There is so much news; keeping up with it feels like a full time job.
I may limit myself to two posts a week during the impeachment.
Now to the point of this post:
A Skeleton in the Attic
Illustration for a Skeleton in the Attic
I realized my goal of publishing a book of poems was unreasonable for a man with no experience in online publishing, so I took a break.
I started the break by evaluating different programs for self-publishing and discovered Ourboox.
Ourboox is a free platform and seems ideal for writers who are new to online publishing.
I researched the company and the founder, Mel Rosenberg, is exactly who he
says he is:
Mel Rosenberg is a microbiologist best known for his research into treatment of bad breath; he went to a children’s book fair in Bologna and came home with the idea of a free web based platform for publishing children’s books.
The e-books I saw on the Ourboox site reminded me of chapbooks.
What is a Chapbook?
A chapbook is “a small book or pamphlet containing poems, ballads, stories, or religious tracts” (dictionary) The term is still used today to refer to short, inexpensive booklets. MIT
Jack the Giant Killer chapbook title page
Chapbooks were the zines of early modern Europe and played an important role in the history of publishing and literacy. In the 17th and 18th Centuries, chapbooks were the most popular way to disseminate poetry and children’s books: they were easy to make and cheap. Wikipedia
Chapbooks are still a popular way for poets to publish, especially street poets, who distribute their chapbooks for donations.
The last page of the Ourboox template invites the reader to donate to your PayPal account.
I loved with the idea of using Ourboox to publish an online chapbook; it felt like a perfect way to begin publishing.
A Skeleton in the Attic is a short story about a little boy who finds a skeleton in his attic and makes friends with it.
I wrote the story in the 1980’s and revised it many times over the years.
I used VR to make the illustrations.
I suppose if I want to, I can release a Skeleton in the Attic on Amazon, but for
now, this ‘chapbook’ format on Ourboox is ideal.
If you read the book and like it, please leave a thumbs up on the upper right of the screen.
As I understand it, ‘likes’ will move the book into the featured books section.
