Self-Publishing in Today's Age

I had started out trying to go the traditional route. I did not send out many manuscripts - in total I have probably sent out manuscripts to less than 10 publishing houses. I knew with my nature of wanting things done instantly, which comes from a journalism training where I have worked in a lot of newsrooms, waiting to get a book published is something beyond the patience of my current age of 36.

It was funny how I discovered Lulu.com. I actually received an email from a man (cannot even remember his name at the moment) from my old site with the same domain name: www.donnakakonge.com. What happened after that has changed the way I look at publishing for good I believe.

The man gave me the link to his site and when I went there an advertisement for Lulu.com was there too. When I clicked through to it, I was amazed that you could actually self-publish a book for free. I had been looking for something such as this for quite some time. I had considered getting my book published through Trafford Publishing, however considered it to be a vanity press - even though I have seen their finished products and they do look good.

The first book I published with Lulu.com was the book that came out of my graduate work, What Happened to the Afro? It used to be called Afro Forever, however I changed the name. Once I published that first book, that summer I worked on a project to create How to Write Creative Non-fiction. All of this happened back in 2006 and I have written now a total of 20 books, edited one, have one CD of radio documentaries and two audio story downloads, all through Lulu.com.

The fun part is getting ISBNs for them through the Library and Archive of Canada. It is a fun and easy process and the people who work there are great. One of the women who I believe still works there even called me the day before Christmas just to sort out some problem I was having with my ISBNs. So much for government workers not doing any work. I have always found them to be really hard-working and a pleasure to deal with. They will also be dilligent in making sure there is at least one copy of your book/s in their archive.

Now, I also have my books in Seneca College's library system. This also makes it available throughout the entire college library system in Ontario, Canada. My next goal is to get Centennial College where I also work to buy them (which they said they would), as well as to get them into the Toronto Public Library system, as well as other libraries across Canada and even in the States too if that works out. I believe in libraries and used to work in two of them.

So these are all of the adventures I have had in self-publishing. I recommend that if you have a story to be told - do not keep it buried away - let it see the light. Plus now, Robert Payne and I have a service where we can help you to tell your stories. Just contact me at: dkakonge@sympatico.ca if you are interested in finding out more about this service.

Using the Web to Realize Journalism Goals

It's a bit of a catch-22 having advertising on a blog site. Sometimes advertising material will be included that I, as the writer, do not agree with. I remember the days when the Internet was a free forum - and there are still things that you can get on the Internet for free. However, now, everyone seems to want to figure out how they can make money from the Internet.

I find myself spending a lot of my free time updating my sites and doing podcasts. I also spend a lot of time writing and self-publishing books. I do not make a lot of money from these tasks - definitely not enough that I could live on it alone, yet I enjoy doing these things immensely. My magazine Donna is a long-held dream of mine. I always tended to find that when I was paid to work for a magazine in the past, with the exception of New Dreamhomes and Condominiums Magazine - things always seemed to go wrong. There always seemed to be some sort of screw up, difference of opinion and people in the magazine industry can sometimes be difficult to work for. However, the joy of working for a magazine is exactly what I am sure keeps so many people in that industry.

Now that I have Donna Magazine, I have been able to bring to light some stories that had long since been buried. With the wonders of the Internet (which I do love), I have even made the magazine multimedia and I plan to start posting up some of my old documentaries on the magazine, as well as producing new ones.

As for the podcasts - well, this gives me a chance to produce my own radio episodes any way I would like to do so. I do not have to worry about CBC cuts, about getting bumped out of my job by senior reporters or even having to get my story pitches "greenlighted" by a producer. If I think the story is good - I can do it. The only thing I need to worry about is that I am using my allotted free space on Podomatic (I could also increase it by going pro). Plus, I can also put podcasts on my magazine.

My books are another story that I will get to in another post. Thanks for listening and I hope that if you have a love for freedom of expression, you find ways to make the Internet work for you too.

New Opportunities Learning Centre

In this economy, it is great to know that there are two dedicated women such as Mary Salerno and Garbriella Starker-Saxe helping people to get back to work. This is a slice of information of their centre that creates new opportunities for people. Their website is at: http://www.newopps.ca/.

Check out the podcast at: http://kakonged.podomatic.com.