book the expense was very doable. So I figured if no one ends up buying any, at least I won’t be out very much. And I’d still have a copy or two of my very own book to keep.

There are still a few months before the Open House, which I think will be plenty of time to put a finished book together. I’ve spent a couple of hours working on it already, downloading a template, inserting poems, playing with the cover design, choosing a title. It was a lot of fun and surprisingly very simple, so far, to create.

So stayed tuned for further updates. I hope posting about the self-publishing process might be helpful for other people considering going that route. And if any of my readers or followers here would be interested in my book, I’d love to hear from you. I’ll definitely keep you posted.