@Shane Vigeant Hi Shane - I know it's important to have a Wikepedia Page. I wrote text for one, then saw that you can't write it yourself. So how do people manage to get Wikepedia pages? I also tried to get a Google page (forget what it's called) but it told me it couldn't find any pages for me or the book. That doesn't make sense - the book has been around for 30 years and there are lots of pages that have information about it (that I didn't write myself). Can you help with information and advice? Thanks!

Hello everyone! My name is Tommy Boyd, and I’m an independent author from Toccoa, Georgia. My book, A Rough Patch: Living Through Fear, Faith, and Hope, shares my journey through serious heart problems, fear, recovery, and faith. I joined this community to learn better ways to reach readers and market my book on a limited budget. I’m also working toward an audiobook and planning my next book. I look forward to learning from everyone and connecting with other nonfiction authors. If God did it for me, He can do it for you.

Just wanted to share a really rough couple of weeks… My mom being hospitalized two weeks ago, my book launching on Thursday, my mom passing yesterday and my birthday today. I was built with strength, provided by God and cured by my mom. So I can handle pressure. Especially under stress. I wrote the tribute below from the hospital room while watching her… 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝 The clock ticked slower there. In that wing of a medical center in São Paulo, time stopped being in a hurry. You heard every tick. You felt the space between them. And you would have given anything to fill that gap with something other than what was coming. My mom (Mamis to us) spent her last fourteen days in that hospital. Tough as nails to the very end. Eighty years old, on the 21st floor, fighting until her last breath. Giving out a little more each morning, her breathing heavier and heavier, her strength fading like a tide going out and not coming back. That fight came from somewhere deeper. She had a rough life. Unfortunately, her last weeks followed suit. On the flip side, you don't raise two kids who turn out better than okay without being tough as nails yourself. On that wing, nobody talked about it out loud, but everybody knew. No patient walks out of that floor alive. It's not a hospital ward. It's a waiting room for the inevitable. A death sentence with soft sheets and the kindest nurses and doctors you will ever meet in your life. They are not there to perform miracles. They are there to provide abundant love to the patients and their families. I know death. I've been close to it four times myself. But here's the thing: facing your own death and watching someone you love face theirs are not the same thing. Not even close. In those four instances, I was the main actor. I had my own will to throw at it. My own body to fight with. There was something to do. With my mom, I was the spectator. And that's a completely different weight. You can't fight it. You can't fix it. You can't trade places, nor can you buy more time or hope.

Just got off the weekly meeting. Learned several new things about marketing books. As always, a well spent hour. Come join us next Monday, the 21st. Check the link in the Calendar.

My book is live on KDP. I want to offer print-on-demand (POD) from my site. I have an Ingram account, but because of technical issues on their end, I haven't uploaded the manuscript. For digital, I'm considering D2D ebooks. The key is to offer direct sales from my site. Recommendations?