SURPRISE! I Made a Book!

| Allison

Hello, dears!

I’m SUPER excited for this post, eep! I’ve been working on a secret project for the past little while, and today I’m going to reveal it! Ahem… GUYS, I WROTE A POEM BOOK.

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AHHH I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! THIS IS SUCH A STRANGE FEELING, HELP. Introducing… unfurling: a little book of poems. *grins widely*

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LOOK, THE COVER! AND THE BACK COVER! AND THE BARCODE, YAYYY! XD OKAY, OKAY. Let me settle down and I’ll explain a little more about it. *deep breath*

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Ahem. Many months ago, my grandmother told me if I wanted to get her a gift sometime, she would love a book of my poems. I thought that was a great idea, since I’ve been wanting to print my poems anyway, but I kept the idea safely tucked away in the back of my mind until it was closer to her birthday.

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Unfortunately, I started working on it a little TOO close to her birthday, so it came late, heh heh, but I did finish it, with the help of my amazing beta readers, Aria, Clara, and Amanda!

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It contains 54 of my poems, old and new, and 35+ original illustrations. I think about 3/4 of the poems are new, as in you’ve never seen them on my blog, and all of the old ones are edited + sometimes significantly altered. You can see all the titles down below!

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It really is “a little book of poems” at 75 pages, but it still turned out thicker than I expected. It’s hard to write enough poems to fill a book. O.o

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Even though it’s small, it still looks like A REAL BOOK, AHHH. A title page and everything! EXCITING. 😛

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I think writing the poems was the easiest part. XD The illustrations were surprisingly hard. It was difficult to decide on a style, but I ended up making loose, simple watercolor + pen illustrations that would compliment the poems instead of take away from them. I really like how they turned out!

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After much deliberation, I decided on the title “unfurling.” I think it fits really well, because I try to write my poems in layers: an engaging, beautiful outer layer that you can see at first glance, but also a layer or two of deeper meaning and nuances you have to think about for a minute to understand to discover.

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“A poem is a flower bud – such a small package, yet it holds so much in every petal, every word. When the outer layer unfurls, the old, familiar scales fall from your eyes, and everything is transformed. Perhaps that is what beauty is: a transformation.” [from the author’s note]

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The hardest part was probably the formatting. That wasn’t too pleasant. I’m mostly happy with it, but for some reason the formatting of two poems got a little off when I ordered them, even though they looked fine in the document. *sigh* OH well.

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And… yeah! I guess that about covers it! You can purchase a copy for $7.99 + shipping by clicking here, or by visiting the poem book page in my blog menu.  I don’t have a grand blog tour or anything planned, BUT, my friends Aria and Clara have kindly offered to make review-ish posts (with aesthetic book pictures and page sneak peeks!) on their respective blogs!

Look out for a book post on November 16th at Aria’s blog, and November 21st on Clara’s blog. If you haven’t already, I’d recommend following them because their blogs are two of my very favorites! ❤

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Welp, I suppose that’s that! I do NOT know how to write a book launch post, since I don’t even really consider myself a writer. XD But hopefully this worked well enough!

Are you excited? Do you want to read it? What do you think of my cover and illustrations? Any tips for writing, illustrating, or formatting a book? (I’d love to know so next time it will be even better!)

Thank you SO much for reading, dears, and please have a lovely day!

***Allison***

140 thoughts on “SURPRISE! I Made a Book!”

  2. Woooow! That’s amazing!! I just bought a book, so I can’t get another one yet since I’m just a broke fourteen year old who can’t work yet XD but I’m going to buy it the second I get my next allowance. EEP IT LOOKS GREAT.

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  7. Wow, that is so exciting, Allison! I like the cover, especially the illustration. Did Megan design the cover? I would definitely be interested in reading it, even though as you probably know, I’m not all that into poetry. Nevertheless, it would be very cool to read a book authored by the illustrious Allison, and I bet the poems are quite good (I’m sure much more interesting than the ones I read for my English class). About how much do you think shipping would cost?
    I don’t know that I have any tips for you…I illustrated Hanna’s book, and though my drawings were as good as they could have been at the time, I wish I had made them better. So I suppose I could use some tips, as well, since she’s writing another book which I’ll be illustrating (I think). Did you ever read Hanna’s book?
    ~Sassafras

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    1. Eeep, it is! Aww, thank you! Nope, I actually designed it (amazingly O.o XD) and drew the illustration! Well THANK YOU, hee hee! Yeah, I wasn’t into poems either for a long time, but I think writing poems also makes you appreciate written poems more. Let’s see, I believe shipping costs about $4, so the book would be $12 altogether.
      Oh, that’s right! No, I haven’t read Hanna’s book! Where do you buy it? The biggest tip I learned from illustrating this book is to keep your style consistent, since that really makes the book blend together nicely. 🙂
      Thanks for the lovely comment, Sassafras!

