Cathy’s Publishing Advice For E-books and Cassy’s Advice About HubPages

Last Updated on: June 14th, 2021

Recently I met a wonderful woman online. Her name is Cathy Nerujen.  Let me tell you how I met her; it’s a shocking story. To me, anyway! Then I’ll tell you about Cassy. Oh, and if you want to know about e-books, read on!

This is me, in case you didn’t know!

How I met Cathy:

During one of the discussions in one of my groups in LinkedIn, I was reading through the comments  when one comment jumped out at me. It was a comment Cathy made about poetry. Having encountered no one  else in that particular group who has a fondness for poetry, I decided to click on “reply privately” and send Cathy a message. I told her about my new poetry blog, mentioned a few other things, and we began corresponding. I told her that I was thrilled that she so readily shared some information with me. (I am still amazed at how many super-nice people there are in this world!)

I decided to share one of her emails with you. (Of course, I got her permission!)

Here is (most of) what she wrote:

Hi Lorraine

For creating eBooks, there are several companies that can make it happen for you. There is Smashwords, there is CreateSpace, and then there are companies such as Lulu.com.

I know several people who have experience with all these companies…

Check out this link.

The two books at the bottom of the hub are by Vincent Moore – a writer and poet I know very well, from Canada. His books are published on Amazon and have received rave reviews.

The two books at the bottom of the hub are by Vincent Moore – a writer and poet I know very well, from Canada. His books are published on Amazon and have received rave reviews.

Here is the link to the profile page belonging to Vincent in that website.

As a writer on Smashwords – they take care of your book. You simply upload your text document to their site in an easy to use system and then your book will become available there as an eBook.

It will be sold on Apple iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Aldiko, Diesel, Sony eReader platform, and Blio… there are others too. You retain 85% of your retail sales on Smashwords and you get about 60% from everywhere else, as far as I know.

This is a painless way to sell your book as an ebook, Lorraine. Createspace is an Amazon company that has a slightly different way of getting you published. They have one of the best systems of e-book creation or book creation around and they send you royalties every month for a minimum of $10 by your sending date.

If you prefer to be published by a different company like Lulu, you upload your book to the Lulu site as a Word document, select your cover art or submit your own if you have it, and like the other publishers they will ask do you wish to buy an ISBN number as all books need a catalog number like this for selling anywhere.

I plan to publish my book via this method, and another version of my book through Createspace. Amazon is just massive, and is the world’s biggest book seller.

If you can send an email, and submit things on sites like LinkedIn, then you can easily use these publishing systems. They are made to be easy and take the hard work out of publishing yourself.

If you know how to create PDF documents, you could try creating your own e-book and selling it yourself. Weebly and other website creators have shopping cart systems that are PayPal and Google compatible. So selling and publishing is easy.

You could even sell via Twitter and through a Facebook page for your books. Try this company for setting up a free store on Facebook…

Here is the Store site ECWID that also creates a free online store for you to sell books or whatever you wish… on Facebook or MySpace or any blog…

Lorraine, there are many other companies that can also offer sales systems that sell your books for you on many platforms. Don’t restrict yourself to just one…

Ebooks are cheaper to create than paper books, so take advantage of this. If I can be more help, just ask me.

Have a sweet day.

Cathy.

Here is the permission I got from her:

Yes, you may use my reply as a post on your blog.

She also asked:

I wonder are you a member of Hub Pages? You earn income from the ads that appear on poetry and other hubs that you create. I just thought I’d mention it. If you are not interested, it’s fine. But there are many poets on Hub Pages.

To answer your question, yes there is a market for good poetry and for romantic poetry. I have been read by about 20,000 readers on Hub Pages, and my blog has had on average 100 to 600 reads a day – depending on the posts I put there. (One guest blog about viral writing went viral.)

It’s okay to write about those things from your youth. Why not? And why not compile them into a book or ebook? Lorraine, I will check out your other website and if you like I can add them to my blogroll. Poets should support each other.

Saying that I am the first poet you ever met online… wow… that is surprising, Lorraine. There are so many writers online. Are you on Twitter or Facebook? Well, I am happy to know a great writer and online. It is a pleasure to meet you and know you.

Thank you for the comments about being considerate regards postings. I do the same with posts. You should look into the market for love poems and romantic poetry. Whether it is books, magazines, eZines, specialist publications or writing love verse for postcard companies like Blue Mountain (I know some who write for them) – it is a great market, and nice to write what you love about who you love. 🙂

As to Fehl, and to Cassy, the two special ladies in my life, everyone knows my story, as it has been well told on HubPages.

Thank you so much for your warm comments to me here. On behalf of Fehl, thank you especially for this.

You can email me directly at – cathynerujen@gmail.com

H’mm, sometimes poets can be moody, but poets have more better days because they have more of a sense of fulfillment. Writing can liberate the soul.

Have a sweet day, Lorraine. It is nice to write here. Take care.

Cathy.

I neglected to mention that Cathy is a lesbian and her partner, Cassy, is bisexual. Both are writers, too! (I am also bisexual, and a writer, so we have quite a few things in common!)

I then decided to write to Cassy. Here is what she wrote to me:

Hey Lorraine,

Thanks for reading my “Encounters” and “Megumi” stories in HubPages. Some folks act surprised reading that kind of writing. Obviously not you! Why is it fair to say you are Bisexual? Are you out? Thinking about it? H’mmm.

I make money from Google Adsense ads that I registered for, which is free. I get revenue from Amazon ads on my hubs and from the HubPages Ad system. Just not eBay, I am not interested in it. P.S. set up a PayPal account so you can get paid from the Hubs ads directly! They make good money for me.

Just join HubPages first for free and then apply for the ads things after you have gone and published at least 5 good quality hubs. You have to wait to be approved. Once approved, add the adverts from Google Adsense to your blogs if WordPress allows them. WordPress might not allow them on the free accounts for blogs. Weebly and Blogger allows them.

I made a payment recently from Google. If you were making say $40 from 2 blogs per month as an example, then 4 blogs makes double that, more or less. So you do the math. I also use affiliate systems and earn through them, of which Amazon is one, so any book sales that happen via my Hubs will earn me more. If, like me you like books, then good for you!

I don’t know why more don’t join HubPages. It’s money for pete’s sake!

You can tailor-make your profile so it has your LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google plus and one Blog or Website link. HubPages is pretty generous, compared to some.

Mine is all right here: http://cheeky-girl.hubpages.com/_wr2dxe7ab8zf

Thanks for the message, Lorraine! I enjoy reading your blogs!

Cheers!
Ciao –
Cassy

So there it is, for all the world to see. Cathy’s advice for publishing e-books, and Cassy’s advice about Hubpages. And me, out of the closet, for a few more people to see, in case you missed my big “coming out” when I wrote this post.

I am thinking about joining HubPages, and using that as my outlet for some of my personal experiences.

As usual, I’d appreciate ANY comments, personal or otherwise, from you, my dear readers!