Ritah the Authorpreneur |31 August 2019
The sleeve of Ritah’s book entitled ‘40 years’
In case you decide to write a book, Janine Henriette, who publishes under the pseudonym Ritah and is the author of ‘40 years’, shares her journey as an authorpreneur.
The journey to publish a book coincided with my 40th birthday. In the book I share my life’s journey via 40 poems. I sat down and put my life’s stories on paper. Doing this in 40 poems was not a walk in the park but I managed to lay it down in 40 poems.
That was step one, if you want to achieve something, you actually have to do something. Step two: revisit your first, second, third, fourth … drafts. However, many times you need to re-work and amend your creation, do it. Step three: bring on board others to proofread and make editing suggestions: friends and professionals in the field alike. Friends and family have helped me by reading and criticising my poems, giving their views on my choice of cover and inside pages: the picture, colours and font.
Being a novice, professional help was needed, so I contacted Notion Press, a publishing company in India. Notion Press provided editing, publishing and online marketing services. I am not an expert in writing poems, book publication and the business of book selling. So I needed to identify experts in the fields of writing poems, publishing, marketing and sales. Do not let money be a restriction. Experts are not that difficult to find or have to be paid. A friend of a friend with qualification in literature studies will be happy to read your work. Newspapers and magazines will be happy to share your book publication on their pages. A shop manager in town will be happy to advise you on book sales.
Just reach out and there will be a positive response.So do not see everything as beyond your reach. Rather have faith in your dreams. Each little step leads to the bigger picture and success.
Now what? My journey as an authorpreneur goes on. I need to continue marketing the book locally and handle sales.
The book ‘40 years’ by Ritah is available online and will be available in shops locally by September 19, 2019.
Ìý
Contributed