My Kilimanjaro Publishing Trek

2020

In March of 2020, when the world entered the COVID pandemic, I considered writing a book.

I don’t have a formal degree in writing but took advantage of free Gale courses offered through my local library  - one was Write and Publish Your Nonfiction Book; another one was Keys To Effective Editing.  I took these to enhance my skills but also just to pass the time.

2021

By March, one year in, the basic bones of my book had been written. Next steps: rewrite rewrite rewrite.

All year I played around with it -  from organizing big ideas to polishing small details.

2022

Rewrite rewrite rewrite. I kept combing through my work, draft by draft, to make it read better.

Writing a book’s content is only the first half of a book project. Step two is bringing it to publication. By September I started to turn my attention to what there is to know about publishing. Sources I’d stuck with to help me gain understanding are Jane Friedman (janefriedman.com), Kindlepreneur (kindlepreneur.com) and Writers Digest. 

I enrolled in another free Gale course, How to Publish Your E-Book. 

Before presenting my work to the public I needed to have professional eyes on it and began to look for an editor.

By October I’d inquired into four possible editors and over time eliminated them, for not being the right fit or for not communicating well (ie, a lapse in email conversations). 

As I wrote over the past two years, I’d collected possible titles to use, upwards of forty. A title I’d finally settled on was, “Kilimanjaro Calls.”  But then I discovered a recently published book titled, “A Call to Kilimanjaro.”  So back to the drawing board. Later, I came across an African proverb, Little by Little a Little Becomes A Lot, and started playing around with that.

2023

In January I sent my manuscript to a developmental editor, Sarah Chauncey. I had an entire month free from book-related tasks while she critiqued it. 

In February Sarah returned a Marked Up manuscript. (I couldn’t look at it for about a week due to nerves.)

Much of 2023, per Sarah, I experimented with shaping my story more toward memoir. This meant writing about hard and uncomfortable parts of my family history.  As I teased out memories from when I was a youth, I labeled the memories as flashbacks and started collecting them at the very end of my manuscript. I kept everything in one huge document because I worried if I kept several smaller docs that I’d lose track of them. I took the flashbacks and began working them into scenes (in a Show Don’t Tell kind of way). I was burned out and not motivated for months because I didn’t have a plan and didn’t know where I was going. 

After months of working some flashbacks into the book, I removed them. I brought everything back down to my original intent, which was to write about my trek up a mountain. However, I did add more personal things into the book and it read less like a book report after these many revisions.

In November, during the week of Thanksgiving, I finished the final manuscript. 

Then I relaxed and enjoyed the holidays. 

2024

In early 2024 I began trying to figure out the whole publishing piece. 

In February I sought out and shared my manuscript with beta readers. Based on comments and errors found, I worked on minor adjustments.

I started to look for someone to hire for the design and formatting piece. I contacted three or four people, but for various reasons they weren’t the right fit. I needed a strong, knowledgable person to take charge of the project. 

I also learned it’s a good idea to get a website up and running. Most of these things, related to publishing and website building, were challenging for me and most of 2024 was tough and uncomfortable. But because I already had so much skin in the game - years of working on this book -  I didn’t give myself an option to quit. 

By March I hired Rebecca Finkel to design and format my book, and also to get my website up. It wasn’t until May that she and I really started to push the book along. One of the first decisions was coming up with a cover. This was an important, but really easy, decision because Rebecca is just that good. Out of three examples she sent me, and a little surveying with friends, I picked one.

Over the summer, through numerous emails, Rebecca helped me shape the look of the book. This was fun- my manuscript was being transformed into an actual book, something to hold and see.

Purchased International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) for print and ebook. Applied for a Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) for optional distribution in libraries.

I selected photos (choosing about twenty out of four hundred), labeled them with captions, and helped my designer make sure they landed in the correct places in the book. 

When Rebecca told me she was ready for my synopsis, I spent a few weeks carefully choosing how to describe my book. I spent some time on this because I found out that when someone picks up a book the words on the back cover are what helps them determine whether to buy it. 

In July final details were taking place and I dared to set a publication date. A friend from where I work, Claudia, added up the numbers of Kilimanjaro’s altitude: 19,341. She added the 1+9 and came up with 10 and assigned it to mean the month of October. October was a wild guess but seemed possible that the book would be ready. The 3+4+1 = 8.  We added the sums 10 and 8 to make 18, and so my publishing date became October 18.

The time involved with all the steps of writing and publishing had been out of my control. There just was not a way to know how long things would take (a rule of thumb, maybe, pick a deadline then double it). This was like throwing things out into the universe and really having no clue as to what I was doing. Everything, everything, I faced was new territory.   

Continued ongoing micro-editing with Rebecca.

In August I started to plan a book launch. A date was selected, trying to honor the schedules of a few important guests. I designed postcard invitations online and when they arrived at my home I addressed them to be mailed out later. I am so grateful for my good friend, Elle, who happens to love planning events. Other than preparing my invitations, she was taking care of everything. We’d talk about the event and I’d ask her what she wanted me to do. She always had the same answer, “just worry about what you’re going to wear.”

I’ve started posting a blog on my website, every other month.  

I’ve begun to pay attention to marketing my book. I think we can go crazy with expectations. I try to keep my expectations reasonable: I do not believe it would serve a good purpose to expect, on my first go-round, that I’d have an expertly marketed book.  Online, you can find the very best way to do anything, but that’d be like running your first 5K and expecting to finish with the elite group. I wasn’t going for the best, or the worst. I wanted Good Enough. 

During the month of September Rebecca started guiding me through the online self-publishing process (I used Amazon and IngramSpark), explaining to me what to expect and telling me how to fill out the required fields for formatting - color, dimensions, etc. 

In early October. I returned from three weeks of travel overseas and faced an intense few weeks of thingsnotgoingsmoothly trying to publish. It meant a lot back and forth with Rebeca tweaking formatting details. She was my hero, though, responding so quickly - adjusting the manuscript and getting it right back to me. And reassuring me, “it’s all going to be okay, nothing’s on fire….”

October 14:  I published on IngramSpark.

October 15:  I ordered forty books, and expedited print and delivery. Fingers crossed I may have books for my Launch.

October 17:  My ebook published on Amazon.

October 18:  My print version published on Amazon. This was a painful days-long process with formatting issues. What it came down to was, on the third interior page, the lower case y in my last name was running beyond the text border.

October 22:  Forty books arrived on my front porch. They’re beautiful! 

October 26:  Four days later, had my Book Launch and celebrated. One of the happiest days of my life.

I sold out all forty books at my Launch and so ordered a hundred more to be sent to me.

2025

Since then. I could not have planned this and yet it has so worked in my favor -  I work at Anthem Ranch and word had gotten out and many people have been buying my book. This has led to being invited to book clubs.  One occurred in February, another in March. I have one scheduled in April (twenty five books requested). Another is set for May. 

I ordered another one hundred books.

I also plan to reach out to places like independent bookstores and because my book is about a mountain there is a ready-made audience here in Colorado. I’m hopeful it’ll get at least a little attention. I’m waiting to hear back from Next Page Books, an independent bookstore in Frisco, Colorado, to participate in their local authors consignment program.

I could not have foreseen where this decision to write a book five years ago, in deep COVID world, would have led me. It has been hard and uncomfortable at times, but it’s been exhilarating and wonderful. 

March. My website continues to be a source of frustration. But, little by little, with help from friends, it’s improving.