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      1. Well, you did a good job designing the cover! I only thought Megan might have done it because I know she’s into graphic design. I could tell you did the cover illustration–it’s very pretty. 🙂
        Hanna’s book is for sale on Etsy ( https://www.etsy.com/listing/612280358/the-new-diary-by-hanna-kraft-heritage?ref=shop_home_active_4 ) and on our shop that is still a work in progress: https://shop.kmrco.org/books/20-the-new-diary-heritage-diaries-1.html

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      2. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention this in my other comments, but I won’t be able to Skype this weekend because we’re going to be super busy with family here. I figured I’d tell you in a comment, since I probably won’t have time to write an email until next week.

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  8. Reblogged this on Lula Boo and commented:
    Guess What!!! Alison wrote a book of poems! And… Since Christmas is right around the corner, you should keep her new book on your mind for all of your art-loving or poem loving friends!

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  10. WOWOWOW!! CONGRATS ALLISON!!! That book is sooooo pretty! ❤ The artwork looks beautiful! 😀 You did an incredible job! I just reblogged this post! 😀 I am sure you will sell a ton. 🙂 IT IS AWESOME!!

    -Laura ❤ 😉

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  12. This is amazing! I love the design, the poems you gave sneak peaks of, EVERYTHING! I hope to buy some of these for Christmas presents and such, maybe even one for myself! Plus I need a poetry book for my school reading challenge XD
    ~Emmie

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  14. AAAAAAHHHH THIS IS SO EXCITING!!! Your poetry is always so beautiful and it’s so cool how you were able to make a book of it! I can’t wait to get my hands on it!

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  15. AHHHHH this is so exciting and your book is absolutely beautiful!! Congratulations! I hope I can eventually order one (when my wallet fills up again XD). Honestly I find this really inspirational—it makes me want to finish one of my novellas. 🙂

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  16. YOU WROTE A BOOK YOU WROTE A BOOK AHHHH CONGRATS SO HAPPY FOR YOU!! 😀 I would love to read this soon. The covers, the format, ahhhh! How did you publish it though?

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    1. I DID I DID I DID THANK YOUUUUUU! I’m so glad you like it! I published it through lulu.com, which worked pretty well, although there were a few things I would have changed. I’d recommend it overall, though. 🙂

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  21. YAAAAY! This post made me super excited, despite the fact that I’ve already read your book twice. XD It was so much fun to be a part of the editing process – thanks again for asking me! 🙂 I can’t wait to write a post about your book. 😀 Also, I may or may not have added Unfurling to Goodreads so it would count towards my 2018 reading challenge. XD (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42738290-unfurling)

    -Clara ❤

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    2. So YOU’RE the one who added it! I would have, but I hadn’t the faintest clue how. THANKS FROM ME TOO. Because YAAAYYY now I can put it in with my favorite books. 🙂

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  28. YAYYYY!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉 *Throws confetti around!* Congrats, Allison! ❤️ You’re artwork is amazingly and I’m SURE the book is amazing! 😊 How did you like then publishing process? I’m currently going through it for the fourth time…it is still quite hard, but interesting! I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU and am totally purchasing this!

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    1. Aww, thank you so much, dear! The publishing process was… exciting! And kind of stressful and hard, especially the formatting. 😬 But my editors were so helpful, and it worked out great, for the most part! Wow, the fourth time?? That’s amazing! What platform do you use? I used Lulu.com. 😊 Thanks again for the lovely comment,dear!

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      1. Your welcome!! 🙂 I agree! 🙂 That’s awesome that your editors were really helpful! Did you use an Editor or have friends/family edit your poetry book? I use CreateSpace. Have you heard of that? Oh, I’ve heard of Lulu! I actually did a contest there before! 😀 Aw, your welcome! ❤

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          1. That’s a great idea! 🙂 Haha!! Lulu seems like a great first place to publish! I started with something similar–blurb.com. Have you heard of that? YES, i LOVE CreateSpace!!

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  29. WOOP WOOP YAAAYYYYY LOOK AT ALL YOUR EXCITED FOLLOWERS! Eeeep oh my GOODNESS, ALLISON! I love these pictures! Definitely very, very aesthetic. AHHHHHHH YAAYYY I AM JUST SO EXCITED FOR YOU.

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  31. Hey Allison! Congratulations!!! I’m so excited for you, I hope I can buy it sometime soon. I just wanted to know what did you use to publish your book?
    Thanks! I wish you all the luck in the world! ❤

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  37. OH MY GOSH GIRL THIS IS SO INCREDIBLY LOVELY I CANT EVEN AKSLDKSJHRS
    I’m going to try and buy a copy ASAP… does it ship to Australia? All of the drawings look gorgeous. And the colours are just so pretty! The name = perfect.
    LOVE THIS SO SO MUCH! Rhi xxx

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  38. I was really excited when I saw this in my reader. Congratulations! The cover is gorgeous and I love the title. I definitely want to buy this. Are you planning on publishing other things? Also, what did you think of lulu.com?
    -Rose

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    1. Aww, I’m so glad! Thank you so much! And who knows… maybe so! 😉 I haven’t got far enough on anything else to hardly count, though. But yep, I do have some ideas! I really liked Lulu overall! Have you used it?

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  41. EEEEK!!!😱😱😱 I’m so excited! The cover and name are so beautiful!❤️❤️ I’m so excited and happy for you, that’s such a incredible looking book! What did you use for publishing? Did you use CreateSpace? 😀

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