Audrey C, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by Audrey C
Starting again! 2/9/2022 5:06:33 AM
After website maker closed down and Print on demand amalgamated, no links worked - all seemed lost. Now, after two and a half years, is it time to start again? How ? Somewhat of a dilemma! But, still writing!
Starting again?
Should I or should I not start again? That question runs in my mind.
Historically - I am a retired Doctor/ Consultant Psychiatrist. Since retiring I have been writing.
Let me explain my dilemma.
I made websites using Moonfruit website maker to showcase the books I produced.
I created a large, but safe, site for informal entertainment and education of children - with poems, stories, watching videos eg of tortoises hatching, garden plants, hedgehog, learning how to spell etc . I made websites which showcased one or more of my books - see below.
All my paperback books of selected poems/ reflections and a past life story (is it true?) were printed via Createspace. The Ebook formats were sold from my sites.
I wrote these poems/ reflections with the intention of helping people, i.e a way of using my expertise, gained over 35 yrs as a doctor/ psychiatrist, and so carrying on a therapeutic input after retirement. A lot of time and work went into the books and the websites !!
Books :-
Reflections for young people
Poems for 3-7 years
Growing Up
Coping with Illness and Grief
Choice for Teenagers
Short story and few rhymes
The girl who had everything – and more
Reflections for adults
Daily Life
From Darkness to Light
A Spiritual Journey
Kaleidoscope BOOK 1
Kaleidoscope BOOK 2
Kaleidoscope: The Collection
Facing each day
Twilight Years
Glimpses
Reflections of grief
Books pending:-
The Future - who will decide
A different journey
Past life novel
BEYOND MERCY
However, Moonfruit gradually changed. Briefly, their own widgets no longer worked eg MP3 player. I could no longer hide the youtube videos’ controls to keep the children’s site safe etc. I did not want children to have access to youtube or other sites via my website. Also, the domains had to be upgraded to keep the sites secure, adding a lot of extra yearly expense.
Finally Moonfruit terminated.
Then Createspace, which I used as Print on demand for all my books, amalgamated with KDP. Yes, I could move the books over, but ALL the links to the websites for people to buy the books disappeared. And, I didn’t know until I realised no books were being sold via that route.
Years of continuous updating and work, with 1.5 million visitors around the world - all gone! ( see videos on youtube by children in India reciting ‘Judge me not’ by Audrey Coatesworth).
At that time, I had no opportunity to try to amend it all and had no alternative action but to delete everything as it was useless.
After over two and a half years, I have now time to rebuild. But how?
Do I choose another website maker etc. or a different Print on Demand? How do I know that, after hours and hours of work, it will not all be taken to pieces again? I don’t!
Add to that the increased need for security, the increase in scammers, etc and the task now appears very daunting. Also, ALL my ebooks on KDP were downloaded, all refunded and a few months later a website appeared advertising ALL my ebooks - free. The ‘free’ bit wasn’t the problem, as I want people to read the poems, learn, be helped - the whole purpose of writing. No, the problem was the thieving!
So now, I can either ‘forget’ my books and the purpose of writing, or I can step back into a new unknown, and try again!!
Being several years older, now 84 yrs, have I the energy and updated understanding re creating new websites or marketing? I don’t know.
Is there a better way to get the ‘messages’/ help to people?
Should I use a blog/ podcast/ instagram etc to let people read my reflections/ poems instead of or in tandem with a simple website?
BUT- I am still writing. I ask myself ‘why’, if no one sees or knows about the poems/ reflections.
Time will tell. Watch the relevant space!
PS. The reason I prefer the word ‘reflections’ rather than ‘poems’ is because I have written in verse form - usually called ‘poems’. But, I never consider myself a poet that ‘title’ doesn’t fit.
I am a retired psychiatrist, with a near death experience, with knowledge to help and to share, and I do that in, often metaphorical, verse form (for a therapeutic reason).
