by Gail Kavanagh

Created on: December 29, 2008

My first ebook was published in June 2004. I had been working on a book of herbal lore called The Apothecary's Kitchen, with the deliberate intent of using the resources for self publishing I had discovered on the Internet. I wanted to create a book that had the atmosphere of an old fashioned still room, and the charm of a far older manuscript. My inspiration was the herbalist William Bullein, whom I always regarded as the quintessential apothecary.

After reading a lot of terms and conditions, I decided on Lulu.com as my publishing portal. Ebooks have to be converted to .pdf files, so I also took advantage of createpdf.adobe.com's offer to convert five manuscripts free. Be warned - converting to a .pdf file is tricky. You can end up with something that doesn't look like your intended book at all. For my second attempt, I did what I should have done in the first place - used Lulu's book template to set up my document file so it could convert exactly as I formatted it.

The most fun for me was designing the covers. Even ebooks have covers, and it is just one more thing you can control when your are creating your own book. Although I only had Paint Shop Pro, I managed to make the cover look exactly as I had envisaged it. It is worth learning to use a graphics program to do this yourself. Otherwise you have to go along with whatever lame generic covers your publishing platform offers, or pay someone else to do it.

The Apothecary's Kitchen is not my best seller however. I discovered a lust for self publishing and quickly uploaded a book of poetry based on my early life as a traveller in Ireland, a book on writing and a pack of oracle cards I designed in Paint Shop Pro (with which I was rapidly becoming quite a pro!) No, my best seller came about when I decided to build a miniature Gypsy caravan at home. I spent months on the construction, making notes, experimenting with various ways to make the wheels and the barreltop roof and making tiny items such as a crystal ball to go inside.

When family and friends admired my efforts, I realised I had actually done more than create something in miniature from my past. I had the makings of a how-to book!

Making the book was easier than making the caravan, even though I had to draw and scan diagrams to include with the text. Once again I designed the cover myself, using an image I had taken of my own effort. I also decided to follow online advice about marketing, and joined various groups and forums to discuss miniature making, and incidentally let people know I had written a book on a little known subject for miniatures.

When you self publish, it really is important to self promote as well. No one else is going to do it for you. Read all you can online about promoting your ebook - there are many good suggestions and many of them have worked for me.

Now I have ten ebooks at my Lulu bookstore, and am planning to add at least two more this year. From my experience, if you want tp publish an ebook, I say go for it. I'm not making a fortune, but every time I make a sale, I feel a sense of real achievement.

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