What I Learned: How to Publish a Book by Renee Gatz

When I completed the manuscript of my first book Wise Words & Witty Expressions, I found myself in need of some education about how to get my book published.

Since I was completely outside of my experience, I reached out to my fellow Association of Women in Communications (AWC) members for help directing me toward the next steps of getting published. By using AWC’s national database, I was able to contact AWC members nationally and received more than 200 e-mail responses. Women I had never met before provided the benefit of their publishing experience, offered contact information of those they felt could help me and outlined the differences between self-publishing and working with a traditional publishing company.

Ultimately, thanks to all the information I was provided, I elected to work with a start-up publishing company right in my own North Jersey AWC chapter, Woodpecker Press.

Woodpecker Press was able to direct me to some valuable local resources that were instrumental in the development and marketing of my book. The art designer, Hit Designs, provided a book cover design that has resulted in a tremendous amount of positive feedback. I was directed to a local media company, Samson Media that helped me design and set up my blog site and provided some great marketing ideas. Additionally, Samson Media referred me to the photographer used for the book, Sigen Photography, and fellow Northern New Jersey AWC Chapter member Holly Kaplansky of Minuteman Press developed the marketing materials used to promote the book.

What I learned from this experience was that networking was integral to getting my first book published. By reaching out to those in my network, I was able to draw on their collective knowledge and take the information that was offered to me and draw a conclusion about how to proceed in a way that met with my personal goals.

Even now that my book is published, I remain in contact with all members of my network, new and old, to learn different techniques to market my book and how marketing a self-published book differs from marketing a book that is produced by a traditional publishing house.

My new book Wise Words & Witty Expressions is a collection of the expressions I learned from my parents growing up in an Irish Catholic family that helped me navigate my way through life’s ups and downs. The expressions are funny, sarcastic and even profound. While growing up, I rolled my eyes at my parents when they said these expressions to me. Imagine how horrified I was to grow up and begin using them. Ultimately, I determined that these expressions were a part of me and in spite of myself came back to me at the appropriate moments in my life to help me understand, laugh and survive.

Visit me at www.reneegatz.com to learn more about my book or contact me at reneegatz@msn.com with any questions.