the birth of a book

Self-publishing a book is the closest I’ll ever come to birthing a baby.

This baby and I have a lot in common: we both love chocolate!

I’ve never had any children, but working on Chocolatour has been a birthing process like no other in my life.

I conceived the idea for the book back in 2009. It had a long gestation period of just over three years. I guess I have something in common with elephants, as I hear they carry their young for a long time, too!

But all kidding aside, it really does feel that I am now in the birthing stage, and my baby will be born in less than one month. I can hardly wait for its delivery. I’ve had a sneak peek (just like when parents get a look inside via an ultrasound.) And I like what I see, but can hardly wait to hold it in my hands.

Here are some tips you need to know to birth your own (baby) book:

1. Put together a great team of experts to help with your delivery. I had a self-publishing coach (midwife), designers and photographers to make sure the ‘baby’ will look just right, and a established, well-respected printer (doctor) who will ensure delivery is safe and in a timely manner.

2. Don’t try and rush things. The baby will be born when it’s time has come. I’m not the most patient person, and I kept trying to rush the gestation period, wanting to take shortcuts and try to get things done quickly. A premature baby may not have been fully developed. It may have had irreversible birth defects that would affect the rest of its life and how the world receives it.  I’m glad my team of experts encouraged me to let nature take its course and to take all the time I needed to ensure we had a safe delivery.

3. Every detail counts. Some of the small stuff may not seem important to you at the time in the grand scheme of things, but when you’re dealing with the art of creation, every little detail does count. You want your baby to come from the best blood line possible. You want to be sure you are taking care of yourself so that the baby has the best possible chance of survival, and that you’ll be around to see it grow and be welcomed into the world.

4. Having one baby is never enough. You’ll want to have more! My own ‘baby’ is not even born yet, and I’m already planning the ‘birth’ of my second and third children. Spread apart, of course. A planned birth for 2015 for the second ‘child’, and 2017 for the third (Volume III of Chocolatour.)

The cover of Chocolatour shows chocolate wrappers and packaging from around the world.

Now, of course, every parent likes to show off pictures of their babies. So here’s a pic of my baby: front cover image. I tried very hard to upload the actual image of the cover, but somehow, WordPress and pdf’s don’t get along, so I’m working with what I’ve got. It gives you a good sense of what you will see when  you get to meet my baby.