Anita has always wanted to see her poetry in print, and I think this is because they mean a little bit more to her than her fiction work. Probably because they are closer to her heart and soul.
Now, I was an editor long before I became a writer, so I thought compiling a book of poems would be a walk in the park.
It wasn’t.
I started with the eBook, which as you know, doesn’t have pages, it just rolls along until the end. I uploaded 100 of Anita’s most popular poems from last year, all suitably separated by a fancy divider. I wanted to use colour for these, but thought it might be too expensive, (or complicated)
As I was scrolling down the poems, it occurred to me that this system wouldn’t work for the paperback version.
The one thing you don’t want, is what I think they call Widows and Orphans, where you have half of the poem on one page and continuing the next.
The next problem that hit me was that all these poems were different lengths, so fitting them all neatly on the pages was going to be difficult, complicated to say the least.
One problem lead to the next, when I realised this book would need a TOC, or table of contents.
I haven’t done one of these in ages so had to scrape my morale of the floor and search the house for my thinking cap.
Which leads me to the last problem.
At least I hope it’s the last!
My brain keeps letting me down right in the middle of a procedure. Every time I have a good thought, half of it seems to vanish in a puff of smoke and I’m left with just enough to drive me crazy!
I tend to write a lot of notes these days because of this new development, but it happens so fast now, I often don’t get to the pen in time.
Sometimes the rest of the thought pops up again later, but then I must remember the first part and marry them up!
So I would be grateful if you find any howling errors, to let me know, so I can fix them!
What with one thing and another, I haven’t been able to do any marketing, so I’ll be playing catch up forever with this one. I have tried to add the link but unfortunately, it doesn’t feel like behaving. The link on the cover in our sidebar isn’t working either so not having a great day! I seem to have done everything right, so must be this new editor. Methinks its time to ask WP for help…
There will be more about this book, but feel free to add some feedback in the meantime…
Your universal book link seems faulty, Jaye 🤗
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Oooops, thanks for telling me, Chris!
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Let me know when it’s fixed, so I can reblog the post, Jaye 🤗
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Will do, Chris and thank you!
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I managed to track down the problem, the Booklinker link failed, so had to resort to bit.ly! Amzn.to/333e9Em. Thanks again!
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I admire your tenacity in sticking with getting a book complied and published. Indeed a daunting task! I look forward to seeing more. The cover, by the way , is gorgeous! Congratulations to both of you! ❤
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Thank you so much, Penny!
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You’re right that it’s complicated to format poetry, Jaye. Congrats to Anita for her book of poems. And congrats to you for getting it done. What a treat. And I agree with Penny – a gorgeous cover.
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Thank you, Diana…
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Yes, poetry books certainly are more of a headache to get right. Mine just about made it years ago, but I kept the poems just under page size. I too loved the book cover! xx.
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Thanks, Joy!
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Hi Jaye, I can write a book review on my blog to promote Anita’s book. I would need the same things as Silent Payback. Please let me know if Anita is interested.
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That would be wonderful, Leanne and Anita sends her thanks. Will send the info asap!
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The best way for eBook separation of each piece is to set a header style for each title of each poem. The header style can be made to have a page break before, which means the reader ‘gets it’ better. It also means the ‘go to’ function of eReaders will have the title of each piece listed, which is good for the reader who reads in a non-linear fashion.
Luck and well-wishes.
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I think I did use a header for the table of contents on the eBook, it was the paperback that was a little confusing!
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I’ll be looking forward to reading the book, though poetry is not my strong suit and I rarely quite understand it! As re your mind losing half of a thought now and then … I have the same thing. I have named it “mind bounce”, for my mind seems to bounce around inside my head from one thought to another, never fully completing any one! Glad to know I’m not alone! Best of luck with the book!
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Thank you so much, Jill!
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
Available now, at: Amzn.to/333e9Em
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Thank you so much, Chris, from both of us!
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My pleasure, Jaye & Anita 🤗❤️🤗
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Congratulations to Anita for making this happen.
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Thank you, Pete!
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