My aunt published several books on Lulu and then my sister published her book of children’s poetrys through a small publisher. Their successes provided inspiration for me to get going a a project that I’d been mulling over in my mind for some time. My mom, Gail Martin, has quite a stock of family memories posted on the Our Echo website. I kept thinking what a nice family keepsake it would be to get them into book form. Finally with Mother’s Day approaching, I jumped in to work on it. It’s not finished yet and I may have put the cart-before-the-horse. The first one will be a hardback copy for mom, but then I need to make it into a paperback copy so it’s more affordable for everyone else.
I’m up to 76 pages of her essays and also old family photos so far on the Photoworks site. I had some credits there from winning some of their photo contests, so they will cover mom’s copy of the book. Now I’m wondering if I should move all the photos and text over to lulu.com where my aunt published her books. They put out a more reasonably priced paperback, but it means learning their template and publishing quirks. I do love it that these sites let you put together a book without asking for any money up front.
Actually on Photoworks, I have the option to share the book online with anyone to view it for free. Of course that’s not nearly as satisfying as holding the actual copy of the book in your hands and having it on your bookshelf for reading at any time. If you’d like to preview the book, click here to see it. I’ll be starting soon on transferring it to lulu.com where it should be available at a much lower price than $89 (Photoworks’ price). The lulu copy will be a paperback, but should be the same content.
Virginia Allain 