Barbara J. Hamby

Evolution of a Book

We have created this blog so that I can keep in touch daily with my readers. Some of you may be interested in the origin of my latest book, Find Romance in Later Life ~ True Tales & Tips to Help You. That tale follows:

Five years ago a relationship I’d been in for two years died due to a mutual lack of interest. We drifted apart. He fell into the arms of another woman. I fell into the ranks of single, older women searching for long-term companionship. Flailing around, I looked for guidance and found very little.

As a writer and insatiable reader, I naturally looked for books and found nothing that seemed suitable for my situation.  After deliberating and procrastinating for months, I developed a survey questionnaire to obtain information and advice for what eventually developed into my book, Find Romance in Later Life, subtitled: True Tales & Tips to Help You.

Using both email and snail mail, I distributed more than a hundred surveys and received about fifty-five completed forms. Reading the collected anecdotes had me laughing or crying. A few stood my hair on end.

I spent two years collecting stories and advice and arranging the distilled information into chapters. As I had promised, fictitious first names were assigned to all contributors to protect their identities.

During that time I researched various ways of meeting people and put my profile on numerous online dating services, tried classified ads, and tested most of the opportunities that others had recommended.

At a writers’ conference I shopped agents and editors and was discouraged by their response to my book proposal. One wanted me to drop the verses I sprinkled through the book for variety. Another wanted to change the title. Adding more sex was also suggested. I learned that most conventional publishers want to control title, cover and part of the content of books they buy. They want bestsellers. My desire was to help my peers navigate the morass of methods for finding partners.

Discouraged, but determined, I began to research print-on-demand publishers. I previously assisted in editing two anthologies that one such company published for a writing class, so had some familiarity with their requirements.

Print-on-demand (POD) publishers charge a setup fee to feed a manuscript into their computer equipment. Copies of the book are printed and bound as they are ordered, so there is virtually no waste of paper and no boxes of books warehoused by distributors or housed in the writer’s garage, basement or closet.

I chose booklocker.com to publish my book and began working with them to satisfy their formatting requirements. We negotiated terms such as supplying my own cover (designed by my web-designer son), including my verses, and using larger print than normal to help older readers with vision problems.

Booklocker.com posts information about the books they publish on their website, as well as on amazon.com, barnes&noble.com, and other book vending sites.

Having a flawless product is important to me, so when I discovered a number of errors in the final proof copy, I fine tuned it and resubmitted the document. The result is more than satisfactory to my perfectionist alter ego.

A good friend/editor proofread a copy of my manuscript while I edited diligently. When I needed a break, I would check the profiles on the online services I had subscribed to. If I found an attractive personality, I responded. Before my book was finished, I found the fellow who is now my companion. He suggested a few changes to make my book more user-friendly to male readers, as well as females.

Nearly two years later, we are still a couple. The story of our meeting is the Epilogue to Find Romance in Later Life.