Making Dreams Come True - Helping Authors Publish Books

Most writers who have written a novel, a memoir, or lots of poems, lyrics or short stories dream of being published authors and having many books to their name. I was one of these people. I wanted to be a published author and have many books to my name. I also wanted to be as successful as those big shot authors someday. It was a great dream to have but I had no idea how to go about making it a reality, not becoming a big shot author, as that's a long shot, but publishing a book.

At that time pretty much all I had written were poetry and lyrics, so I decided to publish a poetry book and a lyric book. I knew that traditional publishers weren't going to publish my stuff. It wasn't because I felt my writing wasn't good enough. It was because poetry doesn't sell much, so no big time publisher will want to publish a poetry book. Unless you happen to be a well-known, popular celebrity a big time publisher won't deal with you. Submitting a poetry manuscript to them, therefore is a complete waste of time because they won't even look at it. It will go in the trash without so much as a glance.

Knowing this, I decided to search for publishers that actually do publish poetry books and those by unknown or up-and-coming authors. I found a number of them but saw that they wanted thousands of dollars or close to it to publish each of my books. I didn't have that kind of money, nor did I want to spend that much, especially knowing that I would never earn enough money from my books to cover the cost of getting them published as these kinds of books don't really sell.

My dreams were crushed. I felt like I would never be a published author. Then a fellow poet from an online writing community (writing.com) I was a member of introduced me to Lulu, a print-on-demand book publishing platform that allows authors to publish books themselves. It costs nothing to publish with them. The books get their own ISBN and are also distributed to Amazon and Barnes and Noble (online), two of the biggest book sellers out there, among other online retailers.

It seemed too good to be true that I could publish my books and without spending a dime to get it done. I was a bit skeptical but then learned that it is in fact true. It actually does cost nothing to publish a book with Lulu. And that was great because I couldn't afford to lash out the big bucks that other publishers were charging to get a book published.

While it was great that I didn't have to spend any money to publish my books (minus having to buy my own proof copy) it turned out that I had to do everything myself. I had to create and format the manuscript, do the book cover, and then go through the entire publishing process to publish my books. There was no one to help me or guide me. I had to figure everything out myself, which wasn't easy I have to say. But I didn't give up. I did my research and learned everything I needed to know in order to publish my books. I took my time and worked hard and in the end it all paid off. I ended up publishing my first poetry book Pieces of Me. And soon after I published my lyric book Soundtrack of My Life and in two-volumes because there were too many lyrics to fit into one book. I had finally become a published author and it was an amazing feeling.

Since then I have published six more books (with Lulu) - a poetry book, a lyric book, a poetic tale, two books featuring poetry, lyrics, and prose, and a debut novel The Secret Life of Ashley Miles. With nine books to my name I feel a great sense of pride and accomplishment. I wrote and put together nine books and got them published without anyone's help. I did it all on my own. And this makes me feel like I am on top of the world.

Having published nine books of my own, and having the expertise now to get that done, I decided it's time to help others publish books. And that's what I do now. I format the manuscript, do the book cover, and actually get the book published and distributed. And unlike those other publishers I don't charge them an arm and a leg to make that happen.

It makes me very happy that I am able to make other people's dreams come true by helping them get their books published and finally available to the world. I've already published books for a number of authors. I've published poetry books, a book of short stories and even a novel. I am looking forward to publishing some more books in the near future and hope there will be lots more books to publish as time goes on.

I am very excited about this new journey that I chose to embark on. Making dreams come true is what it's all about. And if I can also earn some income along the way that's a fantastic thing.

If you have a book that you want to publish but you don't have the expertise or the time to get it done I would love to be the one to help you make that a reality! You can contact me on Facebook or visit my website publishingforless.webs.com.