BellaOnline Forums Family Senior Living Writing in Your Retirement

Golden Years can be truly golden when you pursue old dreams or create new goals. If yhou ever dreamed of becoming a writer, find inspiration and tips here. If you are already a journalist or copywriter, where do you find work? What's your favorite type of project? Thanks for commenting!

I agree! My husband and I are finding our later years very exciting. He has taken up photography while I am exploring new spirituality paths.

And because we know that life really never ends, the best is yet to come. So we liken our stay here on earth as a grand and glorious field trip.

Anyway, in the past I worked as a newspaper stringer, columnist, freelance writer and magazine editor. Today, I write essays, self-help and spirituality e-books. I am self-publishing. I love the editorial and artistic control over my work.

Who do you use to self-publish? I'm looking into that now and there seem to be a milion chilces!

Yes, there are so many companies vying for our dollars! Lisa Shea did a lot of research on this and she chose to go with Lulu. Amazon has its own self-publishing service called CreateSpace. There are pros and cons to every company. Are you planning on printing an ebook or print copy?

I opted to self-publish on my own by going directly to Lightning Source which is the major printer for most major publishing houses. I did this only because none of the self-publishing companies could accommodate my first title's format which is a flip book and had reversed pages. I literally had to start my own publishing house but there are benefits to this, too. I have many titles to come but if you have only one, I would consider choosing one of the self-publishing companies instead.

Have you checked on the Bellaonline tutorials on ebooks yet? Very informative!

I have actually looked into all of the options you mentioned. I'm very interested in Lightening Source, and have doene one small book on Lulu. I have several titles, but because I freelance for a living, my wiring time is usually for someone else's project. I'm writing full-time and end up writing my own stuff at night, just like every other writer in the world! (sigh!) How did you go about starting your own publishing company? That sounds pretty amazing. I did some marketing for a company called Booger Books that was the same thing - a mom and daughter team who self-published and wanted a company to call their own. One day, I'm going to have time to check on all of the things I want to do - music composition, my OWN books, the Vacation Bible School units I want to write ... So much to do ... So little time! :)

LOL, I agree! I can't keep up with all the books I'm writing!

Starting my own publishing house is similar to launching your own business. I began to outline the set-up procedures and issues but this post got super long. Better for you to get a book about starting your own self-publishing house. This way you won't miss something important!

For now, my site will not feature a cart for direct purchases. I only provide a link to Barnes and Noble and Amazon. Believe me, unless you have a lot of products to sell on your site, it doesn't make sense to pay for an e-commerce site and all the transaction fees (monthly or per purchase)--and the shipping and handling headaches.

I am looking for authors who want me to post a link to their book on my site. The only caveat is that the book must fall into the self-help genre and be written in first-person narrative.

Good luck!