My writing career didn’t start off with a bang….in fact, it was a fizzle. I self-published my first book, “Loving Penny”, a story about a young overweight girl on the brink of obesity and the obstacles she faced. The story was inspired by my daughter, and her dealings with being overweight. She would share with me her stories, and I wrote a fictional account of what she went through. The story was well received, but me being new to the publishing business, didn’t quite what to know what to do. So I signed with Iuniverse, the best deal in town. For only $99 I could publish my book and it would be available to bookstores, libraries, schools, etc…but you and I both know that usually when something sounds that good, it’s a scam in the making.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t listening. So I published with Iuniverse, and I had my setbacks, the cover wasn’t really what I wanted, but I accepted it, and my book never made it to the bookstores, because most book stores, well probably all didn’t accept POD books. I thought hiring a publicist would help, so I shelved out countless thousands of dollars to get it done. My thinking, if I can just get the word out…I would be successful…NOT! All in all I probably did about 4 radio interviews, and maybe two print media reviews and articles. And the biggest check I ever received from Iuniverse was no bigger than my first, $25. I realized then, there was much to learn about publishing and so I took my losses and moved on, later ending my contract with Iuniverse.
