If at first you don't succeed....

Some years back, I had an idea for as poetry book: A dark and horror poetry collection. When it comes to poetry books, I prefer to do "theme books." My first one was autobiographical. So next I wanted to do something dark and spooky. I eventually learned about a publishing entity called Evil-Book.com. That is where my poetry book, Topiary Dreams, was first published. Unfortunately, that company folded and my book was in limbo. I moved on to other things, but at the same time, I hoped to bring my poetry book back to life.

Then I eventually decided to try publishing the book myself. I created Greenwolf Press for just such an occasion, but because finances were so tight, I could not get everything in order for this self-publishing venture. I did find a good deal to print the books, but I didn't have enough money for a bar code or ISBN. Worse, the font I ended up using was terrible on paper. It worked on screen, but not on paper. It made the book hard to read. I did, however, continue to make this book available for sale, but I didn't go nuts in promoting it. I just didn't have much confidence it would do well.

After some time passed, I got the idea to try to self-publish the book again. I spent a lot of time exploring this option, researching self-publishing, asking questions, talking to people, etc. Eventually, I decided to go with CreateSpace. But first I had to get the book ready. In order to make it stand out as "new" and not just the same old stuff. I revised and added to the poems. I also had the manuscript professionally edited by someone who worked as a horror editor, and got a couple of blurbs. Then I set to work getting it set up on CreateSpace. The only problem is, I had trouble getting the cover right, according to their specifications. Sigh!

Then an idea struck. Why not give this manuscript one last fighting chance? I scoured the Internet hoping to find someone who would publish it, but no luck. I did consider approaching Gypsy Shadow Publishing (my publisher for Love is Like a Rainbow and the forthcoming children's book The Yellow Rose), but I wasn't sure if it was "right" for them. I didn't have a handle, exactly, on what kind of books they want to publish. And I also felt maybe this kind of writing was too dark for them. Still, I decided, nothing ventured, nothing gained. So I gave a shot and asked if they might be interested in looking at the manuscript. They were, and after I submitted it, it was accepted. Hooray!

And, as if adding new poems wasn't enough to resurrect Topiary Dreams, it was also given a new title: Songs of the Dead.

Because the poems in this book are dark and spooky, they had the idea to get the Ebook version released in time for Halloween. And that's exactly what has happened.

Songs of the Dead is NOW available for purchase as an E-book at this link.

For now, it will stay an E-book, but the print version will be available in the near future. I will wait and see how the E-version will do, and time the print release for something else I have planned for one of the poems in this book.

Happy Halloween!