As I said in the blog post “My Writing Life” a few weeks ago, a reader once asked me to write a post about how I got into writing (and writing about grammar, I suspect) and publishing. In that first post, I talked about my life as a writer, from when I wrote a “musical” when I was about seven to when I decided to write a grammar book . . . at, well, a lot older than seven.

Years as a teacher, writer, editor, and long-time grammar lover (Latin was my favorite class in high school) paved the way for writing the books I now write. So, as I said in the previous post, I remember that I was at the gym when I told the woman at the front desk, a novelist herself, that I was going to write a grammar book with all the major problems I saw again and again as an editor and as a teacher.

But where to begin? Do I write? Do I look for a publisher? I honestly cannot remember what I did first, but I do remember looking for a publisher. It was a daunting task. I had a book listing publishers, and there were much too many! And then, I had to locate the ones that would even be interested in a grammar book. As I began to give up that search, I thought about how long it would take  traditional publisher to get the book out—maybe a couple of years—and I didn’t want to wait.

I really didn’t know what self-publishing was, but I had heard of it. I had also long heard of vanity publishers, who had been around forever, publishing any book for the right price for any “author” who just wanted to see a book with his or her name on the cover. 

I started researching self-publishing with an internet search, of course. It was around 2008 or 2009. I found many companies who called themselves self-publishers. For a certain price—and often a choice of prices depending on what “package” you wanted—these self-publishers would print your book.  I began to gather information on a few of them who appeared to be legitimate and not vanity publishers. 

My internet search for self-publishers also led me to the Yahoo Self-Publishing Group, now a Facebook group. That group saved my life. I asked them which self-publishing company I should use, and they said, “None!” They recommended publishing the book myself: hiring a cover designer and a page designer and an editor. And I found my first cover designer and my page designer (who is still my page designer to this day) in that group. They also recommended to me a book that separated the legit self-publishing companies (of which there were some) from the vanity presses in disguise. 

Yes, there was a learning curve, but things went pretty smoothly. There were some excellent books that took me step by step through everything (and frankly more than everything) I needed to know to self-publish my book. My designers were great! I found out about BAIPA, the Bay Area Independent Publishing Association, which I joined and still belong to. It has been of immeasurable help to me throughout the seven or eight years I have belonged. It is an organization under the umbrella of IBPA, the Independent Book Publishers Association. So if you are interested in self-publishing, you can find out from the IBPA website if there is a similar group to BAIPA in your geographic area. There are many such publishing groups across the country.

So, on May 1, 2010 (or was it May 5?), I launched my first book at my local independent bookstore, Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma,, CA. I still maintain a close relationship with that store and launch all my books there. “Launching” a book is presenting it to the world in an official way. Sometimes a launch consists of a book signing, or maybe signings at several stores. Other times, the launch consists of the author actually talking and making a presentation about the book—and then signing and selling books.

For most independent (self) publishers, bookstores are not the main sales avenue. You can get your books into bookstores, but it can be tough. But it isn’t tough to make your book available for anyone to order at any bookstore. And then there is Amazon and Kindle—along with other online sellers of print books and e-books. It i easy to get your self-published book online.

My first book, The Best Little Grammar Book Ever!, in all its bright yellow splendor, sold quite well for a first book by an independent publisher. I believe the Kindle version made it to about number 5 in rank in grammar books for a while. I was done. I had a book. I mean, how many grammar books can a person write?

It would be a few years after my first book that I would start this blog. But I wasn’t just sitting around. A Facebook friend posted that she had a dream I wrote a book called Correct Me If I’m Wrong. So how could I not? Another grammar book on the way. While similar in content to my first book, I added more comma rules and word usage information, took out the quizzes, and arranged all the issues in alphabetical order. It was quite a different book—and this one was bright green, starting me on the branding idea of a different bright color for each book. And although I  switched cover designers at this point, I still maintain a similar cover design for all my books.  I have used yellow, orange, green, aqua, white, red, and bright blue now……as well as a second yellow book, a multicolor book (50 Shades of Grammar), and a book with a dark purple background. 

How can anyone write so many grammar books? Let me tell you what happened after the first two.

I was teaching 7th grade English until 2015, and after I wrote the first book—and maybe even the second—I was mentoring a student teacher. She thought my grammar lessons were really good and that I should put some of them in a book. Yup! I took yet another suggestion to put out a book. The book became Beyond Worksheets and is an ebook, not a print book.  Although it hasn’t done much on Kindle, I have it on a teacher site and it has done quite well, with many really positive responses from teachers who use it. 

Soon after, I figured out that people really like workbooks, and I should write a grammar workbook. The big orange Best Grammar Workbook Ever! came out in around 2014. It remains my biggest seller. Schools have discovered it—and the yellow reference book as well.

So is that enough grammar books for one person to write?? Apparently not. I wanted to make an even smaller book than The Best Little Grammar Book Ever! so I came up with The Great Grammar Cheat Sheet, available as an e-book only. It distills only the most common grammar, punctuation, and word usage issues. It is bright red, for those of you keeping  track of color.

Is she done yet? Nope! Someone in my writing group (yet another suggestion I took) told me she always printed out my blog posts to keep, and that I should think about putting them in a book. Done, with the clever title Fifty Shades of Grammar. That book came out in 2015 (I think). Just today I was talking with another writer about that book, and I thought, Hey, it might be time for a part 2 of that one. I have lots more posts!

A couple of years ago, I redid my first book, since there was some evolution in grammar, and there is now a second edition of The Best Little Grammar Book Ever! I still had colors yet unused, so I wrote a small workbook to accompany that book—with an aqua cover. I wanted the two sold as a set, but the Print on Demand method that most self-publishers use makes it impossible to sell sets. However, you can combine books under one cover and call it a set. That is what I just did with the second edition of the grammar book and its workbook. But there is also a third book in that collection: Does Your Flamingo Flamenco? So many word pairs are confused that I thought I would write a dictionary-type book with those often confused words: affect/effect, lay/lie, principle/principal . . . . you get the idea. So that book came out on its own, and just recently as the third part of my latest book, The Best Little Grammar Collection Ever!

I recently also wrote an e-book about self-publishing, since I have done it so many times now! And in 2011 I wrote a novel, which has been hanging around on Amazon and Kindle under a pseudonym. I am currently changing the title, changing the author to my real name, and republishing it. I will let you know when it is out (you know I will!)

And we are now at the present! So what are my plans? Well, I have learned that I really like speaking about grammar and words and that I am not at all bad at it (for someone as shy as I have always been). So I speak when I can. I have spoken to many writing groups and community groups. And I do have plans for some books this year:

• The next book will likely be a small punctuation-only book.
• I plan to write a business writing book this year too (someone’s suggestion).
• And I would love to write an English as a Second Language workbook as well. That will take some research!

Then, I may start concentrating on novels!

You can see all my books on the website www.bigwords101.com, also reachable at www.TheGrammarDiva.com. And of course, on Amazon.

SAVE THE DATE!

Friday, March 16 at 7 p.m. Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma, CA. The launch of The Best Little Grammar Collection Ever! There will be cake!