Hello Hive community and bookworms!
As of today, my book "The Journey of Life" – which I announced in this post – is officially available and shipping from multiple retailers!
I am overjoyed to have finally made the decision to turn my diary entries, collected over the years, into the book that now exists.
There are now a total of four versions of the book available:
Draft2Digital distributes both an eBook and a paperback version to various stores, all of which you can find via this universal book link: https://books2read.com/u/3GK1EP
Additionally, the eBook and paperback are available on Amazon:
This whole process wasn't without its moments of stress. For example, when the paperback distributed by Draft2Digital suddenly appeared on Amazon, I was briefly afraid I had violated the corporation's policy against listing a book in two different versions. To my relief, I was later told that this rule is only strictly enforced for eBooks.
So, you have a choice: on Amazon, you can purchase the D2D version with a beige spine or the Amazon (KDP = Kindle Direct Publishing) version with a light blue spine, hehe.
As for the content, I already wrote about it in my previous book post: I write about my childhood and youth spent in poverty but with my wonderful family, and how I then began my adventure as an Overseas Filipino Worker in Singapore and continued it in Hong Kong. How I had to leave my son behind and how I tragically lost his father, my life partner. How I nevertheless tried to always stay optimistic and never gave up hope for a better life. With this book, I especially want to give courage to all other OFWs who have experienced similar things.
I hope this brief description has piqued your curiosity a little?
What's proving to be anything but easy is promoting the book as a complete publishing newbie to my target audience – especially other OFWs. Unfortunately, many admins of OFW Facebook groups (Facebook is extremely popular here in the Philippines) have rejected links to my book, as promotion is prohibited (even while the groups are otherwise full of ads for condos and land).
Nevertheless, I remain hopeful for the best. I have set up a Goodreads author profile where readers can ask me questions about myself and my book, and I am now also on X.
I would love to show you a photo of me with my own book, but unfortunately, the companies I am using don't send author copies to the Philippines! So I will have to buy my own book! Philippine publishers like REKO have not responded to my inquiries so far.
Finally, here is a screenshot of the Amazon page where my book is listed for sale. I have to admit, I am incredibly proud to see my own book there now!
