So, You Want To Publish Your Own Book? - Self-publishing Panel
Event description
As part of the 2024 Warrnambool Storytelling Festival, three local authors give the lowdown on their stories and how to go about publishing your own book outside of the conventional system:
Tracie Griffith was working as a camera technician in the film industry when she developed a burning need to write. As a Technical Writer in the corporate space, she began churning out speculative film scripts, in search of the muse (if you’re a romantic), and it wasn't until she switched to writing fiction that her heart began to soar. Even so, she didn’t believe she was capable of writing a novel, the marathon of fiction writing forms.
Facing this challenge head-on, with the endless rewrites it inevitably entailed, led to the publication of her first novel Redemption in 2017. Around the same time, she became involved in a not-for-profit project that resulted in the publication of Port Fairy Ghost Stories, a collection of the town’s most beloved tales of hauntings and ghostly presences, with proceeds from sales donated back to the community. traciegriffith.com/books
Tracey Kruger is rarely found without a camera in her hand, but her real love is the farm, especially shearing. So, it seems to have been a natural progression to start photographing woolsheds in action. Tracey drove over 25,000 kms and spent 2 and a half years visiting 160 Western district woolsheds in action in order to publish her rural Australiana photography book Shearing in Victoria's Western District. Since then she has also published several different children's books, sharing her life on the farm through bright, happy photographs and down to earth text that is understood by children of many age, and more recently, a junior fiction series, The Farmer Twins.
Dr Jodie Fleming, a clinical and health psychologist who previously specialised in the field of psycho-oncology – the human side of cancer – receives the terrifying news that she has two primary breast cancers. This becomes a frightening opportunity to practise what she preaches. Having dedicated her career to helping others with cancer, and also caring for her husband with testicular cancer eight years prior, Jodie understands the role of caregiver on both a personal and professional level. The role of patient, however is another matter. Especially when the diagnosis comes exactly one month after the end of her marriage. What ensues is the epitome of complicated grief and a foray into the world of cancer from the other side of the desk. Forced to draw upon the psychological strategies she’d previously taught her clients, Jodie begins her true education. A Hole in My Genes: a memoir is Jodie’s journey from that terrifying diagnosis to a cancer free future. https://drjodiefleming.com.au