My Blogging Story; Share Yours~

I haven't been a hostess this year because I thought there might be a week where a Scheduled Hostess would be unable to post and I could fill in for them. This is the week~ Now I get to be a hostess!

  After Maggie was born in the spring of 2004 I was searching for a way to express myself creatively. I was feeling isolated and stifled as a stay at home Mama of two children under two. (Ethan was born in the fall of 2002). As always I had my journals and books to keep me company, but I needed more. My usual trips to the self-help/metaphysical section of the bookstore failed to help me find the comfort in pages that I had so often been content with in the past. I wanted to connect with someone who understood and could validate my feelings of love and longing.

I began reading my old journals. I decided to create a visual book out of copies of my old journals, papers I bought from the local craft store, and scraps from my past I had collected over the years. The result was a 100 page mixed media memoir called Be Alive Believe Be You based on a poem I wrote about my life experience. (you can read a few pages here.)

I thought if I could publish my book either on the web or in a more traditional way I would finally get to connect with all my sisters I felt were calling out to me.  In the summer of 2005 my search began for how to publish a book. Every article I read said how it was important to have your own web site. I knew nothing about web sites or code or domain names. When researching host sites I came across information about a blog ~ an online journal. This seemed like a great idea to me and looked much more natural than the static web page that I saw created by many authors.

I chose TypePad because I liked that you could have a custom banner and look of your blog without knowing any code. After 6 months I upgraded to TypePad Pro because I wanted to have more than one blog. I purchased the domain name Be Alive Believe Be You and then mapped that name to my TypePad account. I used a different domain hosting company at first, but their service was horrible so I switched to GoDaddy.  My 5 domains are all with GoDaddy. They have very good customer service. I was intimidated at first by all this~ by little by little I figured it out. and remember you can too! Don't be afraid to ask for help!

In late August 2005 I created my first post and then sent a mass email to everyone I knew about the launch of my blog. This...well...I don't like to say regret, but I definitely would not recommend it. I would slowly and carefully tell the people I want to tell in my real life about my blog. Sometimes I feel I hold back on my blog because so many of my family members read it...I never want to offend anyone, but it is my blog and therefore comes from my perspective.

Soon after I published my first post I began reading other blogs. In most cases I think this happens the other way around~ someone reads blogs, comments, and then finally starts their own blog. But I started reading blogs after I began posting.  Right away I was addicted! I read and commented and it all felt...very natural. 

  I sent out a query letter to Red Wheel Press about publishing my book. I got rejected. Then I created and sent out the cutest mini-book query to Chronicle Books. I got rejected again and cried. I also sent my book to The Oprah Winfrey Show and let my mom and sister read it. 

and then I put my book away. Not because I was giving up but because by this time I had already found what I was looking for. It soon became evident that the community I hoped to find by publishing a book could be found right here through blogging.

The bloggers I have connected with are my teachers, my friends, my support, my loves.

Everything isn't always rosey in my cyber world. There are times bloggers have made me mad, been mean to me, or disappointed me. But I love that! I love the richness, the fullness, the realness of blogging.

I am looking forward to sharing more of my story this week with you.

It is fun to look back and remember how it all began.

I would love for you to share in the comments or in your own post how your blogging journey began. and it would be great fun if you would link to your first post in the comments here!

Here is mine from August 12, 2005 ~ Be A Spark

XO, Melba

Comments

[groovyholly]

What a beautiful story Melba. My blog story is different, I started blogging, just for myself basically. I had seen other blogs and didn't really think much of them, I have always been more of a "traditionalist" when it comes to keeping a diary! I thought I would blog to keep track of things for my son and my family that lives far away from me. Now I blog for me and if my family reads it, Great! if not, no big deal. My blogging has turned into a way of finding myself, expressing myself and creating myself through my art. I've also had the added bonus of meeting my biological father and he's been able to get to know me through my blog as well. It is much easier for me to communicate through written words and I love being able to add a picture to my thoughts as well. I've "met" so many great people now too, I hope to meet them in person someday too.

[darlene]

i loved reading your blogging story. i started almost 5 years ago because a friend started and it seemed like a fun way to connect with my friends. i used blogger way back then because it was easy to set up though over time i switched because i wanted more flexibility. its funny because i started blogging to hang out with my friends while i was at work and then i discovered blogging and then i made friends out there in the world and that whole evolution was amazing. over time my reasons and inclinations and what i blog about has changed just as i change ... i really love that about it and i really love the community, the community rocks it. :)

[Kara aka Mother Henna]

Love reading your story, Melba! So glad you found your way to bloglandia :)

Regarding your book in print. I know it feels like a non-issue for you now, but wanted to see if you knew about resources like Lulu.com? If you ever do have the print book bug again, you could always use Lulu.com to be your on-demand publisher. They even have packages now where you can buy ISBNs one at a time.

We've used them for a long time in combo with KotaPress' own block of ISBNs. They are more expensive per book cost because they are printing onesie, twosie, but they keep me from having to house 100's of books at a time. They still give me an really basic cost. They give us a storefront, too, though I don't really use it:

http://lulu.com/editor1035

So sometimes people stumble on it and buy from there at a retail price. But mostly, I buy copies at my author price and resell myself on Etsy or thru KotaPress. And it works great for books and zine I want to keep in print, but I'm necessarily selling hand over foot, you know....

Separately, I do have a local print do small runs -- 100 or more at a time -- of our books like Mrs. Duck or Flash Of Life -- but that's because they fly out of here in quantity like that. So they are a bit cheaper to produce per book cost -- and I still am not housing them coz mostly they are just shipping right out to buyer/resellers.

Anyway...just thought maybe you'd dig knowing about the Lulu option if you didn't already know of it...
Miracles!!
k-

[Delia]

Thank you for sharing the link to your memoir pages...so inspiring!
Love,
D.