Publishing My First Book
I just published the print version of my newest book, The Quick Style Guide for Writing for the Web and English Usage through Amazon’s KDP and thought back to the first book I published in paperback over ten years ago.
I was teaching English in Southeast Asia and wanted to write about my experiences. I was in Cambodia, a place like nowhere else on earth. I was teaching at Pannasastra University, an inspiring, creative English Language program with 50 foreign teachers. The school also had a bachelors program which I taught in. The students were open, dedicated, and appreciative of the opportunity to improve their lives through education after living through a tumultuous past. Here’s an entry from my book:
The next morning I took a motor taxi from Thailand to the Thai-Cambodian border, where I purchase a twenty-five dollar business visa for forty dollars. I passed through immigration and walked the two hundred meters into Cambodia.
I immediately felt different from anywhere I had ever been. I had entered another time, an enchanted land. It was as if I had been transported into a far and distant past. The ground was muddy and unpaved and there were outdoor stalls where people sold fruit, vegetables, cooked food, household items, gifts, and crafts. It seemed like there were hundreds of horses drawn and man powered carts. Children were begging, vendors were grabbing at my shirt asking me to buy from them or use their transportation. This was Poipet, the Cambodia border city.
I had been keeping journals on my teaching assignments and from these notes and from memory I wrote a book which I title Rivers of Words. I had read about people self-publishing in the United States. They often spent $3000 to $15,000 to produce a run of 3000 to 5000 books. Then after a go at marketing on their own, they were left with a garage full of cases and cases of tomes which didn’t sell. I didn’t want to go through such a dismal process.
I had talked to local printers in the U.S. about creating a limited run. I even asked for pricing from printers on my travels in Mexico, Central America, and Peru. I never found one I was happy with. Most of these artists produced business cards, brochures, and flyers for the businesses in their area and had contacts with book publishers. They always want to sell me large quantities. In Orange County I found a Vietnamese printer who gave me a competitive quote. He printed books for the local community.
Two years later, I returned to teach English in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and to Pannasastra University. One day after finishing instruction in my TOEFL class at a satellite campus and doing some shopping, I came across a small printer on a back street located in a two-story building. I walked in and asked in English if I could have a quote on 100 books. They called in Phuket, the graphic designer, who had immigrated from Vietnam to work in Cambodia.
He took me up a rickety flight of stairs to a large room where his office and computer were established on an old door lying on a couple of saw horses. Four Cambodian ladies were sitting on the floor binding books with glue guns. The room must have originally been built as an attic and had a low ceiling. So low, in fact, that I had to bend at the waist into an “L” position to enter and walk across it.
PonLeu Khmer Publishing House did work for local businesses and all the literature for a competitor of Pannasastra University. Phuket gave me a competitive rate that included the cover design. I readily signed the contract and was promised my books in one week. I paid $2.00 per copy!
When I returned to retrieve my works, I was ecstatic to hold the navy blue and pink cover with crisp white pages in my hands. A picture of one of the temples near Angkor Wat, highlightedthe front cover, with a scene of children playing in a school yard underneath it. Images of the Cambodian countryside graced the reverse side. I examined one copy after another, all beautiful, all identical.
On the ten-day term break I traveled throughout the country placing my precious gifts in bookstores. When I returned to the Boston area, I consigned the books in numerous stores in the area. Now I publish ebooks and use Amazon’s KDP print on demand for printed works.
Ken Wasil is a freelance writer in addition to writing books. He has written The Quick Style Guide for Writing for the Web and English Usage, A Great Escape: Short Stores for Travelers, Mr. Thoreau Goes to Boston, Rivers of Words, and African Safari Bootcamp for Women.
His books are available at www.amazon.com. Don’t miss his “Free Fridays” on Amazon. The Quick Style Guide is free on Fridays between now and the middle of December 2017. And you can download A Great Escape: Short Stores for Travelers www.payhip.com/b/jykz and African Safari Bootcamp for Women www.payhip.com/b/RESS for only $.99, on social discounts.
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