At last!
Your dream of being published is
within your reach!

Once upon a time, if you wanted to get published, you had to sacrifice your time, your energy, and even your art, to satisfy the demands of a commercial press. You could spend countless hours preparing a book proposal or locating an agent or submitting your lovingly prepared manuscript... only to wait for weeks... months... sometimes years... to hear if your work was accepted for publication.

And when you heard back, the news was often bad. Tough luck, kid. Better luck next time!

Back to the drawing board you went... revising your proposal, finding another agent, or a publishing house that would consider a humble submission from an unknown writer. And then waiting... always waiting...

Talent didn't always matter. In fact, sometimes connections mattered more than literary ability.

Potential only mattered, if your work had "marketability".

Even if you did get "picked up", your work could be "re-worked" by an editor who didn't necessarily share your artistic vision. Or it could be torn apart and put back together by someone who just didn't "get" you. Once a publishing company bought the rights to your book, you could lose your editorial control, even your copyright. And whatever profit your work earned would be divided up between the staff in the company, with a very small percentage trickling down to you.

Once upon a time, if you were a writer, you were completely at the mercy of the publishing establishment... if you ever wanted to see your words on the printed page.

My name is Kay Stoner, and I'm an independent publisher with more than 15 books in print today. I've been writing for more than 30 years (since I was seven years old), but until a few years ago, I was really struggling. I desperately wanted to see my words in print, but I despaired of ever getting a book deal from a bona-fide publisher. I'd been sending out submissions for years, being told "No, thank you" more often than I care to remember. I'd actually been signed by two different companies to write two different books, but business difficulties put the "kaibosh" on their plans... and quashed my publishing dreams, once again.

I tried other things, like doing some self-publishing of low-budget poetry chapbooks. But the process was very time-consuming, and although I was happy with my work, going through the motions of making copies of my work (and paying for them up front) was time-and-money-consuming. There had to be a better way of getting published! But I didn't know what that was.

And so, after three decades of writing almost daily ... working on my poetry, prose, essays, fiction... you name it! I was about to just give up my dreams of getting published, and keep writing just for the joy of it. I figured I'd just with doing web development (my day job that paid for my life, so I could write freely), and not hassle with the demeaning -- and usually unfruitful -- submission process. It was enough, I thought, that I was writing. (Okay, so it was a case of "sour grapes", but after 30 years of dashed hopes and broken dreams, can you blame me?)

Then something happened, that changed everything.

I discovered Lulu.

Lulu (www.lulu.com) is a web-based self-publishing system that allows writers like me and you to create our own print-on-demand books for little or no upfront cost. The company was started by one of the co-founders of Red Hat, one of the first companies to provide a commercial version of "Linux" a powerful open-source operating system that's been giving Microsoft Windows a run for its money in the programming world since the 1990's. Red Hat has been providing everyday programmers with a high-quality alternative to "the biggest of the big" for years, so when I heard that one of their founders had started his own independent publishing service for writers who needed an alternative to the high-cost, low-control world of traditional publishing, I had a feeling it was going to be good.

And I was right.

I published my first book with them in 2003. Seeing a real-life "hard copy" of my work... an actual printed book that other people could buy and read... was quite an experience. Not long afterward, I decided to publish another one of my books I had tucked away in a desk drawer. Then I published another. And another. I decided to create a print version of one of my favorite public domain works, "As A Man Thinketh", which I'd edited to be about "As A Woman Thinketh". And I kept going. Over the past three years, I've published more than 15 book projects with Lulu, some of them under pen names, others customized versions of the same book.

Here are some of my books (so far!)

(You can purchase copies of them at my Lulu storefront.)

It's the most amazing feeling, to look at all of them now and to think that, only a few years ago, I was on the verge of giving up on ever getting published. (I would never give up writing! but publishing was another story). After all those years of dashed dreams, I finally have something to show for my passion and dedication. And it's all mine! I own the copyright, I have complete artistic control, I can do what I please with my writing, and I can earn respectable royalties (which I set myself!)

Even more amazing, is the boost that my writing has gotten over the past three years years. I never realized, till I was published, just how debilitating all that rejection was. My writing freed up. It actually improved. All those years of despairing of ever getting published, really took a toll on my writing style. But once I started publishing, and I knew that whatever I wrote had a 100% chance of getting into print (once I was satisfied with it, of course!), my craft really turned around, and I was writing more... and better... than ever. I've made more progress, stylistically, in the past three years, than I had in the prior 10 years of almost daily writing!

It really is an amazing feeling to have a book in print. And to be able to buy an ISBN (with a barcode) for it, so I can sell it through bookstores and Amazon.com. It's an amazing feeling, to have a professionally produced product in my hands, that I can share with friends and family and co-workers and people I meet in the course of my travels. I can say I'm a writer, and have something to show for all my work... 30+ years of dedication. I can say I'm a published writer!

I want you to be able to say that, too! I may not know you or your work, but I do know what it's like to love to write, to live to write, and struggle against all odds for the sake of the written word. I know what it's like to love this craft we call writing, with all your heart and soul, and feel cheated and depleted by an exculsive, elitist, profit-driven publishing industry that cares more about marketability than dedication and talent. I know what it's like to believe in yourself and your work, but never have the satisfaction of seeing anything substantial come of that belief. And I know what it's like to have the satisfaction (and a little disbelief) at having your book published, at long last.

I want you to know what it feels like, to hold your own book in your hands, see your name on the cover, and open a real-life, perfect-bound trade paperback that looks as good as any on the bookstore shelves, and breathe in that sense of accomplishment and pride at your work - your writing - your love of the language - your blood, sweat and tears - in print.

I want you to feel that same sense of accomplishment and pride, when one of your loved-ones pulls apart the wrapping paper on the gift you've given them, and sees a book by you, signed by you in their hands.

I want your heart to fill with that same sense of pride, when you show your family -- your spouse, your kids, your parents, your siblings -- the book you've been telling them about for years: An honest-to-goodness, real-life book, proof positive of your God-given talent, your dedication, your gift, for all of them to share, too!

Every writer should have this experience, no matter what the publishing establishment has to say about it. It should not be reserved for the rich, the connected and the powerful, alone. Anyone and everyone who has the passion, dedication and commitment to write their best and see their writing through to the finish, should know what it's like to see their words in print!

And so, after completing more than 15 book projects, I've used my 15+ years of professional experience as a web developer and technical writer to put book publishing within the reach of other writers.

Drawing on my own experiences, I've developed an Independent Publisher Fast Track Program for writers like me, who crave the experience of seeing their words in print. Drawing on my trials-and-errors (there have been lots!), my false-starts and my successes, and a whole lot of experimentation to find out what works, I've put together a suite of tools to enable you to produce your own quality trade paperback book at very low cost.

I offer a Starter Pack with

• book interior templates
• graphics editing software
• OpenOffice 2.0, the full-featured open source office suite
• other selected resources

My Fast Track Power Pack includes all of the above, plus

• extended documentation for how to use Lulu.com to publish your book at little to no cost
and
• advanced publicity resources for promoting your book

Each Fast Track Publishing Pack includes the tools to get you started publishing your own books with Lulu. Whether it's just a quick ramp-up for independent publishing, or it's more involved direction about how to make the most of free and low-cost online book publishing resources, these Fast Track Packs have a variety of tools, tips and inside information to help you make your publishing dreams a reality.

Plus, everyone who purches one of my Fast Track Publishing Packs will qualify for discounts on other indie publishing products I develop. I've already created a number of different templates for different kinds of books, and when you become a member of my Indie Publishing Fast Track prgram, you'll receive discounts through special links to order pages that aren't advertised anywhere else.

Click the links on the left for more information on how you can make the most of independent publishing today!

All the best!

Kay Stoner

P.S. If you're in need of more personalized help or would like assistance better understanding Lulu.com and the independent publishing process, I am available for individual consulting. I've got nearly 20 years of experience in self-publishing, and I've produced more than 20 projects with Lulu.com in the past two years. You can contact me at indiepub@sitebasics.net for more information on my Indie Publisher Fast Track Mentoring Program.